บท 23: Zanpakuto spirit.

Chapter Twenty Three. (Edited by CDoggo: Hey! I'm kind of sleepy so I don't have much to say. Enjoy the chapter! )

''Hadō #4. Byakurai.''

A concentrated bolt of lightning was released from his fingertips, clashing against the hill and making its way through it with little but no resistance. The hole it left on the hill was small in comparison to Yoruichi's previous demonstration, but it was still ridiculous to think this was someone's first try at performing an actual Hadō.

''You…'' Hearing the woman's voice calling for him, he turned towards her and found himself smirking at the disbelief written all over her face. ''You really did it.''

''It seems like I have a bit of talent with this kido stuff.'' Kuromiya mused, watching the trail of smoke that was coming out of the tip of his index and middle fingers. ''I was afraid that I didn't pump enough spiritual pressure into it, but it seems like it was enough.''

'A bit talented?' She thought with a baffled expression, had any shinigami witnessed what she had just seen, calling him a genius would be an understatement. 'It wasn't just luck, he adjusted the amount of spiritual pressure he intended to use to match my own, and added just enough to it in order to make up for his inexperience with the technique.'

Her realization made it even harder to believe, kido wasn't something supposed to be taken as child's play for a soul reaper, no matter how talented said soul reaper was.

''Yoruichi? You still there?'' Waving his hand in front of her face, Akihiko tried to take her attention back onto him. ''Are we done with this whole training thing, or what?''

''Uh.'' Now with her thoughts suddenly interrupted, Yoruichi was left with more than a few unanswered questions in her mind. Still, she wasn't the former commander of the Stealth Force for nothing, and soon enough she pushed those thoughts to the side. ''No, we are not done just yet.''

''Then should I do the Bakudō you did before? Shitotsu Sansen, wasn't it?'' Kuromiya questioned with a straight face, as if he wasn't just talking about performing a thirties kido with little but no training on the art.

''That's out of the question.'' Yoruichi replied without doubts, no matter how the teenager in front of her was, one couldn't perform a kido above the twenties at his first try without having some training. ''Besides, we still don't know if you are good at Bakudō, you need to keep in mind that both Hadō and Bakudō work with different types of spells.''

''That does make sense.'' The black haired boy had to agree with her on that, and that was without taking into account that he had performed Byakurai almost with pure instinct, his mind had been almost completely blank when he had done it. ''Then what? I don't know any other Bakudōs aside from that one.''

Yoruichi crossed her arms across her chest, meditating on what would be the best approach to deal with the unexpected talent of her new student.

''I guess this doesn't really change much.'' She said after a while, a sigh coming out of her lips as she prepared herself for resuming their training. ''This just means that it's going to take you less work to master the basics.''

The dark skinned woman raised her left hand and pointed it towards a huge rock of almost the size of a boulder. Focusing her spiritual energy around her palm, bluish particles started forming themselves around her hand and soon enough, she was ready to perform the technique.

''Hadō #1. Shō.'' The bluish aura launched itself from her palm, generating a considerable amount of kinetic force that launched the rock far away from them, the push itself being enough to split the huge rock in half.

''Number one? That's lower than the one i did before.'' He noted, although he didn't really seem bothered by it. ''Though i guess it wouldn't hurt to learn this too.''

''That's right.'' Yoruichi nodded at him, after all if he truly was as talented as she believed him to be, this technique wouldn't represent any sort of problem to him. ''You are going to perform every Hadō and Bakudō from one to ten, we will stop once you are unable to perform any of them, got it?''

The pale boy didn't bother to give her an answer, deciding to make his actions speak for themselves while pointing with his right hand at another similar sized rock than the one from before, much like Yoruichi had done a few moments ago.

Kuromiya prepared himself to perform the technique, although he found it was more comfortable for him to perform the technique with the tips of his index and middle fingers, rather than using her whole hand like her.

''You are not going to leave that asauchi? You might need both hands for some of these techniques.'' The beautiful woman warned him, noticing that he had yet to drop his blade or even sheath the blade in its scabbard.

The moment those words left her mouth, that uncomfortable sensation of unease dominated his being once again, making him abandon all ideas of letting his sword go.

''Nah… I'm fine.'' Kuromiya replied while shaking that sensation out of his mind. The bluish aura gathered around his fingers, his mind now focused on acing the test she had prepared for him. With the challenge he had to face and the unease that plagued his mind, it was going to be a long night for him. ''Hadō #1. Shō.''

. . .

''... Ngh.'' A loud yawn escaped from his mouth, the training taking its toll on his recuperated body.

It had been over two days since he had started his training with Yoruichi, and although his raw talent had managed to push him through it, it was incredibly time consuming. Still, it had proved to be more than worth it since he was able to perform up to the twelfth Hadō and seventh Bakudō.

The kido's started becoming exponentially harder, but in the end having a good grasp over that amount of advanced spells was still more than a little impressive.

It hadn't been more than a few seconds since he had woken up, and just when he was about to rub his eyes to force himself up, he froze at what he found himself looking at.

No matter where he looked, he was surrounded by a colorless world. Black and white painted his surroundings, almost as if he was in an old film.

''What…'' His words got caught inside his throat, the scenario that lied in his vision was anything but normal. His gaze lingered to the ground, feeling his feet sinking into it as if he was standing in quicksand.

'No, it's not sand.' Kuromiya noticed, it almost felt like he was walking over some kind of liquid, making him frown at the strangeness of the situation. He wasn't dumb, unless he was completely wasted, then the only reasonable explanation left would be that this was his own inner world.

He took yet another glance around him, now noticing the only object that existed in this strange dimension. ''... Is that a door?''

It wasn't just one door though, since he started noticing more and more of them, until there were too many doors to count.

The countless doors were sinking into that weird liquid that covered his heels which was weird on its own, but perhaps what was even more surprising was that the doors weren't attached to anything, and yet somehow remained up as if there was an invisible wall holding them in position.

''Man, this looks ugly as fuck.'' Akihiko muttered the first thing that came to his mind, the whole dark and white world plus the ocean of doors was making him more than a little uncomfortable.

''It sure is, isn't it?'' A voice replied to him from his blindspot, making him do a quick one hundred and eighty turn to his back.

''You…'' Kuromiya attempted to talk to the individual behind him, but once he was able to see said person, his appearance sent a chill down his spine. ''How do you… How do you look like me?''

From the moment he had noticed that this was his inner world, the teenager had been expecting to have at least some kind of encounter with his zanpakuto spirit, so having a conversation with it shouldn't have been a surprise to him.

What he hadn't expected however, was for his zanpakuto spirit to look just like a child version of himself, resembling him when he had been no more than nine years old.

The main difference he could find between them was that this kid had managed to keep his blonde hair from his former life, but aside from that both of them were carbon copies of each other.

''What? Cat got your tongue?'' The small kid tilted his head to the side, smiling smugly at his older self as he noticed his discomfort. ''You know who I am, don't you?''

''My zanpakuto spirit.'' Kuromiya muttered back with a hint of wariness in his tone, watching as the kid's smirk growed at his answer. ''Which looks like me, for some reason.''

''What's up with all that animosity?'' His zanpakuto spirit asked in between laughs, seemingly taking pleasure on the discomfort of the teenager next to him. ''Besides, do I really need to explain it to you?''

''...'' The teenager remained silent, frowning as his mind searched for the reason his zanpakuto spirit would adopt that form. He knew zanpakuto spirits were in fact a part of one's own soul, so taking that into account, it made some sense.

''Then what's up with this world?'' He asked after a while, after all he couldn't make sense of half of what he had seen in such a nonsensical world.

''Don't ask me, it's your inner world after all.'' His zanpakuto spirit replied, shrugging his shoulders at the question without giving much thought into it. ''It's not so bad though, once you get to know the place.''

His last words had been uttered while looking at the doors, making him wonder if perhaps there was something more going on with those doors, though the idea seemed stupid considering the doors weren't connected to anything.

Feeling a certain urge for checking the closed doors despite his previous thoughts, he started walking until he reached the closest one to him. It was nothing more than a plain wooden door, remaining in a vertical position despite having no sort of support to keep it in place.

''Took you long enough.'' The little kid commented while walking alongside him, watching with keen interest as Kuromiya grabbed the handle of the door and forced it open. ''You didn't think that this doors would be empty, right?''

The moment the door opened up it revealed a whole new dimension inside it, and Kuromiya recognized the sight in an instant. There it showed yet another version of himself, this one was training with Yoruichi and attempting to perform a few kidos.

''This scene… are these memories?'' Kuromiya asked while watching the colorless scene play out.

''No.'' His zanpakuto spirit shook his head in denial, closing the door just when the scene started repeating itself right from the start, as if it was a video in an endless loop. ''Not memories, echoes.''

''Echoes?''

''Mhm.'' The spirit nodded, stopping as the two of them reached their spot back in the center of the deserted place. ''But I do think it's about time you leave this place.''

''... What? No!'' Kuromiya wasn't about to lose the chance to learn more about his zanpakuto, it could be a long time until he was able to meet his spirit again after all. ''I still have a ton of things to ask you.''

''I don't want to talk to you, though.'' The smile that the kid had sported throughout the whole conversation was gone. ''You are way too serious,, it's no fun at all.''

Like a child once he's bored with a toy, the kid decided to end their conversation before the newly converted soul reaper had time to speak his mind.

The spirit raised his hand at him, and a sudden wind started pushing him backwards, as if it was forcing him out of his inner world.

''Wait! Tell me!'' Knowing that his time in the dimension was almost over, he screamed at his spirit in search of an answer, there was just one thing that he absolutely needed to matter what. ''What's your name!?''

''...'' The nine year old opened his mouth, but not a single one of his words ended up reaching Kuromiya's ears. His inability to hear him meant he wasn't ready to learn his zanpakuto's name, even if the spirit screamed at him, he wouldn't be able to hear it.

''Not yet, huh?'' The spirit muttered, noticing the confused look on his older self's face. ''Then this is farewell, for now.''

He had no time to process those words, his whole vision going blurry as he was forced out of the dimension, leaving his zanpakuto spirit behind.

. . .

Kuromiya had expected to wake up panting and covered in sweat, but once he woke up he found himself feeling a calmness that he had been missing the last few days, the unease that had chased him these last few days now long gone.

''Huh...'' He mused, his vision searching for a certain object in the room.

The room in itself wasn't that big, since the secret training grounds didn't have that much space aside from a few empty rooms. Taking that into consideration, it didn't take long for him to find what he was looking for.

Resting against one of the room's walls, there was a thin blade that looked nothing like the bland looking asauchi he had once wielded. That was his zanpakuto, a weapon made from embedding his very own soul into it.

The zanpakuto was sheathed in a black scabbard, with three thin white stripes dividing the black into smaller sections, it's hilt was designed much in the same way, although the colors from the hilt were inverted.

''You are up, huh?'' Ichigo's voice reached his ears, making him turn his head towards the opposite side of the room, where the orange haired soul reaper had been sleeping in another bed next to him. ''I tried waking you up when it seemed like you had a nightmare, but…''

Ichigo shifted his gaze to the side, and Kuromiya followed his gaze until both of them found themselves looking at yet another person present in the room.

''I told him that he shouldn't wake you up.'' Yoruichi was resting against one of the walls with her arms crossed, looking with keen interest at the teenager's new sword. ''You had a conversation with your zanpakuto's spirit, right? It's a bit rare for it to happen when it has just been awakened, so that spirit might have been eager to talk with you.''

Kuromiya frowned at that, to him it almost felt like his spirit had been bored when talking to him, he had even forced him out of the place after all. Perhaps he had been too quick to judge his zanpakuto's true intentions?

Leaving those thoughts for a later date, he forced himself to focus in the present, standing up and walking towards the zanpakuto that was still resting against the wall.

''The colors are quite interesting.'' Yoruichi commented, walking next to the teenager as he let the scabbard hang from his waist. ''I haven't heard of a shinigami transforming an asauchi into a zanpakuto in just a few days, so that spirit must be quite unusual.''

''Oh trust me, he is.'' Kuromiya muttered under his breath, he didn't have any memories of a spirit taking the appearance of its soul reaper, the one exception to that was Ichigo's zanpakuto of course.

''Yoruichi.'' Ichigo called for the woman, making sure to remind him of their agreement. ''It has been two days already, so…''

The purple haired woman nodded, the three of them had agreed on leaving the training grounds after two days of training, which meant that their training was now finally over.

''Yeah, I agree.'' The black haired teenager agreed, he was anxious to test out a few of his new kido techniques in battle. What's more, he still had the cannonball that Kukaku had given him after he asked her for it. ''Rukia is waiting for us, there's no point in wasting our time here.''

''Haah.'' Yoruichi sighed, no matter what she said to the two teenagers in front of her, there was no way of talking them out of it. ''Fine, but you two remember that our objective is to save Rukia, don't waste time in meaningless fights.''

''We know that already.'' Ichigo replied, he trusted that the three of them together would be capable of rescuing Rukia. They had agreed that leaving Hanataro and Ganju guarding the training grounds was the better decision, and so there was nothing else holding them back.

''You won't even need to lift a finger, the two of us will be more than enough.'' Kuromiya interjected with a confident smirk. Yamamoto and the elder captains aside, he was positive that the rest of them would have a hard time fighting against him. ''Right, Ichigo?''

''You got that right.'' Ichigo replied with a smirk of his own, his left hand traveling to the hilt of his massive zanpakuto hanging from his back. ''Now, let's go!''

End of chapter twenty three.