Lily
“Can’t say I expected this but, then again, maybe I should’ve.” I mused as I looked at Ichigo fighting Urahara with his zanpakuto while very clearly still inside his human body. I had come here ready to face Ichigo still struggling to awaken his powers and offering my guidance but, clearly, he didn’t need it for that part of his training. “After all, I don’t even struggle to use my own reiatsu without removing my soul from my body.”
Aura was the answer, I suspected. An extension of the soul that bypassed the body. When one's reiryoku was held in the soul, that likely made it much easier to transport it outside the body.
But was aura also the reason for Ichigo’s zanpakuto looking different? It looked more like his ‘true’ Shikai than the fake one he should have gotten already and it definitely didn’t look like his normal zanpakuto.
Most damning of all, Identify Talents told me that his zanpakuto’s powers originated from all of Ichigo’s various spiritual powers. Even in his true Shikai, the hollow and quincy powers had been separated, one being held in each of his two blades – presumably due to their incompatibility.
‘Did aura somehow mix the powers in his soul?’ It was…not impossible, I concluded. Shinigami, quincy and hollow powers were already present and somewhat balanced inside his soul. If aura combined them further, that’d explain the difference in his Shikai’s appearance.
Urahara, noticing me being escorted by Tessai, deflected the oversized sword before turning towards me with a cheerful fake smile on his lips, “How can I help you today, Biron-san?”
“I felt generous and decided I might as well offer some instruction on aura to Kurosaki-san.” I explained, walking forwards while quite aware of the gaze of the two monsters in the underground training area being on me. Tessai’s mastery of Kidou was what I wanted my mastery over magic to look like one day and Urahara was like myself – someone who sought to master everything rather than specializing.
To fully judge his skills based off his fights in the manga was difficult simply because Urahara never used more than he had to and, beside that, he barely ever fought in the first place. However, what’s known about it made him clear that he had to be talented in Hakuda and Hoho because he had been a high-ranking member of the Onmitsukido. He also had to be skilled at using Kidou because he managed to hide one that he cast on Aizen and his Zanjutsu was not to be underestimated because it was what he primarily used when fighting in the manga.
Maybe a specialist could beat him in their field and I was fairly certain Yamamoto was stronger than him but he was a monster either way and one that enjoyed growing.
He, unlike Aizen, may not have desired ascension or at least not worked towards it but he didn’t stop learning, either.
I was not even remotely ashamed to admit that I absolutely didn’t want to be his enemy.
“I believe that, before then, we should have a conversation about that future you saw and your intentions for this world.” There was a dangerous glint in his eyes that almost sent shivers down my spine.
“Fine with me.” I replied casually even though I was ready to tear open reality to flee at a moment’s notice.
Of course, Urahara Kisuke was probably capable of decapitating me before I even noticed but would he risk ending up in the void himself? I didn’t think so, nor did I believe that the environment I travelled through so often was something normal beings could survive. Not without being in contact with something that could, at least.
Lisa still vomited whenever I took her with me. Missy and I had adjusted quickly but Lisa couldn’t stand it. Whatever we travelled through to reach other worlds, it wasn’t something that others should be exposed to.
“Then let us go and talk upstairs. Kurosaki-kun, feel free to rest for the time being.” Urahara replied, beginning to walk towards the entrance of this underground training area.
“I want to hear whatever this is about, too!” Ichigo yelled, looking angry.
I didn’t respond for the simple reason that I was curious how this would go. If Urahara wished to discuss aura at all, there was every chance of the conversation eventually including Ichigo’s nature and I was doubtful of Urahara’s willingness to speak of it.
“I believe it’d be best not to distract you from your goal of saving Kuchiki-san by listening to things unrelated to it.” Urahara explained, seemingly intent on keeping secrets even now.
Ichigo seemed ready to protest for a moment before settling on glaring at the both of us. “Fine! But I will be told about all this once I’m back!” He demanded.
To be honest, I’d expected him to argue some more and it wouldn’t surprise me should he decide to try and eavesdrop on us but, then again, Urahara hadn’t been wrong about there being something more important for him to worry about. Kuchiki Rukia might die now, after all.
A shame, really. I found her entertaining and to see her die without even achieving her Bankai would be a travesty.
Urahara
“You can see the future, then?” I asked as Lilian took a sip of her tea, a flash of amusement entering her gaze before leaving just as quickly.
“I did outright admit to it. And these eyes of mine aren’t just for show, you know? From what I’ve seen, quite an amount of people who see the past and/or future can be identified just by looking at their eyes.” She explained casually.
“You seem quite calm for someone who just told me that I could see the future with their eyes.” My response was meant to be a test and Lilian’s clear entertainment told me all I needed to know. Lilian had wanted me to reach that conclusion.
“And you don’t seem to be reaching for my eyeballs.” She pointed out.
“I can’t say I’m not interested.” I told her honestly. I was curious as to just what she saw with those strange eyes of hers after all. “But I also don’t believe you’d have let that slip if you’d believed this to be a risk.”
Lilian giggled in response and the wide smile on her lips was not quite malicious but it certainly wasn’t something you’d find on a sane human. In fact, it reminded me of some of the people I’d seen in the 11th Division. People who were so bored that they developed a manic fascination for whatever they were interested in at the time. Some of my subordinates had been similar but it was among the battle maniacs of the 11th Division that it was most frequent. “Anything of mine that is stolen will turn against whoever steals it. Not only would my eyes be useless to you but I could replace them while they’d likely ruin you in whatever way they could.”
“Well, fascinating though the implications of that ability are, I do believe we meant to talk about the future you saw.” I decided to get back on track, if just to keep Ichigo’s curiosity from growing too much. I already had a suspicion that the boy’s zanpakuto spirit was going to tell him something problematic but it was unconfirmed as of now.
“Sure. What do you want to know? How Aizen will get the Hogyoku you made? How he’ll ascend only to barely be sealed? That Yhwach will invade Seireitei and then kill the Soul King? The quincy army hiding in the shadows of Seireitei? That neat little tool they made that can steal Bankai? Really, I have a lot I could tell you about but, honestly, if you didn’t know about Yhwach’s return in the near future despite him having used Auswahlen on two people in Karakura Town, you’re not quite as great as I thought you were. And everything else I could tell you is already likely to change.” She explained simply, visibly looking for any reaction on my part.
Lilian wasn’t wrong, either. I had known Yhwach would return, I just hadn’t known about him apparently hiding in the shadows of Seireitei. I had also suspected that Aizen was behind Kuchiki-san having a captain and a lieutenant sent after her. Kuchiki Byakuya could, of course, have chosen to deal with the matter himself due to the involvement of his sister but it’s just as likely that Aizen had pulled some strings to escalate the response and Byakuya had merely made sure that the escalation was under his control.
“Moving on, just what is it that you are interested in accomplishing in this world, Biron-san? I’m afraid your words during your last visit have made me quite suspicious of your intentions.” I kept my tone level. There was no need to be needlessly hostile yet, after all.
“I want to learn what your world has to offer and to see what paths it will take. That’s all.” Lilian answered with a dismissive of her hand. “I won’t actively involve myself in your conflicts unless I feel like it, nor do I care to sabotage your efforts. I’m merely passing through and sightseeing. There’s no reason for you to be so wary.”
Her words certainly matched her attitude so far. In all ways except for one, that is. “And yet you offered your help with Kuchiki-san’s situation not once but twice now.” I felt the need to point out.
“I have an ability of mine that rewards me for helping people. When I helped Kurosaki-san the first time, I got an asauchi. Since I have a twin sister, I decided I might as well see if I can’t get another asauchi by helping him again.” Lilian explained, rolling her eyes. “Really, I’ll be fine no matter what happens. If Aizen wins, I get to see what kind of world he envisions. If Yhwach wins, I will get to see what this world will look like once the Soul King is no longer keeping it stable. If neither wins, I get to see how you achieved that victory. No matter what, I will enjoy the show.”
It was a detached perspective but, then again, such a thing was to be expected from one who had come from beyond this world in the first place. Lilian Biron had nothing to keep her attached to this reality. She was, for all intents and purposes, the perfect wanderer. Someone who walked forever onwards, only ever stopping for short periods of time before moving on.
To her, the fate of this world was well and truly irrelevant. It was strange to consider it that way but it was the truth as far as I could tell.
In the end, people formed attachments to places based on a sense of belonging. The more distant the place, the less they cared. With that said, what attachment could someone with an entire world of distance between them and us feel towards our world in particular?
“Very well. If you merely wish to aid him, I will not stop you. He will, of course, have to agree first but I will not refuse in his stead.” I responded, inclining my head ever so slightly. “And I do hope we can continue to exchange knowledge in the future.”
“Of course we can!” Lilian replied enthusiastically, an excited glint in her eyes. “In fact, I recently massively improved my understanding of gravity sorceries. If you’d be willing to teach me Hoho or have someone else do so, I’d be happy to teach you more.”
“A tempting offer. How about you add in this ‘aura’ you gave Kurosaki-kun for myself and your teacher?” The fact that Ichigo could now utilize his reiatsu and even materialise his zanpakuto without his soul leaving his body was proof that that ability seemingly synergized well with the powers of our world.
“Sure. Feel free to listen in to my lessons with Kurosaki-san, too. Should he accept, of course.” Lilian offered casually, clearly not particularly bothered by the thought of empowering myself and Yoruichi.
Considering her interest in this world was ultimately nothing more than a curiosity in regards to what future it would reach and how it reached it, I was unsurprised. “Then I suppose I shall discuss the possibility with your potential trainer while you make your offer to Kurosaki-kun.”
Yoruichi might accept or she might not. Both were possibilities I had to consider but I was, at the very least, fairly confident I could convince her of the benefits. Something that’d make using one’s reiatsu so much easier was worth teaching an outsider Shunpo and the art of moving with it.
Lily
“So, want to learn what I gave you and how to use it? Because I can guarantee you no one in this world knows how to teach you and it might save your life where you’re going.” I asked shortly after returning to the underground training area.
Ichigo frowned. “You and Urahara both said ‘this world’. You really think I’ll believe that you’re from some other world?”
In response, I silently focused and tore open a rift in reality. It took several seconds longer than I’d have wanted it to and, without me moving through it, vanished within less than a second but Ichigo suddenly looking dazed as if he’d been hit on the head told me he’d seen it. “Want me to take you to another world through one of these to prove it? Because I can. Besides, I can promise you this: You won’t find aura anywhere else in this world. Really, the power I gave you should already be proof enough.”
“I’m good.” He winced at my offer, definitely not interested in visiting a different reality from this one. “And, I guess I only have one question left. Will this help me save Rukia?”
“Probably.” I told him honestly. “There’s some extremely powerful people in Seireitei. People so strong that, were you to fight them, I’d bet that they’d beat you in almost every scenario if not all of them. Aura could help you bridge that gap a bit and, luckily for you, I’ve already gotten quite good at manipulating reiryoku so I can help you refine your control of that, too.”
Without Bankai, aura almost certainly wouldn’t let him win but it might still save his life.
“Then I’m willing to learn.” Ichigo decided almost immediately after receiving my answer.
“Good, then listen closely and follow my instructions as I give them.” Combat would see him grow faster but I just needed him to know all that was important to him eventually being able to reach his potential with aura.
For four hours, I lectured him first on aura and its properties as well as semblances before moving on to reiryoku control. Then, once that time had passed, I stopped, Great Teaching Whiz making it clear to me that I had prepared him as much as I could without giving him a practical experience. “You have learnt what you need to know to eventually master aura. Everything else, you just need to figure out through practice.”
“That’s it?” Ichigo asked sceptically as if he doubted that that was really all there was to it.
Sighing, I nodded. “Teaching you further won’t matter without practical experience. This is as far as you can go without fighting someone.”
“Then fight me!” The teenager demanded. “You said you’d help me, right? Might as well make sure your lesson stuck.”
Part of me was tempted to decline just because of the tone he used. That petty part of myself was ignored in favour of thinking things through. Maybe because of the fact that I hadn’t yet distanced myself from this situation, I had yet to receive a reward from Token of Gratitude but there’s also a chance that merely giving him knowledge and some guidance on how to handle his powers wasn’t enough.
So, not only could this be necessary for my gambit to work out but I myself could also use further combat experience.
Releasing yet another sigh, I decided to take out my zanpakuto, the katana appearing in my left hand as per usual while my phone appeared in my right hand so I could set a timer. “Very well. You get an hour. An hour in which I expect to see you progress rapidly.” Ichigo, I knew both from the manga and Taken By the Fey, was immensely talented in regards to powers related to his soul.
As such, an hour should be plenty to set him on the path of mastering his Shikai.
And he at least proved to have good instincts in immediately rushing me with immense speed. “You are leaking reiatsu everywhere with each step.” I warned him, releasing some of my own merely to expose him to immense spiritual pressure.
I was not Aizen in his ascended state. Normal humans didn’t just die from being in my mere presence. Not yet, at least. Despite that, I had copied the traits of Ichigo’s soul and mine held aura, too. Using Identify Talents was even enough to prove that my zanpakuto had drawn from my hollow, quincy and shinigami powers.
Most importantly, my reiatsu – the part of my reiryoku that I’d released from my soul – was controlled far better than Ichigo’s.
In such a scenario, him having a Shikai while I didn’t was not a hurdle for me. It merely balanced things enough that his reiatsu could somewhat fight against mine, turning a paralyzing pressure into one that still let him move, if more slowly.
“Reign it in further if you want to go back to being faster than me. Use your aura. It is outside your skin so use it to capture and hold your reiatsu. Only once nothing escapes your aura anymore are you good enough.” I instructed while skillfully pushing aside his blade by hitting not the edge but the flat of the blade.
Neither one of us knew Shunpo. Neither one of us used Kidou. It certainly wasn’t a Hakuda battle, either. I would’ve won either of the last two because I was a master of Hakuda who could utilize Shunko and knew several Kidou already so there would’ve been no point in us fighting in these fields.
No, this was pure Zanjutsu and reiatsu as well as aura control. Nothing more, nothing less.
Anything more wouldn’t have optimized his growth at this stage. Sure, I could’ve started to teach him Kidou here and now but Ichigo was not yet good enough when it came to his control to even stand a chance at this being a worthwhile use of our time.
I was still infinitely more skilled than he was and I barely even needed to use my reiryoku to enhance myself at this stage. Between my Great Rune and my other physical enhancements, it would take Shunpo for him to bridge the gap between us. His victory, however, was never the purpose of this spar. It was merely to advise him on the two things that were most important to his survival at the moment.
With his reiryoku being as immense as it was, he could likely handle several shinigami even if they used Shunpo. He just couldn’t be so bad at using his sword that they’d handle him instead nor could he afford to be so inefficient with his reiatsu when he was about to turn the entire city of shinigami against him while not even intending to kill them.
Yoruichi could always teach him Shunpo and Bankai in Seireitei. I was qualified to teach neither one of those two. Teaching him swordsmanship and control, however, was something I could massively improve in a mere hour of sparring, especially considering his immense talent.
By the end, he still leaked a bit of his reiatsu with every movement but it was a massive improvement compared to him leaking countless times more reiatsu than he used and his control over his aura as well as his swordsmanship had improved by leaps and bounds, too.
“We’re done here.” I told him once the timer went off. “Keep my advice in mind and you should be able to save your friend.” As long as he didn’t encounter Yamamoto, that was. If he encountered that monstrous old man, Ichigo would become nothing more than ashes in the wind.
I wasn’t convinced Yamamoto would even need to use his Shikai to deal with an Ichigo who knew neither Shunpo nor Bankai. When Aizen, despite having gotten the man under the influence of his overpowered Kyouka Suigetsu’s ability to control all the senses of people who’d seen its release once, preferred creating an entire Arrancar solely to fight Yamamoto that meant respecting his power wasn’t optional if you wanted to survive an encounter with him, it was a must.
Yamamoto had survived a thousand years of conflict for a reason. Had survived the first war against the quincy because killing him was difficult at the best of times. He may have gotten weaker in his old age but he was still a monster.
‘Ah,’ I realized as I noticed how much my heart was racing, ‘I want to kill him.’ It was nothing personal. I just wanted to see what would happen if the greatest danger the enemies of Seireitei faced just…died.
I wanted to witness the chaos his death would cause – especially Seireitei scrambling to fill the hole in their defences that none of them could quite close.
The thought of killing him excited me like nothing else simply because he was a vital part of Seireitei and had been for a thousand years.
‘Alas, I can’t kill him.’ Not for any complex reasons, mind you. If one looked at the Gotei 13, calling them the ‘good guys’ was just about impossible. They were soldiers created to do one thing and one thing only: Maintain the balance of souls so the fragile stability of this world the Soul King had created would remain intact.
Within Soul Society itself, those who were not shinigami were essentially second-class citizens at best and the further away they were from Seireitei, the worse their lives got. Maybe it beat getting devoured by a hollow that might get erased alongside all the souls that had become a part of it by a quincy but it certainly wasn’t great.
Similarly, the healers of the 4th Division were mistreated from what I remembered, usually being assigned all the worst tasks and Kurotsuchi Mayuri got to be a captain. That last fact on its own should already make it clear how problematic some of its policies were. There was no need to even get into the attempted quincy genocide.
So, if Missy found out and asked me about it, I could point at any of a dozen atrocities and say ‘this is why what I did wasn’t bad.’
The only reason why killing Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni wasn’t something I could do was the simple fact that I was almost entirely certain I couldn’t beat him. Had he been a quincy, I could’ve learnt how to use the hollow properties of my reiatsu to poison him to death but he was a shinigami and therefore beyond such a weakness.
Maybe, in one of a thousand scenarios, I could win. If I did, it would be solely because he couldn’t use his Bankai for too long without risking the entirety of Seireitei.
‘I might as well wait. There might be an opportunity in the future.’ I decided while making my way towards where Urahara and Yoruichi in her cat form had been waiting. “So, have you finished discussing our deal?”
“We have.” The masculine voice of the woman running around as a cat confirmed. “I’m willing to teach you Hoho in exchange for you giving both of us aura and teaching Kisuke some more of that sorcery stuff.”
“Good. But I’m afraid I do have other things to do tonight so would it be fine with you if I returned tomorrow at the same time as today?” I had considered being a bit more rude to amuse myself but didn’t see much of a purpose in it. Nothing besides a single potentially amusing reaction that might lower their opinion of me and therefore wasn’t worth it.
“That works for me.” Yoruichi confirmed, holding out her paw as if to shake my hand.
Amused, I took it. “Until tomorrow, then.” I told them and, after receiving their farewells, left for home. Missy had asked for my help, after all, and I couldn’t just be late for her first lesson with me.
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