I have a few announcements to make! First, there is some cussing in this chapter but I only used the word twice and it will most likly be the last time I use it. Lastly, well, lets just say romance has finally entered the picture C: ENJOY <3
XXX
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"Finally!" Tessai announced, glasses cracked, as he climbed out of the hole.
"There you are, Mister Tessai! Are you alright?!" Jinta frantically asked.
"No, I'm not alright. My glasses nearly fell apart!"
Jinta sweat dropped at his concern. "As long as you're still breathing you're alright. And even if your glasses are cracked you may wanna keep them on to see what happens next. Just a minute ago Mister Kisuke got out his sword! So this should really be good."
"Hey, not bad since your using a little kiddy sword!" Ichigo taunted Urahara.
"OH! What a compliment student! Don’t expect me to go easy on you!" Kisuke grinned.
"Ichigo, you idiot! Don’t insult his sword! You don’t know what it can do." I scolded and muttered the last part.
"Wait you know what that small thing can do?" he asked as we ran side by side.
I nodded then turned to him. "Why are we running away, Ichigo?!"
"How should I know?!" he shouted.
"I thought only a Zanpakuto can kill Soul Reapers and hollows. But Hat N' Clogs pulled that sword out of his cane. So it cant possibly be a Zanpakuto! So even if he hit us with it, it cant cut us!" Ichigo thought out loud.
At the same time, Ichigo and I turned around to face Urahara. Urahara then slashed up with his sword, knocking both our masks off that were on the side of our heads.
"You let your guard down! You thought because I'm not Soul Reaper I cant have a Zanpakuto. And you're thinking there's no way I can hurt you." He smirked at our confused faces. "You are so naïve. Awaken now, Benihime."
Ichigo and I stared with wide eyes. "I assure you this is a real zanpakuto. Very real."
"A name for your Zanpakuto?" Ichigo dumbfounded.
"Yes, each Zanpakuto carries its own unique name. And this one is Benihime, the Red Princess. Let us show you."
It was quiet until he swung his sword at a boulder, cutting it completely in half. Shards of broken rock and dust flew into the air.
He came at Ichigo and he held up his stump of a blade to block the oncoming Zanpakuto. "I'll give you credit for not running away at least, and for carrying that broken stump. You're not short on nerve, just the same, Benihime is much too fierce to let a blade like that stop her."
Kisuke then easily cut through Ichigo's blade and I watched with a shocked expression as I watched half of the blade fall to the ground. "He cut through his Zanpakuto like it was butter!"
Ichigo and I took off running again. "Don’t you get it Ichigo, Hana? Your swords have no concentration of spirit energy in it."
We both turned and swiped up at his hat but Kisuke easily dodged our attempts by moving his head back. "It has size but that's all it has. It carries the Zanpakuto's shape but has none of the necessary internal strength."
He swung his blade, managing to cut off the guards of our swords and all we had left was the hilt itself. "Now you both have no sword at all. Do you still want to continue attacking me? With nothing but the hilt? I suppose you can still manage to knock my hat off with it. But this time Ichigo, Hana, you're gonna need more then just blind luck or courage. I think its only fair to warn you, if you try to go against me with that inferior weapon, I will kill you."
Ichigo and I sprinted in a direction, anything to get away from Kisuke and his dangerous spiritual pressure.
"We got to get away. I don’t think he's kidding, I really think he's gonna kill us this time!"
Kisuke appeared beside us and I let out a yelp as he took a swipe at us. We managed to escape several of Kisuke's swings but accomplished in cutting Ichigo on the head as it dripped off the side of his face, and cut my right cheek where it ran down my face to my chin.
Ichigo and I ran once more, this time more panicky because we had no protection and were being threatened with death.
"What am I doing? This is so pathetic. Why am I running away? Is this all the backbone I have? Am I just a coward after all? A complete phony? I'm so disgusted with myself. How pathetic. This is pathetic. PATHETIC!"
"Yes, that’s you," Two voices spoke out.
Ichigo's and my eyes widened. In front of me was the same woman I seen I before and beside her was a mid aged old man wearing all black.
"Master…!" Ichigo and I chorused in shock.
"Why are you running away, Ichigo, Hana? You still haven't called us yet." The beautiful white haired woman said.
"Face forward Ichigo, Hana. And you should be able to hear it now. The only thing plugging your ears is your own fear." The dark-haired male spoke.
Ichigo and I stopped in our tracks. "There's only one enemy and two of you. What is there to be afraid of?"
"Hey, what's up? He just stopped, and so did Ichigo and Hana." Jinta questioned in confusion as he, Tessai and Ururu watched the scene unfold in front of them.
"Abandon your fear, turn and face him. Don’t give an inch." Our masters ordered. Spirit energy started to swirl around us.
"Now, Ichigo, Hana, advance. Never stop. If you retreat you will age. Be afraid and you'll die. NOW SHOUT OUT OUR NAME!"
"Zangetsu!"
"Zanaisugetsu!"
After shouting out their name, a bright light of spirit energy shot out around us. With the swipe of our Zanpakuto's we sent a blast full of energy at Kisuke, who merely sidestepped them.
Our Zanpakuto's were different now. They looked like oversized cleavers rather than a normal looking sword. It didn’t have a guard or even a proper hilt, but what was now the hilt was just a cloth-wrapped handle. The sword was as long as our bodies, and has a black blade with a silver edge.
"What kind of zanpakuto is that? It doesn’t even have a hilt or a guard on it. And its not even shaped like a normal sword! If you ask me, their old one was better!" Jinta snorted.
"Alright! Look at that! Its so pretty!" I exclaimed examining the blade.
"Its about time. Now that you've managed to draw your zanpakuto its time for lesson number three! Are you ready for that?" Urahara happily grinned.
"Don’t take this the wrong way, Urahara, but I hope you dodge this…"
"What?" he cautiously asked.
"Cause we cant' control it yet!"
With that said we sliced down and Urahara raised his sword to defend himself. His hat flew off by the force of attack and defense.
"Phew! If I hadn't protected myself with my blood mist shield I would have lost an arm just now." He joked as his hat landed at his feet. "That wasn’t very nice. I do believe you both killed my hat." He sang and went to pick up his hat and dusting it off and putting it back on. "Impressive. I didn’t think you could actually do that with a single swing of your sword. Ichigo, Hana, you both are very frightening kids. You know that?"
We didn’t hear a thing due to the fact that we were passed out on the ground. I was sprawled out on the ground with my mouth hanging open and drool dropping out. Very attractive…
Ichigo on the other hand was on his knees with his sword in the ground holding his weight and his head resting on his arm drooling.
"Lesson three, cleared."
…
"At last its complete." Uryu said. "I owe it all to you sensei."
…
There was a crash and dust and debris flittered through the air.
"You did it! Chad that was amazing! Way to go!"
"You clumsy fools! That explosion is causing a panic in the streets!" Yoruichi scolded them. "Quick out the back door!"
They clumsily ran to the door, tripping over their feet at the same time. "I cant believe how quickly they both awakened there powers and become capable individually."
"AHHHH!"
"What happened?!" Yoruichi frantically asked.
"Oh no! Chad just tripped and fell down the stairs!"
Yoruichi sweat dropped. "Then again…"
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Ichigo's POV.
It was August 1st and it was right around six-thirty. I was at the fireworks festival with my family and my friends. Everyone was here and present for, well, almost everyone. Hana said she would catch up after she took care of some things at her house and told us not to wait for her.
After completing training at Urahara's shop we were told to go home and wait for the opening of the gate to the Soul Society. So here I am, for what it could be my last summer vacation.
"Isn't this exciting everyone?! We're all here at the fireworks festival!" Keigo's voice broke through my thoughts.
"You're so enthusiastic." Mizuiro commented with a smile.
"Why not!? Who doesn’t love to watch stuff get fired out and explode!" Keigo defended.
"Hey, don’t forget about me! In fact I slept over there on the side walk last night to get the very best spots! Follow me and we'll go there now!" my dad shouted out in triumph. I gave my dad a blank look. "How about you two lovely ladies!? Care to join us?" he turned to Orihime and Tatsuki.
"We'll be there a little later." Tatsuki gave him a smile.
"Suit yourself!" he grinned and they all started running in an opposite direction towards the spot as we three stared at their retreating figures.
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My POV.
I was looking in my storage room just because I wanted to. I managed to save some items from the old house I lived in after it burnt down. I swished through the box finding some pictures, pencils, pens, books, a camera, sunglasses, jewelry box, a teddy bear, magazines. Most of the stuff was junk. I sighed and kept looking.
I then found moms favorite perfume. I smiled and squirted some on my wrist and rubbed them together and smelled them. It smelled like wild flowers. She loved this perfume and wore it everyday because dad got it for her for her birthday.
Then I found dads favorite wrist watch. It didn’t work, but it was gold and big compared to my small wrist. I sweat dropped. Dad wore this everyday because mom got it for him on his birthday.
I found Daichi's laptop. We got it for him for his birthday. He practically lived off the thing. He was in love with it really. I laughed at the thought. He was the smartest child in our family. You could say he was a 'workaholic' nonstop.
Next I found Hiroshi favorite tie. Yes a tie. He was sorta the gothic, emo type. He wore a regular t-shirt and then he would put a tie over it. He said it was and 'improvement' of fashion. I scoffed at the thought. The tie was a bold blue color. We got it for him on his birthday. Actually we got him many ties for him on his birthday but he said this one was the 'best'. He could be so immature sometimes.
I kept those 4 items out and looked in my moms jewelry box. I skimmed through it and a small ring caught my eye. I grabbed it and brought it to my face. It my ring they got me for my birthday when I was younger. It was actually a pinky ring. They got it a few sizes bigger than usual. They said I could wear it when I'm older because they thought I would lose it. And as usual I pouted about it but forgot about it in no time. I put it on my right pinky and it fit. It was a gold ring with a very small diamond in it. It was very pretty so I kept it on.
I took one last look in the box to see anything else. I found a small Japanese fan. I opened it and I got wide eyes. It was white with light green flowers and dark green leaves that complimented the design on it. It was so beautiful. I know I got this from someone but who? I didn’t get it from my family I know that much. I shrugged and set it on the ground with the other four items I found.
I closed the box and carried the items in my room. I set Dai's laptop on my desk, I put dads watch in my jewelry box, I put Hiro's tie in my dresser, then I put moms perfume in the bathroom, and then I set the fan on my bed and kept my ring on.
I sighed and walked into my closet and grabbed a white tank top and put a black off the shoulder shirt over top of that. I found some dark wash skinny jeans and put those on as well, along with a pair of black flip flops. I walked out of the closet and out of my room and made my way to the bathroom. I brushed my hair and squirted some one moms perfume on me.
I smiled in the mirror and ran down the stairs and out the door. Festival here I come!
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Ichigo's POV.
When I was lost in thought staring at my family and friends run to another location, I heard someone clear their throat.
"Hana!" Orihime shouted happily, hugging her around the shoulders as Hana laughed and hugged back.
"Hey Tatsuki!" Hana greeted with a wave.
"Hey, Hana, how are you?" Tatsuki grinned.
"Fine I guess." She sighed and placed her hands on her hips.
"Yeah, same here."
"Hey Ichigo!" Hana smiled and walked over to me.
I smiled at her. "Hey,"
"Do you think we should follow them?" she asked, finally noticing the retreating figures in the distance.
"Yeah I suppose. Sorry, Tatsuki, its always like this. You don’t have to come along if you don’t want to." I apologized and turned to her.
"Oh, don’t worry about me, Ichigo! I'll probably catch up with you guys later, you two go ahead and have fun." She waved a hand in front of her.
"Alright. See ya!" I replied and turned away as Hana waved and we both made our way down the sidewalk.
I looked down at Hana and noticed she glowed in the sunset. How could she look so beautiful without even trying?
I smiled and looked ahead of myself "Maybe I'll tell her how I feel tonight…"
"Hey lets go over and sit on the hill!" she grinned and pointed all the while pulling my hand towards the hill.
I groaned at her, my annoyance peaking from the energy flowing from her. "Why do you have to be so cheery?"
She scoffed at me and rose an eyebrow. "Come on! I can be happy once and a while can I? You should try it, it really helps get rid of those scowl marks." She teased.
I rolled my eyes at her half assed joke.
Once we got to the top of the hill, she sat herself down Indian style and spread out her arms to the side of her, propping herself up and looking at the darkening sky. I slowly made my way beside her, my legs out stretched and crossed at the ankle as my arms were also spread out and propping me up, looking up at the sky with her.
"Hey, Ichigo? Do you think we will survive?" I heard her ask.
"What are you talking about? I know for sure we will."
"You're right. What was I thinking?" she meekly laughed.
I chuckled at her. "Well at least I'm looking forward to coming back alive."
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My POV.
I laughed at his response. Ichigo always made me laugh. He was so blunt and sarcastic about everything it made things ten times funnier. Even when he tries to act serious its funny. But what in the world makes him so different from the other guys? Well his bright attractive orange hair has what I love the most. It's so different and he stands out. And don’t forget his chocolate brown eyes. Those were to die for.
I noticed it was dark, the fireworks would be shooting off soon. Everything turned a faded dark color then it usually was.
I finally realized where I was. I was sitting under the stars with my crush waiting for the fireworks to go off. I was going on a life threatening mission to save Rukia and he doesn’t even know my feelings! What if he rejects me?! What if he doesn’t even see me in that way? UGH. But Rukia words she said in her farewell letter kept reoccurring in my thoughts.
"He looks at you differently than any other girl and I hope that you'll see that sooner or later. Hana, I hope that one day you'll get over your fear tell him how you feel. You both need each other."
I just needed to suck it up and say something! Just breathe Hana, slow deep breaths and speak up!
"Ichigo, I…" I started as I turned to him, my eyes plastered to the ground as I tried to calm my rapid heart beat.
I could feel his gaze on me, which made me even more nervous. "Yeah?"
"Uh, I just wanted to say that…that…"
Just say it Hana! Stop choking up!
I was about to say something else until warm lips met with mine. Fireworks went off, literally. The booming was loud in the background, but not louder than what my body was feeling at that particular moment. My eyes widened just a fraction until fully closing them, giving in to the new feeling. The softness of Ichigo's lips sent me to another world, one that I didn’t want to leave. I felt his hand caress my cheek and bring me closer until he finally pulled away, his eyes half lidded after opening them.
His facial features were soft, no scowl in sight. His eyes portrayed love, happiness, lust even. For the first time in years, true happiness reflected off his face, happiness he had when his mother was alive. It took me years to accomplish, but I finally did it. Succeeding in making Ichigo happy again.
I felt my face heat up from the recent events just taken place. A smirked appeared on his lips, face red as mine.
"I knew you were having issues saying what you needed to, so I helped you out."
My eyes widened at him. "What?!" I wanted to be angry but a laugh escaped my lips, followed by smacking him in the arm.
A chuckle escaped his lips, followed by another peck to my lips. Speechless, I blushed and looked towards the ground. Since when had Ichigo become so bold when it came to kissing someone?
I felt the jerk of my hand as I was pulled up by Ichigo who was now standing. He gave me an attractive toothy grin as he pushed some hair away from my face. At his actions I grinned back and held the hand that pushed away my hair and stared into his eyes.
What could get better than this? This moment was perfect. A fireworks display, followed by a kiss, and now dating the boy I've had a crush on since I was about five.
He's perfect. Fireworks were perfect. This moment, completely perfect.
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It was a week after the Fireworks Festival, making it August 8th, the time now being one a.m. Urahara informed us beforehand to have our window open around one so here I am now. I was thinking about Ichigo and how he was my boyfriend now, it was so surreal I hardly believed it. The experience was almost like a dream, but I'm glad it wasn’t.
I had on skinny jeans, a v-neck yellow t-shirt and a pair of tennis shoes. My hair was done like usual, down with long waves tresses. I was looking out the window waiting for the so called "signal" to arrive.
"Seven days form now at one a.m., be ready with your window open!"
I scowled at his statement, his cheery face appearing in my mind. For some reason I don’t like the sound of it his tone when he told us this piece of information. At least there was a nice breeze…until I seen a flashing light in the distance.
I rose an eyebrow at the light and next thing I knew, something shot my way and I ducked from the window and fell of the bed backwards with a tumble. I bent my head back to see blood running down my wall, a message displayed as it went.
"Urgent! Meet us outside the Urahara shop immediately!"
My eye twitched at his methods of sending a message. "That stupid idiot! Who contacts people like that?! This isn't no fucking murder movie! And it better not stain my wall!" I shouted as I sat up and watched it run further down my wall, revealing another message.
"P.S?"
"P.S. if you're thinking this is some scene in a murder movie, you have no sense of humor at all."
"FUCK YOU!" I yelled as I glared at the message and threw a pillow in that direction in anger.
I quickly cleaned my wall and took off my pinky ring and set it on my dresser. Once I left my house I took a good look at it with my hands on my hips.
"Well…I guess this is good bye, for now at least."
I looked over to see Ichigo walking out his door and I walked over to him. "Well Dad, Karin, Yuzu. Goodbye." He quietly spoke.
"GOOD MORNING, ICHIGO!"
A shout was heard as we both moved out of the way and a body crashed to the ground where we were just standing. "Way to dodge the attack my son." Isshin grumbled.
"This I how you say goodbye?! What's wrong with you!?" Ichigo angrily shouted.
"Before you go, Ichigo, I wanted to make sure you take this with you." Isshin spoke as he stood up from the ground and held up a charm to Ichigo.
Ichigo grabbed it and analyzed it and rose an eyebrow. "What am I supposed to do with some dirty old charm?"
"Watch your mouth, that talisman was given to me by your mother long ago. Its precious." Isshin preached.
"Then why in the hell are you giving it to me?! I cant keep this thing!" Ichigo glared.
"Of course you can! Who said I was giving it to you permanently? You have to give it back to me as soon as you come home! Sheesh." Isshin shouted back as he let out a breath of hair and set his hands on his hips. "It should bring you luck. It always has for me. Think of it as a gift from your mother."
Ichigo looked down at it. "Well, what do you say?! Hey, I'm offering you a magic talisman I swear if you don’t bring it back I'll shave my beard off!"
"Alright! I'll take it. I'm going now, goodbye dad." Ichigo huffed as he walked away.
I smiled and walked after Ichigo and grasped his hand. "Bye! Hana, make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble!" he grinned cheekily at me.
"Of course! I'll watch him! Bye!" I promised and waved back with a grin.
With that said we walked to Urahara's.
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When we arrived at Urahara's he happily greeted us. "Well, well if it isn't Ichigo and Hana! Right on time. Welcome to the club."
Then we both noticed Chad. "Chad? What are you doing here?" we questioned.
"Rukia saved me once. I want to help her out if I can. I'm going too." He declared with a determined face.
"Huh?!"
"What's the matter? Are you hard of hearing or something?"
We looked behind us to the voice to see Uryu in a weird outfit.
"Uryu?!" we both shouted in surprise.
"I don’t take defeat well. Especially when its at the hands of a Soul Reaper. So I'm going too."
"What?" Ichigo dumbfounded asked.
"So I guess we're all present and accounted for!" Another voice piped up and we turned to see Orihime
"Orihime?" I blinked.
"Yes I got the message too." She smiled.
"Hold on a second, could someone please tell us what the hell is going on here?!" Ichigo shouted out in frustration.
"Yes please do so, I'm very confused." I pleaded as I turned to Kisuke.
"You're a bit slow on the uptake aren't you?" Yoruichi spoke up coming to the scene.
"Yoruichi!" Orihime and I happily greeted.
"Kid, don’t tell me you didn’t notice the increasing power of these three friends of yours. There have been so many clues. You need to be more observant than that if you want to survive. While you and Hana have been training and trying to regain your Soul Reaper powers the three of them have also been training in their own way. Instead of asking stupid meaningless questions, you ought to be thanking them."
Ichigo just stared at the cat with wide eyes. "A FREAKING CAT JUST SPOKE TO ME!"
"His name is Yoruichi and he's not just a cat." Orihime corrected him.
"It is hard to get used to." Uryu admitted.
"I'm still adjusting to it myself." Chad nodded.
"Come on, its not that bad, Ichigo." I gave him a smile.
"Alright everybody, lets take this little party inside the store! There are things we cant talk about here in the open." Urahara announced as he ushered us into the shop.
We all complied to his orders and made our way into the shop and down the ladder to the secret underground training room.
"Wow, this is so incredible! Who knew there was something this humongous right below the shop! Isn't it amazing?!" Orihime said in amazement with clasped hands as she observed the area.
"I guess…" Ichigo and I muttered.
"What a heart warming reaction! Its such a pleasure to have you on this trip my dear!" Tessai thanked as fake tears made their way down his face.
"The pleasure is all mine Mister Tessai!" she grinned sheepishly.
"Alright everyone! Attention please! All eyes right over here! Walla!" he said and with a snap of his fingers a big square appeared, which was probably the portal.
"This is the gate that leads to the Soul Society. Its called the Senkaimon or tunnel world gate. I'm going to tell you how to successfully pass through it, but first we need to change one thing." He grinned, and without another warning, he jammed the end of his cane into Ichigo's and my forehead, making us tumble backwards onto the dirt terrain.
"Hey, how about giving us a warning next time, Urahara!?" Ichigo and I yelled.
Orihime, Chad and Uryu were looking at our bodies and messing with them, completely amazed by the now empty bodies. Urahara laughed at our reactions.
Wait, I don’t think I told you what I look like now! My shihakusho is the same and my new sword is on my back still, but what's holding my Zanpakuto was a cord strap, mine being blue and Ichigo's red. The cloth attached the handle acted as a sheath for the blade and unraveled when necessary for battle.
"Alright, listen up! Unlike normal gates, this one has a spirit particle conversion machine." Urahara started out.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Ichigo snapped.
"I'll explain. As you already know, the Soul Society is a spirit world, unless you are in spirit form, it is impossible to enter. Right now, only two of you can cross over as a spirit. And that’s Ichigo and Hana, Soul Reapers. The conversion machine will transform the rest of you into spirits as well."
"So you're saying the gate will let us pass through without extracting our souls?" Uryu asked.
"Yes, passing through the conversion will allow you to stay in your present forms."
Ichigo and I had enough of explanation and snapped. "Alright! We understand, lets get going!" We said in unison walking forward, but didn’t get too far because Urahara punctured our side with his cane, grinning all the while.
Ichigo and I groaned and leaned against a rock wall and rubbed our sides painfully as Urahara continued his explanation. "But there's a catch, the window of time can only be left open for you is only…four minutes long."
We all gasped and turned to him. "Is that enough time?!" Ichigo asked in alarm.
"Ordinarily no." Urahara plainly stated.
"Huh?!"
"In fact, the whole scheme is a little shaky. Four minutes with the gate is all I can give you. After that it will close, anyone who hasn’t made it through yet will be trapped forever in the Dangai. The press of this world and the Soul Society."
"How will we ever make it?" Orihime piped up in concern.
"Go forward," Yoruichi began, appearing beside her. "Remember what I told you about the connection between heart and soul? You must have no doubt, no fear. Do not think of those you are leaving behind. Your will to go forward will be your guide. And don’t look back. Only those who can do those things can follow through the gate and survive."
"We all know this already or we wouldn’t be here. Quit with all your preaching and lets do this thing now." Ichigo demanded.
"And you understand if you lose you can never return to this life again right?" Yoruichi turned to him.
"Then all I need to is win huh?"
"Exactly." Yoruichi nodded.
The gate lit up and Urahara turned to everyone. "So, everybody ready? As soon as it opens, run in as fast as you can."
"Right," Ichigo and I nodded.
"Good luck,"
With those last words of encouragement from Kisuke, we all plunged through the portal.
"Were all counting on you, Ichigo, Hana."