35 Chapter 35

10 chapters ahead in my Patrèon. Pat.reon.com/Oldherd.

<---------------------------------------->

(General P.O.V)

The second Ash stepped through, the entrance behind them disappeared in a motley of light.

"Whaa...?"

Ash looked behind him before turning to Urahara with a questioning glance.

A Reiatsu that was magnitudes greater than anything Ash had ever felt before, even after going to hell slammed onto his shoulders and brought him to the ground. A mouthful of blood sprayed out of his mouth. His ribs cracked and his vision swam as he groaned at the pain.

"Here's the curious thing."

Urahara spoke up.

"A soul's spiritual pressure can become a very effective tool if used properly. None of that swing a sword or let loose devastating Kido attacks." He turned around to face Ash who was still on the ground.

"You do know what Kido is, I assume?"

Ash didn't answer, eyes wide as he tried to breath and found it being the most difficult thing he had ever tried. Not just his body was affected either. His soul felt like a weak child contending with an elephant. An elephant that was a 100 times larger than any other elephant in history and could breathe fire, oh and shit lightning.

"A soul's spiritual pressure can end a fight before it even begins."

Ash felt the heavy load on his body increase. He couldn't hold off on activating his quirk any longer and did so immediately. The clothes on his back shredded apart as his bulk increased, the hard spikes and grooves tearing apart the clothing. Yet it still wasn't enough, he was losing consciousness.

His ears tried to focus on what Urahara was saying and only managed to capture a few clipped sentences.

"...the equivalent of 15 G forces on you right now. What happened if we increased that weight some more?"

Ash clawed towards Urahara, fingers digging through the soil, trying to get to him and make him stop when the weight above him increased yet again. This time he let out a small croak and immediately passed out.

When he woke up next, Ash scrambled to his feet, grabbing for his plasma knife, activating it and pointing it at Urahara who was seated calmly on a rock, fanning himself. Ash activated his Quirk for added measure.

"What the fuck was that, Urahara?!"

He yelled, gritting his teeth in a battle ready test.

"Aah Ash Kun, I was beginning to think my healing skills had dwindled." He jumped to his feet.

"Glad to see I was wrong."

Ash barked out a disbelieving laugh.

"Are you fucking serious right now! Did you forget you almost..."

Bam!

Urahara's spiritual pressure slammed onto his shoulders once more, taking him to the ground with a grunt.

"Bravo Ash Kun! You managed to withstand something that almost killed you a few minutes ago."

Urahara's voice managed to reach Ash through the layers of agony he was in.

With bloodshot eyes, Ash stared at the ground in anger and contempt. He was determined not to face plant on it a second time. Something in him defied being placed in such a position. To someone who had died over 20 times, it was grating to his nerves.

"F...fuck..." He placed one knee under him, pushing off the ground with his arms, back arched and arms shaking. His body started cracking as the load on his hardening quirk became too much. Small streams of blood begun to run down his form, making him look even more like a monster than before. Yet he persisted, vowing not to let Urahara win.

Urahara bent down before him.

"You asked me for power. So this is a test. A test to see if you actually deserve it. Fight back Ash-kun. Fight back and prove to me that you are worthy. Only when a soul is put through life and death does it grow. So survive."

Ash craned his neck to stare at Urahara.

"Uck...You..."

He let out the word with as much vitriol he could, smiling in defiance, teeth red with blood.

"Tsk," Urahara shook his head.

"You shouldn't use such foul language like that, Ash Kun. Maybe you need some more discipline?"

Ash knew what was coming but never once did he allow Urahara to see weakness in his gaze. He was finally learning. You don't show anger or any other negative emotion to your enemy. You bide your time and never give them a chance to strike. A fight was won by fists as much as it was won by mental fortitude. He finally knew what his biggest weakness was.

Darkness creeped up on him but even as he fainted, Urahara found himself marvelling at the boy. Just after he had formed a final evaluation of the kind of person Ash was, the boy did something to blow his speculations out of the water.

"You really are interesting Ash Kun."

This time it only took 30 minutes as opposed to the 1 hour from before, for Ash to wake up. The teen inhaled, looking up at the roof of the chamber with an indecipherable look on his face.

"I get it now."

He said, grabbing Urahara's attention.

"Get what?" The Soul Reaper was quick to enquire.

Ash smiled, contrary to what Urahara was expecting and kipped up, flipping to his feet in a clean move. Then as he faced Urahara, Ash removed his torn t shirt and threw it away. He missed his heavy jacket and boots. He found that he rather liked the look. Ash stood before Urahara, shirtless, the only item of clothing on him being a pair of grey pants and sneakers.

In his right hand was the handle of his plasma knife.

'Something's different,' Urahara thought.

Ash spread his hands out to the side and stared at Urahara with a savage smile.

"Well, what are you waiting for, Old man. Do your worst."

Urahara burst out in laughter.

"I love that newfound courage Ash Kun!" He stood up, twirling his cane to the side before unsheathing a little of his Zanpakuto.

This time the spiritual pressure that hit the teen was not only overwhelmingly ponderous and dense but also bloodthirsty. Ash was brought to his knees as he screamed at the effort to keep himself upright.

"I...am. NOT. GIVING..."

The figure of a large intimidating woman appeared behind Urahara as a phantom, cutting off Ash's next words. Huge and leaking out savage cruelty, Benihime's sheer presence was something that yet again broke Ash's expectations of what true horror was. His eyes were wide, teeth chattering and heart racing so fast he thought he was going to get a stroke.

Not only his body and soul, even his mind struggled to stay put. His fight or flight response was blaring at him like a loud siren to do something to combat this new threat.

"I...ahh..."

Ash grunted, mouth dry as cotton.

"What's wrong Ash Kun?" Urah...no whoever this was, he couldn't be the eccentric lazy shop keeper that Ash knew. This was Kisuke Urahara, Founder of the research division of the Soul Society and wielder of Benihime...

Ash tried to hide and deny it but he was fucking terrified. He was so terrified out of his mind that it reached a point where he thought he was actually going to die of fear and loop again.

But, the whole thing also birthed something in him. Whether it was through necessity due to how his life had turned out after losing his father; bleak and hopeless. Or maybe it was exhaustion at the pointless deaths he had gone through but something about the whole incident that day, became the birthplace of what would become a legend.

That feeling grew inside him, like a dam breaking apart and letting out a torrential amount of water through, so too did something. This something did not push away the fear. No. It used the fear as a foundation for it's growth and development.

Ash closed his eyes and stood in place. Face set in a blank expression. He was here and not at the same time.

His body started leaking out a purple aura. The plasma knife in his hands activated, changing from a pale blue to a bright purple without Ash's urging. Ash felt a whole new world open up to him. His newly released Spiritual Pressure propelled an energy shockwave that momentarily pushed away Urahara's own spiritual pressure.

Purple circuits of energy spread out from his chest to cover his body. The whole chamber begun to shake, making Urahara look on with a trace of surprise in his usually unfazed eyes. The chamber was created with Reiryoku restricting seals. To make the whole room shake was impossible.

Urahara watched as the blue seals powered by reishi contained in the atmosphere flash dangerously, as if they were about to break apart. Urahara knew that if that were to happen, the whole street above the chamber would collapse on their heads.

The entrance to the chamber burst open and Yoruichi flashed next to Urahara. Her eyes were naturally drawn to Ash who was standing in one place, body twitching, head turned to face the ground. One hand was wrapped around a long sword made of purple light and his reiryoku reserves that had last been so small that one would struggle to sense them, were now almost as much as what a seated officer in the gotei 13 had.

"Kisuke! What's happening?"

She asked, bending slightly to the ground just incase whatever Ash was becoming decided to attack. She had known not to trust him! Why didn't Urahara listen to her? And why wasn't he answering her question?!

"Kisuke!"

She snapped.

Urahara blinked, getting out of his trance. He flashed away, appearing behind Ash and chopping at his neck. Ash slumped against Urahara's shoulder in a faint. The wind died down and the chamber stopped groaning. Urahara let out a slow breath.

It was over.

"Kisuke...what in the hell was that?"

Yoruichi asked lowly.

"I felt the house shake. Tremors even rocked the street and caused panic. How can someone with barely the Reiryoku reserves of a 5th seat cause that much havoc?"

It was something that left her with numerous questions. It wasn't enough anymore to think that Ash was a spy. Aizen would never give up someone so interesting.

Urahara did not answer right away. Infact, he carried Ash's unconscious body from the small crater formed after the wild explosion of his power. Ash's limp body dangled from Urahara's hands, the purple circuits receding from his body and his sword changing from its massive lightsaber like form, to dissipate into motes of purple energy before reforming around his neck as a necklace.

The necklace was in the shape of a snake eating it's own tail. The Ouroboros symbol.

Passing by Yoruichi's side, the Flash Goddess placed a hand on Urahara's shoulder.

"What. Happened?"

She bit out, her palm tightening.

"That's the thing."

Urahara looked at her from the corner of his eyes.

"I don't know."