Ch. 4 Zanpakuto Spirit and Roses

Everything was black for about 5 seconds. He half expected to go back to a certain gray office and see G in his golden glory.

But when he could see again he saw a plateau of land all around him. There was dried, brown grass all around him. He turned around and around and he saw nothing but brown grass. And it was dark, like midnight.

"Behind you" A deep and rough voice echoes through this land.

Jotaro turns around and is surprised. It is Star Platinum. Same colors and body. But at the same time it seems different. Like he knows it. Like he's known it his entire life but only now can see it.

Then there's a fire far away. Jotaro looks around and see that the fire is getting close to them.

"What do I need to do" Jotaro demands.

"Just call my name. Focus on who I am, what we are! What we will do together! Who we will save! Who we will fight. Who we will cut, cleave, slash, shred, sever, pierce, crush, squash, pummel, trample, break, annihilate, destroy, obliterate! Remember the reason why you are trying to gain your shinigami powers, Jotaro Kujo!" The Star Platinum looking zanpakuto spirits voice echoes through the entire area. The zanpakuto spirit got increasingly louder and his face looked more and more malicious as he smiled sinisterly.

"Remember? I never forgot. I just needed to be sure of something first. It seems that my family has its own secrets too" Jotaro walks towards his zanpakuto spirit. Also having a sinister smile on his face.

"Call my name! And we can do anything together! You just need to grow, Jotaro Kujo!"

The spirit is unmoving and only floats in the air with its arms crossed and one leg slightly raised while the other is straight. He looks down at Jotaro who walks until he is in front of him. Not even reaching his feet where he is floating.

"Get down here you bastard!" Jotaro demands with emotion in his voice, the most emotion he's shown in a while.

The zanpakuto floated down.

Jotaro holds out his fist.

Both smirks grow on their faces as the zanpakuto spirit reaches his own fist out to bump Jotaro's.

As the fists meet. "Get me outta here. Hofuku-Ryoku!"

His world goes black again as the fire got closer than Jotaro would have preferred.

———Training Grounds, Urahara Shop———

Kisuke was sitting on a rock. He heard some sounds from the depths of the hole and got curious. It wasn't shouts of agonizing pain. More like muffled pains and liquid sound.

"It's good that he didn't just become a blob like most souls become before they reform into a hollow. The mask is forming while he still looks human meaning he's able to resist. But he's not screaming in pain like he should be. That's a tough 12 year old"

He went to sit back down and 30 minutes later there was no more sounds. He looked down and saw that Tessai was jumping up. As Tessai got past Kisuke he felt it. The pressure from below. Then came a bright metallic platinum color. Kisuke backed away from the light and stood next to Tessai. Once the light started fading they watched as the light that was escaping the hole began to shrink until no more light was seen except from the room itself.

Dust was kicked into the air creating a smokescreen. The two saw a figure jump from the hole and land on the ground. The figure seemed to have the shinigami attire, the Shihakusho, on. And the silhouette was wielding an impossible blade that was leaning on its right shoulder.

The dust cleared to reveal Jotaro standing at 5'8.5". In his right hand was the handle of the rediculous zanpakuto resting on his shoulder. It was an enormous one-sided broadsword. The handle and handguard are roughly 1 foot long. The blade is seemingly 5 feet long. The sword in its total length is currently taller than he is. The blade is a lighter color on the bladed edge, while the rest of the blade is dark gray, and the handguard appears to be bolted or riveted into place. There are two holes near the handguard. The blade highly resembles the "Buster Sword" from Final Fantasy.

Jotaros face is covered by a white mask that has no facial features or holes for the eyes or mouth. It's jus a smooth snow-white mask.

"Are you good Jotaro?!" Kisuke holds his cane at his side as he gets into a fighting stance.

Jotaro brings his left hand to the mask and takes it off and tosses it onto the ground. The mask drops and lands face up. He takes his staggeringly large zanpakuto and pierces the mask with its tip. The mask shatters into thousands of tiny pieces.

"Yare Yare daze…..Don't underestimate me just because I'm a kid" Jotaro stands proudly holding the handle.

Kisuke relaxes, and Tessai's glasses nearly fall off his nose as he looks at the blade.

"You should try holding back on your spiritual pressure to decrease your zanpakutos size. Make it something easier to wield" Kisuke approaches Jotaro.

"This is me holding back. It doesn't even have a sealed state. This is its Shikai" Jotaro picks the blade up and puts it back on his shoulder with little to no effort.

"I've rarely heard that before. There's only one current soul reaper that also has that problem. But it's only because he has such great spiritual pressure and he doesn't know his zanpakutos name" Kisuke inspects the blade. It's practically a hunk of metal the size of a person with a sharp edge.

"I don't know or care. I know my zanpakutos name, so what does that mean?"

"It means you need to train in 4 various subjects" Kisuke holds up four fingers after walking infront of Jotaro.

"More studying….." Jotaro is sick of studying. But at least this will be more fun and involves his powers as a soul reaper.

"First! Th-"

*Ggrrrroooooowwwwwwwwlllllll*

Jotaros stomach roars like a lion.

"Fuck I'm hungry. I know you said a shinigami would get hungry if they have higher spiritual pressure, but damn" He puts his left hand over his stomach.

"The lecture can be done while you eat. Back towards the entrance we have food prepared already. We foresaw this being a problem and planned accordingly" Urahara motions with his hand towards the entrance.

"You planned from the beginning to nearly kill me?" Jotaro walks past Kisuke.

"I had the utmost faith that you would survive young Jotaro"

"Wont save your ass when I get strong enough"

Kisuke walks beside Jotaro. "Bold of you to think you can get strong enough to face me"

"In time I will be able to many things. Isn't that why you gave me the chance to become a shinigami?" Jotaro raises an eyebrow as he questions.

"You aren't wrong. But who knows. We don't know if your compensating with your zanpakuto for your lack of ability wielding it" Kisuke brings out his folding fan and opens it to cover his face.

"Oh I'm sure you know a lot about compensating" Jotaro looks around the room.

They hear tessai fall behind them.

"The hell does that mean you brat!" Kisuke closes his folding fan and turns towards the 12 year old.

"Look at the size of this room below your tiny shop. If this isn't you compensating for something then it's a cry for help" Jotaro turns to face Kisuke.

They hear a deep laughter coming from up ahead. "Boys, boys. You both have huge egos and are compensating for something in way or another. Now let's move on please"

Jotaro looks over towards the deep voice and sees Yoruichi.

Jotaro points his huge blade towards the cat. "Kisuke, care to explain why your female cat just talked to me with the voice of a big brollic black dude named Requis who's getting ready to skull fuck someone with a flash-bang?"

"Firstly, not my cat" Kisuke then holds up one finger.

"Secondly, I never said Yoruichi couldn't talk" He holds up a second finger.

"But you never said she could" Jotaro states

"Thirdly, and lastly. Why would you describe her voice like that?" Hos third finger goes up after he ignores Jotaro.

"Because there's a video. It's amusing when you listen to it. And because I believe that the voice that came out of that cat is fully capable of doing what I said to a person. And now knowing about Soul Society a little bit I think I have an idea of what this cat actually is" Jotaro turns to the cat.

Tessai, Kisuke and Yoruichi sweat a little bit. They all think at the same time. 'This kids pretty sharp, does he actually know about Yoruichi?'

"She's some form of familiar or something from that place. No way she's just a normal cat. Also, how did she get down here? That's a ladder and Tessai just appeared next to me at the bottom of the hole"

'Nevermind, this kid is as sharp as the blunt side of his zanpakuto' They thought simultaneously

"Also, how did she get down here? That's a ladder and Tessai just appeared next to me at the bottom of the hole. Maybe she isn't just a cat but a shapeshifter"

'Make up your mind on being smart or stupid kid!'

Jotaro walks past Yoruichi and sees fruit piled up on a table and goes to dig in. As he walked past the not-so-feminine feline he winked. Yoruichi wonders if he knew or not.

The two adults and cat talk about Jotaro, about his training and his intelligence. Both need to be tested. His training in his human body was to get adjusted to the reiatsu in the air. So they need to find his limits and formulate a way to train him.

After 5 minutes of discussing they walk towards the table to see Jotaro leaned his zanpakuto against the other side of the table and was eating. He would sometimes talk to the blade.

"Jotaro, are you talking with your zanpakuto spirit?" Yoruichi asks.

"Yeah, should I not do that?" He takes a bite out of an apple and chews.

The 3 puke blood simultaneously.

"You've gotta be kidding me….the kid truly is a natural. Or he's so stupid he can meditate while he eats. No, even then that's ridiculous. Very few people don't need to meditate to talk to their z-spirit. And those that don't need to meditate practice for centuries and are very close to their z-spirit. How the hell can the kid just eat and talk with his spirit when he just met the thing?" Kisuke looked like his brain was going to explode.

"I'm just that good I guess" he takes another bite of his apple.

The three others just go back behind the rocks to talk. It's unheard of. In all their years at the SoulSociety not once had a person freely communicated with their Zanpakuto spirit after just learning their name.

Jotaro finished the food and felt much better. It's like he just drank gallons of water after living in the desert his whole life without any water.

"Alright. What's next" He is holding his Zanpakuto.

Kisuke comes from behind the rock. Well, part of your training was meditating with your zanpakuto to deepen your bond. But you don't need to do that evidently. So for now there are 4 paths you can walk. I recommend giving each path a shot and seeing which works best for you"

Jotaro nods and waits for Kisuke to continue.

He holds up 1 finger "Zanjutsu, basically how to fight with your oversized kitchen knife"

"I'll find out how far this kitchen knife can go up your ass old man" Jotaro had a tickmark on his forehead.

Kisuke continues unfazed after imagining Jotaro shoving something that's bigger than a person through a person. Good for hollows but bad for humans and soul reapers. He holds up his next finger. "Hakuda, fighting hand-to-hand. It's important but not mandatory. Still good to know though"

Urahara holds up his third finger. "Ho-Ho, it's basically mobility techniques for moving, dodging, and countering. Very useful, you can't defeat what you can't hit"

He holds up his forth finger. "Kido, it's basically your Magic arts. This can be divided further. Hado being your attacks and Bakudo for battle support and Kaido for healing. Each have a scale of 1-99 with 1 being the easiest and fastest to chant. While 99 is the hardest and longer to chant"

He puts his hand down. Tessai and Yoruichi come around the rock and stand beside Kisuke.

"Luckily for you we are some of the best teachers in these areas"

Kisuke points to his face "I will be teaching you Zanjutsu. You need to learn how to wield the blade. Worst that can happen is I get the rust off my gears"

He points down at Yoruichi. "Believe it or not, Yoruichi is going to teach you Hakuda AND Ho-Ho. She's a master in both and far outclasses almost the entirety of SoulSociety"

Then he points to the big guy. "Tessai is going to teach you Kido. I'm good at Kido but Tessai is best to teach you"

"When do I start?" Jotaro is raring to begin his training.

Kisuke holds his hand up. "Hold your horses kiddo, what time is your dinner? You've been here for longer than you think"

"6, what time is it" He looks around the room that was painted to be sky blue and bright all day.

"You can lose track of time in a place like this. It's currently 5:45"

"Shit. How do I get back in my body?" Jotaro looks at his body that is laying on the ground.

"Just go lay down in it and you should just slip in. Make sure to suppress your spiritual pressure. If you don't hollows will be attracted to you and those you hold dear. Also take this" Kisuke tosses a small black fingerless glove with a skull in blue flames on the palm of it.

"Hit your forehead hard with your palm to get into your shinigami form. Now get going" Kisuke shoos him away.

Jotaro jumps back in his body. It feels like it did before. But compared to his shinigami form it's like moving underwater.

He puts his things in his bag and gives a single wave goodbye as he ran towards the ladder.

He sprinted home as fast as he could. He made it him at 5:55. He's fast when he needs to be.

He walks up to his door and walks in. And takes his shoes off.

"You're just in time honey! Wait, you're early? What happened to my Jotaro?!" His mom was in the kitchen but peaked her head around the corner to look at him.

"I don't need you AND Orihime to worry about me" he walks to his room.

"I'll worry no matter how old you are and where you are! That's a mother's duty!" She shouted to him as he got to his room.

He put his things back into place, like his school uniform and his school things.

He went to the kitchen table and set it. Orihime came out with red eyes and nose. She must have been crying all day.

"Sit" he pointed at a chair that would be to his left and his mothers right. He wanted to still face his mother when he eats.

"Ok" she said shakily and quietly. It seems it finally dawned on her fully that her brother passed.

He went into the kitchen and got a pitcher of water and brought it back to the table. Since there's three people now it's more efficient to use a pitcher than filling two cups up and walking them to the table.

Jotaro pours her a glass of water. "Drink"

And then he sits down. And as soon as he does he feels a presence. His eyes immediately flick to the window. He sees Orihimes reflection in the glass. She has short hair compared to the anime when she's older.

Out the window he can see Orihimes brother floating there looking at Orihime. He doesn't know how to send spirits to the SoulSociety yet. He knows he does it with the bottom of the hilt, or the pommel. But how to activate it he doesn't know. He will call Kisuke after dinner.

His mom bring the food to the table and they all eat. It was nice and quiet. But it the kind of silence that's awkward.

And when he's done eating he looks out the window and Orihimes brother is gone.

"What was his name" He asks in his neutral tone.

"Huh?" Orihime puts her fork down. She's only picked at the food and hadn't eaten much.

"Your brother. What was his name. I've forgotten"

"Oh….it's Sora…." She looks down at her food.

Jotaro stands up and leaves. As he's about to leave the room he stops but doesn't turn.

"Sora is watching over you Orihime. Don't ever forget that" He goes to his room and goes to sleep. He's once again more tired than usual.

After Jotaro said his words and left Orihime started crying again. But these weren't all sad tears. Some were happy. It helped hearing Jotaro. Saiko rubbed her back as she cried.

Saiko was wondering where he was going with that. She knew he wouldn't be rude to Orihime and she was right. She knew her son was kind. He's just got a rough exterior that gets pricklier but the day. But his insides are pure. Almost like a rose. He's kind and caring. She hopes that Orihime can see that.

Jotaro could hear Orihime crying as he fell asleep. Just another reason to get stronger.