11 Second Step

""Shin!"" Isshin and Yoruichi shouted both at the same time in worry. They panicked, not even taking the time to think about the situation more deeply.

"What Happened? where did he go?" Yoruichi shouted as she appeared where Shin previously sat.

The action was just too quick, one moment he was sitting and the other his shadow absorbed him and he was gone, they couldn't react due to the surprise as they didn't expect such a thing to happen to begin with.

"Did he just?" Urahara muttered, but he didn't seem that worried about the whole situation as he added. "Hmph! trying to be cool."

His words didn't escape the others as they all heard what he said. Isshin, seeing that Urahara wasn't worried about the whole situation, forcibly calmed down and tried to think about the whole situation from an objective point of view.

"Trying to be cool? Do you think this is a joke? Do you think this is the time to say something like this?"

Yoruichi however, didn't seem to be in control of all her mental faculties as she was panicking wholeheartedly, pretty unbefitting of a former captain of the 2nd division, reputed for their stealth and assassination skills.

"Woah, Woah, calm down Yoruichi-san, there is no need to be so worked up." Urahara tried to calm her down and make her let him down since she was currently lifting him up by the collar.

"To Calm down?" She asked as she gritted her teeth in frustration.

"He is right Yoruichi, you should calm down, the situation is not as severe as it seems." Isshin said as he placed a hand on the shoulder of the fiery woman.

"Isshin, you too..." She let go of Urahara as she looked at the father of the missing who seemed to take it relatively well and Tessai on the side who nodded at her. This seemed to be enough to calm her down.

"Really, Love struck women are scary." Urahara said while straightening his cloth that was rather badly handled by the Catwoman.

"..." She just glared at him but didn't say anything as she started to think about the whole situation more in-depth.

"It's not complicated, really." Urahara started explaining the current situation as he walked off toward where Isshin disappeared. "Can't you feel it? The remaining spiritual power, it's Shin's own"

"Also, the ability to travel through space and dimensions by the use of shadows is..." His voice trailed off as if waiting for someone to finish his sentence. "A Quincy ability." Which Isshin did.

"Exact Isshin-san, you got it right." He said as he clapped in appreciation.

"Why could have possibly been the precursor of this situation?"

"The fact that he tried to feel the connection between his and his zanpakuto spirit... Probably." Tessai was the one to answer the question.

"If you take those two facts into consideration, what does that means?" Urahara asked.

"The most probable explanation would be that he had been teleported to his Inner world." Yoruichi concluded.

"See Yoruichi-san, it was not that hard." Urahara complimented and mocked at the same time as he pointed his staff toward Her, much to the latter's annoyance, but she didn't say anything.

She was indeed wrong for panicking, panicking is never the solution to any problem, if anything it clouds one's judgment and induces you in error, she should have known better and kept her calm.

Although this was unusual for her, she couldn't help it, she felt her heart tightening in her chest as an inexplicable pain took hostage her heart. She felt like she was almost drawing in water incapable of doing anything as the first person she ever...

Love? Was she in love? This was the first time she used this world in this sense as she seemed to come to realize something.

Sure, she knew she liked him to some point, but she was thinking that it was more along the line of him being a crush or something similar, never had she seriously entertained the idea that she genuinely fell in love with him.

Or was it that she was burying her head in the sand up until now?

As she started to seriously try to sort out her feelings, she didn't even notice Urahara who was trying to make fun of her and unconsciously ignored everyone else.

Urahara seeing as his teasing didn't land home, just shrugged his shoulder at Isshin who was looking at him.

.

Meanwhile, Shin found himself in a place familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

The place looked like where he lived in his past life, yet he was sure that he didn't go back there. Thinking a little bit about the situation he was quick to understand what was happening.

He was in his inner world, that much he was sure. From his memories of the show, he could remember that Ichigo's inner world was also something like Karakura town.

With that out of the way, since he couldn't sight his zanpakuto spirit, he picked a random direction and started walking, following nothing but his guts.

He walked past many familiar places that he could remember, and ultimately he arrived in a seemingly ordinary park with greenery all over the place and a source of water nearby.

Not far from the water he could make the figure of a black-haired man sitting across a table and drinking tea. Wasting no time to think about it, he directly walked toward the man.

Soon enough he arrived and he sat on the other chair opposite to the man.

He didn't talk to the man and merely started observing him, long black hair tied in a ponytail, blue eyes, his cloth a strange mixture of what would have been a shinigami and a Quincy cloth, with it being black and white as well. The man was also wearing an amber necklace with a strange pattern inscribed on it.

But what really was striking to Shin was that the being he recognized as his zanpakuto spirit looked like a younger version of Ichigo's old man Zangetsu. He seemed to be around his thirties.

"It seems like you are done observing me." The man said as he sipped from his cup.

"Pretty much so." Shin nodded in affirmation.

"I know that you have some questions for me, and I will naturally answer them." the man said as he posed his cup and took hold of the teapot. "But before that, do you mind some tea?" He asked with a smile.

"Gladly!" Shin said as he patiently observed the man pour some tea into a cup that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. "Thank you." He didn't forget to say as he received the cup.

Taking a sip at his turn, enjoying the taste in silence. He was not much of a tea person but after this, he would consider it, this tea was pretty great it seemed.

"Now then shall we start? " Shin asked as the man nodded in response, indicating him to go on with his questions.

"First, are you alone here? I don't know why but I have been expecting to spirit two-spirit over here." He was genuinely curious about this, he always wondered whether he would have two spirits living in his inner world like his brother or not.

"Two spirits?" The man's expression seemed to freeze in surprise, "Hahahaha" before exploding into full-blown laughter.

Shin didn't get embarrassed and merely waited for his answer. Soon enough the laughs faded away as the man started speaking.

"Judging by your memories, you are probably saying that because of Ichigo's case. But no I have been, am, and will always be the sole spirit governing your innate powers."

Crazy diamond's case is a little different as he didn't really reside in His inner world, but much rather like the servants in fate, he just stayed in an astral form, always next to him.

"Well govern is a rather inadequate word. It's more like I am the physical/spiritual presentation of those powers. In simpler terms, I am your power." The man said as he took another sip from his cup before continuing.

"Although you have Shinigami, Quincy, Fullbring's, and even human powers in some way, you never had Hollow powers, to begin with. But that you knew already."

Taking a moment to digest the information he received, Shin soon nodded in acceptance, he was not disappointed because as the man said before, he already knew he had no Hollow powers, Ichigo was the one to get it.

Though, there was something else that puzzled him.

"Wait, you just said that you are the embodiment of all my powers, not only Shinigami one's?" If that was the case, then what about Ichigo? Perhaps his case was later explained in the series but since he didn't read it, he didn't know.

"Yes, that's indeed what I said, Remember how I brought you here?"

"The shadow travel..."

"Exactly that's a Quincy ability, that you already used many times before, the sole reason why you could was that I was imparting the skill to you. Not only that, it was the case for Blut and Hirenkyaku too. I have been awakening the memories of those skills within your spiritual powers one after the other." He explained as he served himself another cup.

"If that's so, why didn't you do the same for my Shinigami and Fullbring powers?" Shin asked if he could do it with one, then naturally he should be able to do it with the others as well, right?

"Ho, that's because-

...

End of the chapter, see you for the next chapter of Drag- ahem I mean, Bleach: spiritual pathway.