22 Hot springs.

Chapter Twenty Two. (Edited by CDoggo: Heyyo all! We got a chapter with some pretty cute scenes :p Hope everyone is doing well! Also we might make a patreon, it will take us a while to set it up but it would be three chapters ahead of the current schedule and ofc we would have more stuff for everyone, but it's still just an idea.)

''You are one to talk.'' Her reply didn't make itself wait, and soon enough the feeling of the water slightly rising hit his chest, making him aware of the fact that she was now with him inside the hot springs. ''Do you need an invitation to look or what?''

''No, I don't.'' Kuromiya didn't waste a second, allowing his once closed eyes to open up while shifting his gaze towards his left side. There he found himself looking at a sight he had been growing used to this last couple of days, and somehow still managed to captivate him just as much as the first time he had seen her.

This was a world plagued with the type of women that could drive a man insane, and somehow the dark-skinned beauty in front of him felt otherworldly even compared to all the other women he had seen.

Her smooth dark skin was the first thing that would get one's attention, it wasn't a very common sight in the soul society after all. The young woman appeared to be in her late twenties, which was quite surprising considering she should be more than a couple of centuries old.

Yoruichi was a well-endowed woman, her buxom figure making it hard for one to avert their gaze off her curves, and she was well aware of it. Long strands of purple hair fell over her ample chest, leaving just enough hidden from his sight.

Somehow, despite how alluring her body was, the pair of piercing golden irises that stared at him were even more captivating to him, drawing his glance upwards in order to meet them.

Her melodious laugh reached his ears, making it clear that she knew exactly how she affected him, and neither of them seemed to mind.

''It has been a while since someone looked at me like that.'' She confessed, though despite how honest her words sounded, it still was something hard to imagine for him. ''It's not a bad feeling, at all.''

''Well, I haven't been in my human form too often in the last century.'' Yoruichi explained, submerging herself in the water until it reached her neck. ''Though even when I think about my time here… There weren't a lot of people who dared to look at me with so much unadulterated lust.''

''That's right.'' His mind brought memories of her time as the princess of the tenshiheisōban, the shihoin clan. There wasn't a lot of information regarding that period of time, but he had got the impression that she didn't find that kind of life suitable for her. ''You used to be part of the four great noble families, no? I can't see that being too fun.''

''It wasn't.'' The purple haired beauty agreed, pushing her long hair to the side, allowing him to get a clear view at her. ''There was this one girl that just keep calling me Yoruichi-sama, no matter how much I told her not to do so.''

'That must be Sui Feng.' The pale boy thought, he vaguely remembered a few details of their relationship.

''Hm… You suddenly got quiet.'' Yoruichi noted, moving closer to the teenager that appeared to be deep in thought. ''What's the problem? I'm not enough to grant your attention?''

''No… I just remembered something.'' He muttered back, reminding himself to be careful with her future interactions with the current squad two captain. ''Now that I think of it, how did Ichigo's training go?''

''It went well, he's quite talented.'' The woman replied, while pouting at his question. ''Is that what you want to talk about? I'm sure there has to be something more interesting in your mind than that.''

''Earlier you said…'' Akihiko started, moving the conversation towards something that had been stuck in his mind since she had mentioned it. ''.. .That is has been a while since someone looked at you with 'such unadulterated lust', no?''

''Mhm? Yeah, I did.'' She replied, tilting her head with a curious look. ''What about it?''

''I don't think that's the right wording for it.'' He said while closing his eyes yet again, as if he was looking deep inside himself for the proper words. ''Unadulterated lust implies that there's lust and nothing else when I look at you, and that's not the case.''

''...'' Her yellow irises widened ever so slightly, his words managing to take her off guard for once. For a few seconds, both of them remained in silence, their glances meeting here and there for a few instants. ''Huh… now that's new.''

''Hmm.'' Kuromiya watched her reaction with interest, a slight smirk growing on his face as he internally praised himself for getting a reaction out of the woman. ''Is it? That's nice to hear, then.''

''Come here for a little.'' After a few more moments of silence Yoruichi talked once again, her right hand moving towards him while pulling him closer towards her. ''I wouldn't mind having you a little closer.''

He granted her request, moving closer to her until their shoulders touched, that alone was enough to make his heart beat to quicken, even if just a bit.

''I wouldn't mind that either.''

. . .

'Still not good enough.' Ichigo admonished himself inside his mind, performing for what could very well be the thousandth flash step he tried in the last hour. It was deep into the night already, and despite Yoruichi assuring him that he was good enough with it, he kept training for a few more hours.

'My movements feel clunky when compared to his own.' The orange haired teenager thought,as the image of his friend appeared inside his mind, remembering the many times he had seen him using his own high speed movement technique.

''Yo, Ichigo!'' Ganju's voice forced him out of his thoughts, making him look at Kukaku's little brother with a raised eyebrow. ''You should take a rest, there's no point in exhausting yourself.''

''No point? It's training, I'm supposed to be exhausted.'' The substitute soul reaper argued back, giving the man a confused look.

''I-Ichigo-san.'' Hanataro muttered, he had been watching the teenager train for the last couple of hours, and the sheer speed at which he had mastered the flash step terrified him. ''Ganju is right, you should take a rest at least.''

''I'm sure he isn't taking a rest either.'' Ichigo replied, there wasn't a doubt in his mind that his classmate was hard at work right now, more than likely developing an advanced technique in order to push his strength to another level.

''He's stronger than me, I can't afford to waste my time when he's training his ass off, otherwise i will never catch up.'' He finished, turning their back to them as he resumed his training once again.

If only he knew what his friend was actually doing right now, his thoughts would be way different.

. . .

Yoruichi and Kuromiya had just finished their bath in the hot springs, both of them clothing themselves without caring much about what the other could or couldn't see.

''My wounds are almost gone.'' Kuromiya noted while dressing himself, his shinigami robes now back in place. The pale boy opened up the shihakusho, showing his bare chest which didn't have even a scar left in it. ''The healing properties of the water are ridiculous..''

''Mhm.'' Yoruichi nodded while putting her pants back on, smirking at the tennager as he noticed his gaze landing on her bare back. ''I might let you wash my back next time, if you promise to behave.''

''I'll be looking forward to it.'' He replied, switching his focus towards his asauchi while picking it up. It might have been just his imagination, but he started feeling a slight unease whenever he wasn't holding the sword. ''Until then, I will be working with that kido stuff, it could be quite useful in battle.''

''Actually…'' Yoruichi started , now wearing her black sleeveless shirt. ''Can you show the thing you practiced before I got here?''

''Hm, you mean this thing?'' He opened his left hand while concentrating his spiritual pressure into it, picturing the ball of light he had created earlier.

Just like it happened before, a perfect sphere of yellow light the size of a baseball formed itself, illuminating the darkness that surrounded them.

''I thought about it before, it's similar to Kukaku's cannonball that we used to get in here.'' He explained, allowing the sphere to disappear from his hand. ''I would like to try a few kidos, but I don't know much about them.''

''We still have some time left.'' Yoruichi replied after a while, she doubted Ichigo needed her help to perfect the flash step, which meant she could afford spending some more time with him. ''I will teach you then, so you better pay attention!''

. . .

''... Damn it.'' The young voice of the squad ten captain echoed through his lonely office, hundreds of dreadful thoughts plaguing his mind. Toshiro Hitsugaya wasn't having a nice day, that much was for sure.

'That damn Ichimaru.' He cursed, clicking his tongue. 'I swear, if he even puts a finger on her, I'll kill that bastard.'

The whole situation had happened earlier that day, when Aizen' corpse was found hanging from a wall, being found by the lieutenants who had been on a meeting at the time.

Somewhere during that time, Ichimaru had arrived and something that the man said ended up pushing Hinamori into attacking him, which had in return forced Izuru to stop her. What ended up transpiring was a fight between not just lieutenants, but friends.

That wasn't what was making him worried though, he himself had managed to stop the fight just before either of them could sustain severe damage, but his senses had told him that had he not arrived in time, Gin would have killed Hinamori.

Toshiro and Hinamori were childhood friends, within the Thirteen Court Guard Squads there was no one else that was closer to him than her. That was what made Gin last's word to him especially disturbing.

Once both Kira and Hinamori had been arrested for fighting against each other, he and Gin had been left alone, their conversation from before coming back to him:

'I'll tell you this now… If you spill Hinamori's blood, i'll kill you.' He had told the man, yet his response had managed to make his blood boil.

'You better keep an eye on her so no bad guy gets to her then.'

He gritted his teeth, his mind drifting back to the present and onto the matter at hand.

''I shouldn't be thinking about that, Ichimaru wouldn't dare to do it.'' He assured himself, his turquoise eyes moving down towards the report of all the ryoka fights until now, which was resting at his desk.

'I need to review this once again.' He took a seat on his desk chair, leaning back against it. 'None of the intruders aside from Zaraki's opponent have shown the strength to defeat a captain, so I don't think they were responsible for Aizen's death, it just seems too convenient.'

Moving a few of his silver hair bangs out of his vision, he forced himself to reread the reports for the third time in a row, in the hopes of finding some clue that the twelfth squad might have missed, even the slightest detail could make the difference.

. . .

''Captain Komamura.'' The lieutenant of the seventh division knelt in front of a closed door, greeting his captain that had been meditating inside it ever since he had heard about the death of a comrade. ''Is everything alright?''

''... Iba, huh?'' Komamura's voice was heard behind the thin door, now addressing his lieutenant Tetsuzaemon Iba. ''You may enter.''

''Yes, Captain Komamura.'' The middle-aged man pushed the door to the sides, opening it up until he was able to get a clear view of his captain who was sitting in the middle of the room.

The place itself wasn't too much to look at, a bland looking japanese styled room with almost no furniture in it, despite being the personal room of one of the thirteen captains. There was one thing that would catch the attention of anyone in a second though, the fact that Sajin Komamura wasn't wearing his giant helmet that covered his head.

The man, or rather, the anthropomorphic wolf with a form that resembled that of a man didn't bother to cover his face, showing his animal face to his lieutenant.

''I'm sorry, Captain Komamura!'' The man apologized immediately upon seeing his captain's current state, it was well-known that his captain made a conscious effort to hide his appearance from others, and that did include his own lieutenant. ''I didn't notice that…''

''It's ok, I don't care.'' The wolf-like captain replied, he had too much in his mind for him to care about such a thing. ''Did you need something, Iba?'' He asked with a questioning gaze.

''It was just... '' Tetsuzaemon gulped, unsure on how his captain would take his next words. ''Captain Zaraki has refused yet again to report back to us, and threatened to slice up our next man that was sent to talk to him.'' He told this to a captain with a nervous expression, afraid of the outrage that may come.

''That damn Zaraki.'' Gritting his canine teeth in frustration, the captain of squad seven closed his right hand into a fist. ''Aizen has just been murdered, and that man can only think about his petty conflict with the ryokas? He could have vital information that could save many lives!''

''...'' Iba remained silent, sharing the same feelings that his captain had regarding the eleventh squad captain's actions.

''Not only did he disregard the Captain Commander's orders and skipped the meeting, he is refusing to tell us about what he saw!'' From within the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, there was no one who respected Genryusai Yamamoto more than him, that man had given him a place to call his own after all.

Smashing his right fist against the wooden floor in anger, the whole room trembled as Komamura allowed his reiatsu to flow free for just an instant, and that was more than enough to bring his lieutenant down to his knees.

''W-what should we do, captain?'' Tetsuzaemon released a sigh of relief once his captain managed to control his spiritual energy, the pressure that had forced him to the ground now disappearing.

''I am going.'' Komamura stood up, his massive animal body towering over the figure of his lieutenant. ''He's going to tell me all he knows, whether he wants it or not.''

. . .

''Mhm… Guess I should start with explaining what kido actually is.'' Yoruichi muttered, her hand going to her chin as she adopted a pensive expression.

Both her and Kuromiya had ended up deciding to take a seat somewhere next to the hot springs, with the full intention of teaching him about the fundamentals of kido.

''I know a few things about it.'' The pale boy replied, recalling the amounts of times Urahara had fired a kido against him during their training. Truth be told, even with his knowledge from his past life, he didn't understand much about how kido worked. ''It's one of the four shinigami arts, right?''

''Exactly.'' Yoruichi replied, giving him a short nod. ''We shinigamis fight with those four arts, those being Hohō, Hakuda, Zanjutsu and Kido.''

''Hohō is everything related to our high speed fighting, which is based primarily on the flash step. You have a good grasp of your high-speed technique, so I won't push you to learn it if you don't feel it's something you need.'' She made a short pause, allowing him to fully take on her words before resuming her explanation. ''Hakuda refers to our hand to hand combat techniques.''

''Kisuke trained you in zanjutsu already, which in essence is all the movements and techniques a soul reaper uses when fighting with his zanpakuto.'' Yoruichi reminded him, after all she had seen their training with Urahara. ''Then at last, there's kido.''

''Kido is our form of combat based on advanced spells, most of them are based on strong amounts of spiritual energy and are divided in two main categories.''

Standing up from the ground, the woman pointed with her right hand towards one of the hills that surrounded them.

''Hadō #4. Byakurai.'' High-density spiritual pressure gathered in Yoruichi's palm, sparks starting to appear in her hand while a lightning bolt gathered in it.

The kido launched itself from Yoruichi's right hand, piercing through the hill and leaving a hole on it the size of a cannonball.

''That is the first category of spells, a Hadō.'' A trail of smoke was left coming out of her palm, from where the kido had just been launched. ''Most of the techniques in it are direct attack spells, the higher the number the higher the strength.''

''I guess the difficulty does also increase with the number, then?'' He questioned her, his glance still focused on the hole that the attack had left on the hill.

''Spot on.'' Yoruchi nodded at him once again, pleased with how he was able to catch up with the dump of information. ''There's still another category left, though.''

Opening her arms while focusing her spiritual pressure on the palm of her hands, a trail of yellow light appeared in each of them soon taking the form of a yellowish inverted triangle, the corners of the big triangle forming three even smaller triangles per corner.

''This is what we call a Bakudō.'' Maintaining the kido under control, she continued her explanation without showing even a slight sign of having a hard time keeping the technique activated. ''It's mostly full of supplementary spells, barriers, seals, and immobilization techniques are included in this.''

''Bakudō #30. Shitotsu Sansen.'' She muttered, releasing the bakudō while aiming it at the hills, the three smaller triangles launching themselves at it in the form of three pillars of yellow light, slamming themselves agains the hill. ''It's a shame I don't have a training dummy to test it out on, but I'm sure you can imagine what the result of capturing someone with this would be.''

''Yeah, I can think of a few uses for it.'' Kuromiya agreed, focusing on the still visible beams of light. He raised his left hand, clenching it closed into a fist as he pictured himself performing said techniques.

''I think we should start from the number one and go up as you master them, even if the lower ones are not quite as pote…'' Just before Yoruichi could finish her sentence, the sound of sparks of lightning reached her ears, making her turn her attention towards the boy.

''Huh… Something like this, right?'' Kuromiya muttered, pointing with his index and middle finger towards the same cliff that the young woman had used for her demonstration.

Much to Yoruichi's disbelief, white spiritual pressure gathered in his fingertips and a small bolt of lighting started forming on them. His next words confirmed her thoughts, each of them echoing through the deserted hills.

''Hadō #4. Byakurai.''

End of chapter twenty two.