21 No, I don't.

Chapter Twenty One. (Edited by CDoggo: Heyyo everyone! Merry Christmas to all and thanks for reading hehehe. ps. Please don't murder me, the cliffhanger is the authors fault this time :p)

[Hidden quest obtained:

Explain this shit.

Reward: You might still have a chance to smash her]

"Before you ask, I don't know either.'' His words stopped them in their tracks, the three of them, now under a veil of uncomfortable silence that permeated the air. One of the three met the stares of the other two.

''... I'm so lost right now it's not even funny.'' Ichigo was the first one to talk, looking at his friend up and down in utter disbelief. ''How is this even possible!?''

''I just told you I don't know either!'' The black haired boy replied, raising his voice to match Ichigo's. ''I am a fullbringer, this shouldn't be possible!''

''How can you not know about it!?'' Ichigo screamed back at Kuromiya, throwing his hands in the air in extreme frustration. ''You're telling me you just woke up and turned into a shinigami without an explanation!?''

''That's exactly what I'm saying!''

''...'' Next to them, the third person present in the small room had been awfully quiet since the classmates had started screaming at eachother. Yoruichi paid no attention to them, her attention now fixated onto a certain object resting next to where the new shinigami had been resting at.

''This…'' She muttered, kneeling on the floor as she grabbed a certain object with her right hand, as she raised it, inspecting it with keen interest.

The object was Kuromiya's asauchi, which had been shattered into pieces during his fight against the captain of squad eleven. Normally this would hardly be worth her attention, but the fact that said blade was now back to how it used to be was not something she could just ignore.

''Akihiko.'' Yoruichi called, walking closer to the teenager who had just finished his verbal battle against the other. ''It seems like this is back to normal too.''

''Huh?'' He grabbed the asauchi from its hilt with genuine surprise, he hadn't noticed that the broken blade had reformed out of nowhere. ''Now I'm even more confused, how is this even possible?''

''If Kisuke was here we could ask him about this…'' Yoruichi muttered, releasing a frustrated sigh as she was unable to come up with any sort of plausible explanation.

It's not like she was completely lost, a few theories did come to mind when thinking about it, and among the ones she thought were most plausible, she was contemplating the option of the hogyoku being somehow responsible for this.

''Whatever, I don't even care.'' Kuromiya muttered after a while, sheeting his sword on the scabbard that hung from his robes. ''This doesn't change our current situation, we can ask Urahara about this once we are back.''

''... I suppose you are right.'' The dark-skinned woman half agreed, though her gaze lingered around Kuromiya's new appearance. There were more than a few questions inside her mind right now, but the more prevalent one was about just what Aizen's reaction would be to this sudden change of events.

''We are leaving.'' She announced, pushing those thoughts deep into her mind.

''Alright.'' Ichigo agreed after a few seconds, taking one last look at his friend with his confusion still very much present in his face. ''Don't worry Kuromiya, we will figure something out.''

''... You make it sound like I have some incurable illness.''

. . .

The faint sound of liquid falling to the ground was the one thing that accompanied the desperate whimpers of a devastated girl; tears ran down her face like the rush of water from a broken dam.

''H-how c-could this happen…'' The girl forced herself to look up, her brown eyes now meeting the gruesome scene that had shattered her will in a second.

Impaled against the wall with a zanpakuto running through his heart, the form of the captain of squad five was in full display for whoever had the misfortune to stumble upon such a disgusting sight.

The corpse of Aizen Sosuke was stabbed against a wall, his figure hanging from more than ten meters up from the floor. Blood was seeping out of the gaping whole in his chest that was filled with a sword. Crimson red streaks were splattered on the wall like a modern art piece because of the sheer force of the strike that was needed for the sword to be able to penetrate through the body, as well as the concrete wall.

''Hinamori, you okay!?'' The distinctive voice of a male was heard, alongside the sound of numerous steps following it.

It didn't take the newcomers long to reach the place, and soon enough the once lone figure of the broken girl was now surrounded by four lieutenants. None of them had noticed the state of the captain of squad five just yet, their attention entirely focused on the girl.

Momo Hinamori's gaze shifted towards her fellow lieutenants, her red and puffy eyes making her appear like nothing more than a regular girl, a far shot from her usual serious lieutenant persona.

Izuru Kira, Rangiku Matsumoto, Hisagi Shuhei and Tetsuzaemon Iba were present at the scene, and the latter of them was the first one to notice something else about the scene, his senses picking up on the sound of drops of 'something' reaching the ground.

''T-that is…'' Iba muttered, finding himself at a loss of words at the image that his very own eyes showed him. ''Captain Aizen!''

His words managed to make the rest of them look upwards too, each one of them looking at the scene with their mouths hanging open.

What each one of them failed to understand was that there was so much more in play than the murder of a captain, unable to see beyond what their senses showed them as the undisputable reality. For each one of them believed it, much like the rest of the seireitei would believe that Aizen Sosuke was now nothing more than a corpse.

…

''Huh, this place is deceptively big.'' Ganju muttered, his gaze exploring their new surroundings as the group arrived at the place Yoruichi selected for their training. Truth be told, even Kuromiya who already did know about the place had to admit he was a little bit impressed at how Urahara had been able to create such a place.

''Uh…'' Hanataro was the one who seemed the most confused out of all of them, he was a shinigami that lived inside the seireitei after all, so for him to not know about such an enormous place existing in his very own home was a disturbing thought at the very least. ''T-this place is amazing, to think no one knows about it!''

''Impressive, right?'' Yoruichi asked, her finger pointing towards the inside of the secret training grounds. The 'secret training grounds' was a place built beneath the Sokyoku Hill, which would allow them to be somewhat close to Rukia's current location if sudden actions were required. ''Kisuke built this when we were just kids.''

The place consisted of an entire terrain of nothing but hills, the sheer size of it was enough to make them unable to see the end of it.

''I don't know much about how it works, but we shouldn't be found here unless we blow up the entire hill.'' The beautiful woman continued her explanation, walking next to Kuromiya. ''At first I was planning to make Ichigo reach a similar level to you…''

''But all of this changes things, no?'' Akihiko said, pointing at his unusual shinigami attire.''You could just leave me to figure it out by myself, it can't be that hard.''

''No, don't worry.'' Yoruichi interrupted, smiling lightly at him. ''You're a speed focused fighter just like me, which means that i'm the perfect teacher for you.''

''You're right about that.'' He replied, matching her smile with one of his own. ''You can start training Ichigo though, I need to test out a few things before that.''

''Mhm, there's a few hot springs behind that hill on the right.'' Nodding at him the dark-skinned woman pointed to a certain direction, guiding the group deeper into the training grounds. ''I'll be training Ichigo on the opposite side, so feel free to use them.''

''Hot springs?'' Kuromiya stopped himself from asking about it, the details from Ichigo's bankai training coming back to him. His memory of this arc was arguably not the best, so small details like that often slipped his mind.

''Yeah, just give it a try.'' Yoruichi said, the group coming to a stop, now facing two separate roads that would take them to the right or left side of the hills. ''The water there has healing properties, so it will do wonders for that wound of yours.''

''Alright then.'' He agreed after a while, taking the path to the right as he separated himself from the rest of the group. Truth be told, he thought that this was the best scenario for him right now, after all he needed some time to figure out the best approach to shape his bland asauchi into an actual zanpakuto.

While the pale boy made his way towards the hot springs, Yoruichi's gaze landed on his back, watching his figure slowly go deeper into the hills.

'If it's not the hogyoku, then…' She thought, her mind now once again looking for an explanation regarding his sudden shinigami transformation. 'His family, perhaps? I haven't met them yet, so it could be possible that one of them is a shinigami.'

Shaking her head, she forced herself to get her mind back to the matter at hand, and so she guided the rest of the group towards the left path, guiding the rest of the group straight to where Ichigo's training would take place.

. . .

''Huh, guess i'm alone at last.'' Kuromiya muttered, he had been walking for around five minutes and it seemed he was just about to reach the hot springs.

[Not quite.] The system's voice ringed inside his mind, reminding him of the fact that he technically wasn't alone. [So, what's the plan?]

''You sure are a pain in the ass.'' Kuromiya replied, pulling his hair in frustration. ''I don't feel like talking to you today, not after the shit you pulled earlier.''

Before their conversation could continue, the newly transformed soul reaper reached the hot springs at last, stopping just in front of the warm water.

[Me? I was just helping you out!] The system argued back as the teenager started undressing, submerging his wounded body into the water. [Hey, don't ignore me!]

''Mhm… This sure does feel nice.'' Allowing his head to fall back, he grabbed his asauchi and relaxed in the water while attempting to pump his own spiritual pressure into the sword.

Kuromiya was well aware that it would take some time to imbed his soul into it, and with that in mind he decided to keep a constant flow of reiatsu towards the blade, with the hopes of accelerating the process.

[Hidden quest obtained:

Don't ignore me.

Reward: 50 I.P]

''... Fine.''

. . .

''You two can just relax while I train him.'' Facing Ganju and Hanataro, she decided to give the both of them some free time. ''Though i'll need the boy from squad four to be somewhat close to us, just in case.''

''R-right!'' Hanataro nodded, his senses had been screaming at him to be careful with the woman since the first time he had laid eyes on her.

''I'll prepare a few more bombs in the meantime, then.'' Ganju replied, walking to a somewhat distant area in order to leave Ichigo and Yoruichi some space to train.

''Alright then, we are going to train or what?'' Ichigo had been growing impatient, he was here to save Rukia after all. ''We don't have time to waste.''

''That's right, we don't.'' The woman agreed, crossing her arms across her ample chest while looking at the orange haired soul reaper. ''To hold some chance against the captains, we will need to work on that speed of yours.''

''Huh?'' The teenager tilted his head at that, he had been expecting some sort of training to boost his offensive power, but it appeared his assumptions were wrong. ''Can't we train something else? I'm fast enough alr…''

Before he could finish his words, Yoruichi became nothing more than a blurr and appeared right in front of him, her hand just a few millimeters away from his unprotected throat.

''Don't make me laugh, you're planning to fight a captain if you can't even keep up with that speed?'' She admonished him, making the fifteen year old boy gulp. ''You could fight me the entire day and you wouldn't be able to land a single hit on me.''

''Tch…'' Yanking her hands to the side, Ichigo frowned. ''Then what I'm supposed to do, then? I can't just get that much faster in a few days!''

''You can.'' Yoruichi assured him, her trademark sly smirk now adorning her face. ''And you will.''

. . .

''Ken-chan, you're not going to get your wounds treated?'' The lieutenant from squad eleven questioned, watching as her captain kept waiting at a certain spot.

''He'll come back.'' Zaraki smirked, his instincts screamed at him to wait there. ''Even if he doesn't, the guy who managed to beat Ikkaku will come.''

It had been well over a day since his battle against what he assumed was the leader of the intruders, and he had yet to receive even the slightest treatment for his wounds. What would have been more than enough to kill a lesser man, wasn't even deserving of treatment for someone like the captain of squad eleven.

His current location was no other than the main entrance of the senzaikyu, so anyone that wanted to get towards the tower would need to get past him to do so.

''Mhm… But will he be as strong as 'necklace'?'' Yachiru asked, the little girl had serious doubts regarding Ikkaku's opponent, but she decided it would be best to save her thoughts for herself.

''He better be.'' The man answered, his gaze not leaving the main stairs leading to the entrance for even a second. ''If not then… Well, he could be good bait to lead 'him' towards us.''

. . .

''Fascinating.'' The soft voice of a male echoed throughout the room he was in, other than him there was no one present in the relatively big room. ''This is unexpected… but still fascinating nonetheless.''

If someone from the Thirteen Court Guard Squads was able to see just who this voice belonged to, all of them would find it hard to believe. The reason behind it was fairly simple, after all this man was no other than Aizen Sosuke, the captain who was just confirmed "dead" not even a few hours ago.

''I expected for Ichigo Kurosaki to catch up, but it seems like the gap keeps getting wider.'' The man noted. ''Is it due to his fullbring? It's unfortunate that Kaname wasn't able to tell me more details about it, but this little human has managed to peak my interest after all.''

A strong metallic odor wafted throughout the room Aizen was exiting, corpses littered the ground as blood seeped into the wooden floor boards. As Aizen began to walk up the stone ramp leading to the exit, he looked down.

The corpse on the floor beneath him had a terrified and most importantly betrayed expression, as if his best friend looked him in the eyes and told him 'everything will be alright' before brutally stabbing his gut over and over.

'It has been around a hundred years since I told Hirako this…' Aizen thought, walking past the scene without dedicating even a second look to the massacre he had caused. 'But what's truly frightening is the betrayal you don't see coming.'

Making his way further down the insides of Central 46, he pictured in his mind the path towards the section that contained the piece of information he needed. That place was the underground assembly halls, specifically the Daireisho's Archive.

'I just need the second method to remove a foreign object from a soul, and it should be in here.' Holding that thought in his mind, Aizen forced the doors open with a clear objective in mind.

. . .

It had been almost eight hours since the group had started their respective training in the Secret Training Grounds, and the blue eyed boy found himself once again taking a bath in the hot springs, the water had done wonders for his wounds after all.

''Huh, I didn't expect to get the hang of this so soon.'' Kuromiya muttered, as of right now he was messing around with a white sphere that he had created while attempting to perform a simple kido. ''Though this is a single digit kido, so it might not be that impressive.''

During the past eight hours he had quickly grown bored of feeding his spiritual pressure to the asauchi, so he decided to do some multitasking and also try to perform a few kidos. He hadn't expected too much at first, but to his surprise it appeared that he had some talent on it, which was a pleasant surprise.

[It seems you have natural talent for it.] The system noted, without using a condescending tone when talking to him for once. [Though even with talent it will take you a while until you can get it to a somewhat significant level.]

''Hm… You think so?'' He asked, allowing his eyes to rest while he leaned back against the edge of the hot spring.

''Have you gone insane already?'' A new voice reached his ears, though he didn't bother to turn his head towards it since he knew fully well to whom it belonged. ''I leave you a few hours in here and you start talking to yourself.''

''Yoruichi, huh?'' He mused, still not turning towards the woman. ''So, fancy joining me in here?''

''... It's no fun if you don't get flustered.'' Yoruichi replied, and the boy could tell even without looking at her that she was pouting at him. ''Oh well, it's not like I wasn't expecting you to be in here.''

The kido in his hands vanished, and with their main source of light now suddenly gone their surroundings turned quite a bit darker. Not too long after that, the sound of a set of clothes hearing the ground reached his ears.

''You really have no shame, do you?'' Kuromiya said, breaking the silence that had been dominating the place for the last couple of seconds.

''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 inside the hot springs with him. ''Do you need an invitation to look or what?''

''No, I don't.''

End of chapter twenty one.