31 Shikai.

Chapter Thirty One.

''Interim, Eien Mujou.'' From the moment the release command was uttered, not only the blade started shining but his whole attire too, proving that his shikai was also one of the rare cases that changed his robes upon release.

The light died down soon enough, and it revealed what probably was one of the more visual changing shikai's that existed.

''Hm, flashy, but oddly fitting too.'' Kuromiya muttered, allowing himself to bask in his new appearance, liking it more and more by the second.

His black shihakusho was much the same as it used to be, but now he had the addition of some sort of white cloth with a tattered waistband that flowed down, almost as if a white and blackish sweatshirt was wrapped around his waist.

Additionally, he had some sort of similar white armor running across his chest in the form of an 'X' until it reached the sides of his hips, making it quite different from the traditional shinigami attire.

What was more than a little strange was the fact that the blade itself hadn't changed that much, unlike most shikai's that were centered around the changes in the blade itself, rather than in the user. If anything, his katana was a little longer than it used to be, now a few centimeters longer than the average one would have been.

'This is quite similar to Ginjo's appearance.' Kuromiya thought, it was hard to miss the many similarities after all. His gaze lingered around the different details of his outfit and found more than a few things in common between them. 'I wonder, is this how Ichigo would have looked if Ginjo hadn't stolen his fullbring powers?'

It was then that he noticed something that was perhaps even more interesting than the change in appearance, for he had what could only be described as a faceless 'human' shadow of himself standing just behind him. Though calling it a shadow might have been inaccurate, since it was both black and white in color, much like his own inner world.

'It's an echo.' The answer came to his mind without delay, as if he had always known about it. It might have been a side effect of achieving shikai, but now he had a somewhat superficial knowledge about how his powers worked. 'Is it supposed to follow me or…?'

His trail of thoughts was interrupted by a gasp coming from his right, which naturally could only belong to Yoruichi.

''That is… Your shikai?'' The purple haired beauty asked in barely hidden surprise, unable to understand just how could such a radical change be considered a first release.

It wasn't unheard of for a shikai to change its wielder appearance, Ichigo was a great example of his shikai changing his overall looks, but for such a massive change to happen, it was certainly more suitable for a bankai.

''What's with that look? It's not that bad, is it?'' Kuromiya questioned, tilting his head while looking at the still shocked woman.

''... No, it's my fault for expecting something normal from you.'' Yoruchi replied, shaking her head to get the shock away from her face, regaining her usual smirk after no more than a few seconds of surprise. ''So then, it looks nice but… What does it do?''

''What do you mean?'' He frowned at that, Yoruichi hadn't mentioned anything about the figure standing behind him, so that led him to believe that she in fact was unable to see it. ''You can't see it, then.''

''See what?''

''... It's nothing.'' Kuromiya replied after a while, deciding that he would need to test out the limits of his shikai and different abilities once he had some time alone. With that in mind, he allowed his blade to return to its sealed state, the outfit and 'echo' vanishing without leaving a trace behind. ''I'll test it out later, right now we need to…''

''Ngh…'' The sound of someone stretching made the two of them turn their heads towards the direction where Ichigo had been sleeping not too long ago.

''You should probably…'' Yoruichi was the first one to talk, attempting to warn the still dizzy Ichigo of his current condition. Unfortunately, before she finished her words, Ichigo tried to stand up from the futon forcing his injured body to a sitting position. ''... And there he goes, I should probably call that kid from squad four again.''

The pained scream of the teenager reached their ears soon enough, his body plummeting down to the futon once again while a groan escaped his mouth.

''Welp, that's what you get for not listening…'' Kuromiya muttered to him, laughing as Ichigo glared at him.

''I didn't hear her!'' Ichigo countered, though his anger seemed to vanish as he noticed that his friend was in a good enough condition, with the notable exception of his bandaged left arm and cuts all over his face. ''I'm glad you are okay, Kuromiya.''

''Huh… Thank you?'' Akihiko raised an eyebrow at that, it seemed that Ichigo did care more about him than what he had imagined. ''I almost expected you to shout at me for not bringing Rukia with us.''

''Don't worry, I'm saving that for later.''

. . .

'This is for the better.' Ishida reasoned, him and Orihime still walking through the empty streets of the seireitei. Despite the presence of the usual soul reaper patrolling the area, not much activity was shown in their surroundings, and thanks to the shinigami uniforms they had stolen, it wasn't a problem for them to travel through the streets.

Orihime was now noticeably better than a few hours ago, since she now appeared to have recovered some of her energies, and was able to walk at a more normal pace.

'I have noticed this in the last couple of days, but Inoue-san is definitely not suited for combat.' The quincy told himself, following his line of thought while watching the girl next to him. 'She hates seeing others get hurt, even if that person happens to be the enemy.'

'It's better for us if Sado-san checks up on Ichigo, and while he does that…'

''Hey, you guys!'' His line of thought was interrupted by the voice of a man that called for them, making the classmates stop and turn towards the direction from which the voice had called them from. ''Waaait a minuuute!''

The figure of a man who was holding a bottle in his right hand looked at them, zigzagging from one side to the other as if he had difficulties to walk in a straight line. It didn't require a genius to understand that the man in front of them was clearly drunk, and they had been unfortunate enough to find themselves catching the attention of such a person.

He was a black haired man in his early fifties, a thin mustache was his more distinctive quality, since aside from that he looked to be nothing more than an average soul reaper.

''What are you guys doing here?'' The older man asked them, taking heavy and clumsy steps towards them.

''Patrolling, much like you are.'' Ishida replied quickly, he had prepared that answer from the moment they had stolen the clothes, it was only reasonable to expect that at some point they would be questioned after all.

''Hm… What squad are you with, then?'' He followed up with yet another question, now at a mere meter from reaching the two teenagers.

''T-the ele…'' Orihime started while stuttering a bit down the way, neither of them were quite informed about the characteristics of each squad, so it was hard for them to find an appropriate answer.

''The eleventh squad.'' Ishida finished for her with a more firm tone, taking a step towards the man and acting as a shield for the girl behind him. ''What's your business with us? You should be patrolling too.''

''Oh, that sure is odd…'' The man muttered, stumbling closer to them and now no more than a single step away from Ishida, making the quincy frown while preparing himself for the worst. ''I'm with Squad Eleven too, but… In our squad that's focused in combat, this is the first time I have seen a dimwit walking around without carrying his zanpakuto!''

The man yanked Ishida's robe, pulling it until he was able to see the inside of it. It took him not more than a second to find what he was searching for, since inside the robe the symbol of the twelfth squad was carved in the cloth.

''That's Squad Twelve's emblem, not ours.'' The man noted, and by this point Ishida was well prepared to take the man out before he was able to make too much of a fuss. ''Who the hell are you guys?''

Just a second before the quincy summoned his bow, a 'stick' was smashed against the drunk man's head, making him fall to the floor, seemingly out of combat.

''... What?'' In front of a still astonished Ishida and Orihime, a group of around five soul reapers walked in front of them while walking over the fallen man, seemingly the ones responsible for knocking him out.

''Jeez… We made it in time! The members of squad eleven all are the same!'' One of them, the one that looked to be around his twenties with long brown hair talked, his warm tone making it hard for one to dislike him. ''When you are in a hurry, it's normal to forget about your sword!''

Right when Orihime was about to take a step towards the kind soul reapers that had helped them, Ishida's hand cut her path, keeping her away from the new arrivals.

'What's up with this guys?' The quincy thought, the whole situation just screamed suspicious to him, no matter how drunk that dude might have been, his points were still quite valid. 'For what reason would these…'

His eyes widened as one of the soul reapers next to them started 'glowing' and expanding in an unnatural way, and in that tenth of a second he had to realize just what was about to happen, he shouted at the girl next to him.

''Inoue, use your shield!''

An instant later, four explosions detonated as the soul reapers that had just been next to them 'expanded' and exploded, covering all the people present in a sea of hot flames that threatened to kill each one of them until there was nothing left.

. . .

''... I understand.'' Ichigo replied after Yoruichi finished with her explanation of the recent events which he had missed. Now that he had the full picture of the situation at the bridge, he somewhat understood that with so many captains around the place, escaping with Rukia would have been impossible to them. ''You couldn't have done much then, it was two captains after all.''

''It's not that we couldn't have done it, it's just that the risk was too high.'' Kuromiya interrupted, he had been silent throughout the whole explanation but he decided this was a good spot to join in their conversation. ''I might have been able to escape with her, but… If a fight ended up breaking out, then I wouldn't be able to protect her and fight at the same time.''

''That's also true.'' Yoruichi agreed, the three of them sitting on the cold floor of the underground room in the training grounds. ''Rukia's too weak right now, spending that much time inside the senzaikyu is bound to weaken her powers, after all it's built with sekkiseki.''

''Sekkiseki? The hell is that?'' Ichigo questioned, completely lost on the meaning of the term.

''You remember the wall, don't you?'' Kuromiya replied to his friend, none of them had much to do until Ichigo and Kuromiya recovered and finished their training, so it would be good for them to explain a few details to Ichigo. ''Didn't it seem strange to you that we didn't try to break through it? Think about it, it doesn't matter if it's hundreds of meters tall, we could have at least tried to make a dent on it, right?''

''The answer to that is quite simple, it's due to the material with which the wall was made. It's a mineral called sekkiseki, and it has certain properties that allow it to repel all spiritual energy. I'm guessing that Rukia's cell is made from that too.'' He finished his explanation at last, though he couldn't help but to hide a few details from him, like the fact that Rukia's powers had been weakened even before her imprisonment, courtesy of their mutual 'friend', Kisuke Urahara.

''How can we break in, then?'' Ichigo followed up with another question, frowning as he tried to come up with a few scenarios to get inside the tower in order to rescue her. ''If that repels all reiatsu, then what are we going to do?''

''Right now? Nothing.'' Yoruichi answered, she already had a plan in mind for them. ''You need to train, I'm sure Kisuke told you about bankai while you trained with him, by the time we get out of this place, you'll have mastered bankai.''

''What!? Urahara-san told us that it takes around ten years to master it!'' The moment Ichigo heard her talk about mastering Bankai, his mind went back to their training with Urahara, where the man had explained to them about the abilities that a captain should have. ''We don't have that much time, in fact, we don't even know how much time we have!''

''He also told us there are exceptions, you could be one of them.'' Kuromiya reminded him, while pointing to Ichigo's sword, which was resting against a wall in the corner of the dark room. ''Yoruichi isn't dumb, if she's telling us that you will master bankai, then she must have an alternative method to achieve it.''

''Well, thank you!'' Yoruichi replied with a light smile, it was reassuring to have someone that seemed to be able to understand her plans without the need of an explanation. ''He's right, I have a method that will allow you to achieve bankai in just three days.''

''That's still too much…'' Ichigo muttered back, though he now seemed to be considering the idea a bit more. He had been told that a bankai usually increases the overall combat strength of the wielder from five to ten times, and that would be incredibly useful to match someone like Rukia's older brother.

''Don't worry about the time, I'll go out and make sure we have enough…'' The woman tried to convince him, but before she was able to finish her sentence, she was stopped mid-sentence.

''You should rest, I haven't seen you sleep once since we arrived at the Soul Society.'' Kuromiya told her; he had yet to see Yoruichi close an eye ever since their arrival, and it was starting to make him more than a little uneasy. ''Don't argue, we both know I'm right.''

Yoruichi's mouth opened to make a rebuttal, but the boy's last words made it clear that he had been watching her more than she had thought. It was true that she hadn't slept for around four days, since someone needed to be up to make sure they weren't ambushed.

''He's right about that.'' Ichigo agreed, since the three of them had been at the training grounds, he had yet to see her take a rest, spending most of her time in training them.

''You two…''

Their conversation and whatever thoughts each of them had in mind were interrupted by the sudden appearance of a strong spiritual pressure, their eyes widening as the group focused their senses on the exact location of the new energy.

''It's a captain.'' Kuromiya noted, his senses focusing on two energies near the unidentified captain. ''And next to them are…''

''Inoue, Ishida!'' Ichigo called the name of their classmates, standing up in a fraction of a second as he recognized the reiatsu of his two friends, who no doubt were about to face a captain. However, before he could even try and take a step outside of the room, he was stopped by a hand that pushed him back to the floor, making him groan in pain. ''What was that for, Kuromiya!?''

''Shut it, you can't even react to that and you expect me to believe you can face a captain?'' Akihiko told him, pointing towards the bandages that covered him all around his chest and abdomen. ''I'll deal with it.''

''Just in case you forgot, you have a broken arm too!'' Ichigo reminded his friend, still making an attempt to rise from the ground. If it had been Ishida alone, he might have been able to be a little more inclined to leave it there, but Ichigo knew nothing about Inoue's abilities, and she hadn't shown much apart from healing.

While their discussion went on, Yoruichi remained quiet throughout the whole exchange, no matter what she told them, both teenagers would end up ignoring her and do whatever they pleased.

''So what? I don't need both arms to deal with this.'' Kuromiya's lips curved into a smirk at his own words, he couldn't help but feel his heart beat at the chance of testing his new abilities in battle. ''You might have missed it, but you are not the only one who knows the name of his zanpakuto now!''

There was already a clear picture inside his mind of the person he was about to fight, a person who could be a valuable asset, or who he might be forced to kill off, depending on the result of their meeting. Besides, there was a certain creation of him that he intended to take off his hands, if he needed to murder him to do so, then so be it.

End of chapter thirty one.