4 The Rulebook!

Chapter four.

"It's about time to see... My fullbring." The system's user took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he did so. "Let me see you."

This time, he didn't feel like there was a wall stopping his progress, it was quite the opposite actually.

It felt like the necklace itself was pushing him to take its soul out and shape it into his new power, and that's exactly what he did.

The fullbringer was covered in a pale green light, illuminating the darkness that plagued the bedroom just a few moments ago.

"This is..." It was hard to describe how he felt; his reiatsu had grown, obviously, but that wasn't what really caught his attention.

When he had thought about what his fullbring would be, he had imagined a sword, an armor or maybe even a shield, but he certainly wasn't expecting this.

So, if it wasn't any of the previous things he mentioned, what was it then? It was a book, a thin and old looking book.

"The Rulebook?" The fullbringer muttered, reading the title written in golden capital letters. "The fuck is this supposed to be?"

He tried opening the book, but the boy soon realized that he actually wasn't even able to do that.

"... How am i even supposed to use this?" Forcing himself to remain calm, he took a seat on his bed and tried a different approach.

"Maybe i have to activate it first? Hey, system!" The fullbringer called, needing some help to solve his current predicament. "Mind giving me a hand with this?"

"How am i supposed to know how does your own technique work?" The system answered in a snarky tone. "Figure it out yourself."

"You're so unbelievably useless." He shot back at the system. "Fine, be a dick then."

Now that he was essentially on his own, the black haired boy tried flipping the book around.

"There are no back instructions either." He bit his lower lip in visible frustration, this book would be his best weapon to fight all the potential enemies, he just needed to figure it out.

"It has to be something obvious." Scratching his head, he focused on the title once again.

If it was as simple as it looked, then the rulebook should be exactly that, a rulebook. But if he couldn't open it, then how could he experiment around with it?

It could've been sheer luck, but just as he was about to give up and beg for the system's help, something happened.

Something that would normally go unnoticed by most people, but for some reason managed to catch his attention.

That 'something' was a lonely mosquito which had likely been attracted by the green light emitted when his fullbring was activated.

He didn't know what had taken over him, but the moment his eyes spotted the mosquito, the fullbringer uttered a single word.

"First Page." What followed would be hard to describe even for the user of the power himself.

The once completely normal book was now completely opened, showing its first empty page. When it once was nothing but an empty book, it now was shining, covering the entire room in a blinding light.

This didn't go on for long though, since the light vanished just as fast as it had appeared, however, there now where a few things missing. The rulebook was now completely gone, nor where there any signals of the fullbringer or the mosquito.

. . .

"Gaaah!" Falling to the floor, the fullbringer elicited a cry of pain. "Where the hell..."

His words were caught inside his throat, as he was left in complete shock at what his eyes were showing him.

Up or down, left or right, at the front or at the back, he looked in every possible direction, searching for something, but he was unable to spot even a single object.

As unbelievable as it sounded he was now surrounded by a completely white world, just like a...

'Like a page.' He realized, his eyes widening at the sudden realization.

'There's no way...' The fullbringer started looking around once again, now actively looking for something, something small.

And there it was, the small mosquito had been teleported with him to the empty world.

"I'm starting to understand how this works." While walking around, he tried to test how big the place was. "There doesn't seem to be any limit."

The more he walked, the more he realized that the room was seemingly expanding, giving birth to more empty space.

"If this is really inside the rulebook, then..." Shifting his gaze towards the mosquito once again, he tried testing his theory. "No wings allowed inside here."

The effect was almost instantaneous, the once healthy insect was now falling to the ground without control, and it didn't move from that spot again.

"No way." His heart started beating faster, the concept of his power making him grin like a maniac. "There's just no way."

With his heart almost splitting his chest in half, he knelt near the mosquito and squinted his eyes in order to get a clear look at it.

"Haha..." He was unable to contain a laugh from escaping out of his mouth. "Hahaha..."

The mosquito had no wings, where there once were a pair of functional wings, there was now nothing at all.

Perhaps due to the fact that he had been too shocked to notice until now, the fullbringer had failed to notice a change within the once empty white world.

Now, there was a single sentence levitating in the empty air, and it read:

-No wings allowed inside here.-

. . .

Three days later.

It had been three long days of trial and error experimenting with his newfound powers, even skipping school in order to fully understand what he was capable of.

What had he learnt so far, then? In order to get all of the facts straight, he had ended up deciding to make a manual for himself.

Firstly, in order to access that white world, he needed a few conditions to be met:

One: He and his target had to be within ten meters from each other in order to activate it, otherwise nothing would happen at all.

Two: Once in the empty world -which he had named 'First Page'-, both him and his target were allowed to name a single rule each, which would apply to both himself and the target equally.

That pretty much meant that if he ever decided to fight someone inside there, they would also have the power to make their own rule.

There were limitations, of course, neither of them could say something like: 'A' or 'B' isn't allowed to breath.

In that specific example, the rule would work in this way: Neither of them is allowed to breath.

That basically meant that said rule would apply equally to both of them. There were some notable exceptions, though.

If for example the user -that being the fullbringer-, was at least twice as strong as the target, then he could make an unfair rule, just like he had done with the mosquito, which would only apply to one of them for obvious reasons.

The book wasn't limited to a single rule for each activation, though. The user had the right to decide if he wanted more rules, but for each rule added, the target would get one too.

Three: In order to get out of the 'First Page', one of the them had to die.

It sounded like quite a powerful ability so far, but there was a flaw with it which was that this ability could only be used once per day.

It didn't seem like a major flaw, but since this was the only combat related ability he had unlocked so far, it was heavily limited.

How had he learned all of this, exactly? The fullbringer had realized that the book was allowing him to get more details each time he activated it.

He was curious about what the other pages would do, of course, but he had yet to learn any of them.

'And for now...' The fullbringer forced himself to pay attention to his current predicament, which wasn't a pleasant one to say the least.

"You've some explaining to do, boy." Misato Ochi, his high school teacher was piercing him with a dead serious glare in front of the entire class.

"... Can't we talk about this later?" The fullbringer answered, his blue eyes meeting the glare of his beautiful teacher with a calm look.

To the surprise of most of the present students, their teacher stumbled a bit and nodded silently at him, her anger suddenly gone.

This was one of the small quirks of his fullbring, and he had named it: A ruler's suggestion.

It was basically the ability to make someone -which had to be around four times weaker than himself- accept one of his suggestion without a question.

It wasn't very useful though, since it required a ton of spiritual pressure for even a simple demand like the one he had just made. It was basically only useful for tricking weak humans, at least at his current level.

'It sure is a good thing that Rukia and Ichigo are not here, i'm sure Ichigo wouldn't like me brainwashing our teacher.' The teenager thought, shifting his gaze towards a certain someone.

That certain someone was no other than Uryu Ishida, the self-proclaimed last of his kind. Quincy and Fullbringer shared a long stare while the later of them was heading towards his seat.

Close to them, Kon was inside Ichigo's body and seemed to be completely oblivious to the strange situation that had just transpired at the class room.

'It seems like he finally noticed.' Kuromiya noted inside his mind, internally talking with his system.

"No shit, Sherlock." The system replied. "You haven't been exactly subtle ever since you got these powers."

'Don't be such a crybaby.' He mentally replied, hiding a smirk from his face as the class finally restarted. 'What's the point of having powers if i can't enjoy them a bit?'

"..."

. . .

"Nice one, Ichigo!" Rukia complimented, as the girl watched with an approving nod how the substitute soul reaper slashed in half his third hollow of the day. "You're getting quite good at this."

''Was that the last one?'' The orange haired soul reaper asked, cleaning a few drops of sweat from his forehead while sheathing his gigantic zanpakuto.

''Seems like it.'' Rukia replied, checking her radar for any new signals. ''Yeah, I think that was the last one.''

Both friends where inside an abandoned building, were one hollow had decided to chase a poor child's soul with the intention having an easy meal. Unfortunately for it, Ichigo and Rukia arrived shortly to stop whatever plan the creature had in mind.

''Thank god, I can't be missing all my classes for this shit.'' Ichigo complained. ''I sure hope Kon is not doing some stupid shit inside my body again, or I'm going to kick his ass back to that stuffed lion.''

''I'm sure Kon is doing just fine.'' Rukia assured, although she didn't sound entirely convinced by her own words. ''… Probably.''

''By the way.'' Ichigo commented, shifting their conversation to another topic. ''That Kuromiya guy is finally back.''

''Hm…'' The black haired soul reaper trailed off, thinking what answer should she give to the boy. ''You don't have to worry about him anymore, I talked to a few acquaintances about that, they're keeping an eye on him.''

''I'm not worried about him.'' Ichigo corrected her, giving the small girl his trademark glare. ''It's just that he felt… I don't know, different?''

Rukia's eyes widened a bit at that, as if surprised by the fact that the substitute soul reaper had managed to feel it too.

''That's quite surprising, I didn't think you would realize it.'' Rukia complimented, now slowly walking back towards their school. ''You're right, he has certainly grown stronger but…''

''If he's not doing anything wrong it's none of our business, right?'' Ichigo finished the sentence for her, watching Rukia nod at him.

''Let's go back, Ichigo.''

. . .

''Hey, Kisuke.''

''Is there something wrong, Yoruichi-san?'' Urahara asked the woman, shifting his gaze towards the small black cat.

''There've been more hollows recently.'' She noted, feeling the reiatsu of another hollow disappear, clearly the result of Ichigo defeating them.

''You noticed it too?'' He questioned his old friend, both of their gazes now looking directly towards the direction at where Rukia and Ichigo where right now. ''It shouldn't be that surprising though, we've a quincy, a fullbringer and a substitute soul reaper in a single city, that's bound to grab some attention.''

''Are you still going to wait? If you really are serious about having him joining us, then you'll need to prepare him properly.'' The cat reminded him, after all there was still around four days more for the fullbringer to accept or deny his offer.

''I guess you're right.'' The shop owner agreed with her, now finally getting up from his sitting position at the floor. ''I'll wait a bit more though, I've a feeling that he'll make his decision soon enough.''

''If you say so, Kisuke.''

. . .

''I'm sorry for my absence, Misato-sensei.'' The fullbringer apologized to his teacher, now finally out of the class. ''I was feeling a bit ill; I'll catch up with my homework by tomorrow.''

''… Sure.'' His teacher even now looked a bit dizzy around him, his suggestion from earlier clearly affecting her on some level still. ''As long as you catch up, it's fine.''

Kuromiya looked at his teacher more carefully, and he had to admit that she was an eye candy too. Even though she was barely featured on the anime, the teacher was certainly pleasing to look at.

Misato Ochi was a young woman with rounded glasses, long brown hair tied in a ponytail and a body with all the curves on the right places, although a bit lacking on the breast department.

'Huh, I must be really thirsty if I'm checking my teacher out.' The fullbringer realized, finally forcing himself back to reality.

''I'll be leaving then, Misato-sensei.'' With a quick farewell, he left the classroom leaving his teacher all by herself.

It did seem a bit anticlimactic to leave after ogling his teacher in such an obvious manner, but unfortunately for him, someone wouldn't allow that.

He didn't leave because he wasn't interested in his teacher, but because a certain person was watching him since the class had ended.

And so he walked away from school, and not even after three minutes of doing so, he felt a presence right behind his back.

''It's a bit rude to follow people around like that.'' Kuromiya commented now that his stalker had decided to finally reveal himself. ''Some might even call you a creep.''

''How surprising.'' Now meeting gazes, they stared each other down. ''Some would argue that brainwashing people is even more rude than that.''

Quincy and Fullbringer were now merely a few meters away from each other, the tension on the air growing by the second. The former of them was keeping a safe distance of around five meters from the unknown threat.

''Brainwashing? So that's what it looked like to you?'' The fullbringer asked with curiosity, after all that was valuable information. ''Interesting.''

''So you're admitting it, then?'' Uryu asked, his eyebrows furrowing slightly at his classmate with evident hostility.

''I'm not admitting anything.'' He corrected the quincy, now cutting the distance between them with short steps. ''Then again, it's not like you cared about that when those two shinigamis messed with the memories of the other students, am I right?''

He was referring to the time that Kon had done perverted stuff on Ichigo's body to some of the girls in their class, and both of them knew that.

''… They'll get what's coming to them, eventually.'' Uryu assured the boy, and it was obvious by his visible rage that he didn't like the fact that there were two shinigamis on his class. ''But that's not the point, what've you done to our teacher?''

''Nothing.'' The fullbringer replied, a mocking smirk plastering all over his face. ''Nothing at all.''

Angered by the nonchalant attitude of his classmate on such a serious matter, Uryu lost his temper and vanished from the human's eye in an impressive show of speed.

''I'll ask again.'' The voice of the quincy came from behind Kuromiya's back, and he turned his head towards him once again. ''What've you done to her?''

This time however, Uryu had his spiritual bow out in the open and was pointing it straight at his face.

''That was Hirenkyaku, right?'' The fullbringer asked, looking with keen interest at the advanced quincy technique. ''I must say, it's quite impressive.''

''How did you…?'' Just when Uryu was about to question him about his knowledge around the quincy techniques, something unbelievable happened.

Now it was Kuromiya's turn to disappear in a burst of speed, leaving that characteristic green light behind him.

''Wha…'' Uryu felt a hand on his shoulder, panicking at the sudden contact from his blind spot.

''It doesn't matter how do I know that.'' As he watched the quincy take a careful step back, he answered to his previous question. ''Nor does it matter what I did to our teacher, Misato-sensei is perfectly fine.''

''… What was that light from before?'' Uryu finally asked, recovering his calm behavior after a few seconds of surprise. ''Just who are you, Kuromiya?''

'It's no surprise that he's already back to normal, he's the most battle hardened of Ichigo's friends after all.' The fullbringer noted, mentally praising the quincy's reaction.

There were a few moments of silence as they stared each other down on the empty street, neither of them willing to back down.

''I'm a fullbringer, though I doubt you know what that means.'' The boy replied, not worried about revealing what he was. ''If you're so worried about our teacher then you don't need to worry, I assure you she's perfectly fine.''

''Do you expect me to believe you? Don't take me for a fool.'' Uryu asked, though the hostility on his tone had considerably diminished by now.

''It doesn't really matter if you believe me.'' Kuromiya answered, but he had dropped to hostility from his tone too. ''I do care for our teacher too, she's a beautiful woman after all.''

Once again, an awkward silence conquered the still empty street until the black haired quincy ended up deciding for a response

''… I'll take your word for now.'' He decided it was best to leave the matter like that, after all he didn't need another enemy when he already had two shinigamis to deal with. ''As long as you're not with the shinigami, I don't care.''

''Hm, are you planning to do something with them?'' The fullbringer asked curiously, after all the system's user wasn't sure if they already were at that point of canon when they encountered each other.

''… As a matter of fact, I was planning to do so tomorrow.'' Uryu admitted, fixing his glasses with his fingers as he finally allowed his spiritual bow to disappear.

'Tomorrow?' Kuromiya thought. 'That means it shouldn't be too long until Byakuya and Renji arrive.'

''I see.'' He answered to the quincy, now giving his back to his classmate as he walked away from him. ''Then good luck to you.''

He casted Bringer Light after that, disappearing from the place without uttering another word to the quincy.

. . .

''That sure is an interesting turn of events, Aizen-taicho.'' Looking at the hundreds of screens that were showing the content of many cameras around Karakura Town, Gin couldn't help but to be interested towards that encounter.

''Indeed.'' Sosuke Aizen, one of the brightest minds the Soul Society had ever produced looked at the screens with keen interest. ''It's unfortunate we didn't get to see much, but judging by that green light…''

Aizen watched one of the images from the screen which was repeating itself on a loop, showing the black haired boy disappearing in a burst of green light.

''And not to mention, we got quite a skilled quincy too.'' Gin added, looking at the almost flawless Hyrenkyaku that the young man had performed. ''Though they still have quite a long way to go.''

''It doesn't matter how talented they're.'' Kaname Tosen, the last of Aizen's subordinates joined in the conversation. ''If they get in the way of justice, then they shall perish too.''

''It's kind of boring though, I hoped that they would fight to the death or something.'' Gin complained, his voice holding that mocking tone that he was so known for. ''What about that soul reaper boy? Is he doing good?''

''His progress is going quite well, actually.'' Aizen replied, his gaze now fixed onto one specific screen showing the orange haired soul reaper talking to Rukia Kuchiki at the streets. ''But he isn't quite there yet, I'll be pushing him harder soon enough.''

''Mmmmh…'' Gin's eyes opened slightly, showing a pair of beautiful sky blue orbs. ''I can't wait, things have been a little boring recently.''

''We're not playing, Gin.'' Tosen jumped in once again, reminding his fellow captain of their job. ''It doesn't matter if it's interesting or not.''

''Yes, yes.'' Gin responded, not really taking his words seriously. ''If you say so.''

Aizen didn't pay any mind to them, he was too busy absorbing every little piece of information from the screens.

'Now we've a fullbringer, a quincy and Ichigo Kurosaki too… How fascinating.' His calculating look was now accompanied by a knowing smile, as if nothing could get past him. 'I'll be sure to watch their progress thoroughly.'

End of chapter four.