Chapter 18 | Prep

It was currently early January, next month would mark the beginning of a set of events which would lead to the founding of the Justice League. My goal was to get in early and reserve a spot as a founding member, it was more of a personal dream than a goal but it had it's pros.

For one, I would gain connections with all of the founding members... including Wonder Women, though I doubt she'd be interested in a child...

For another, I'd gain access to participate in the decision making involved with the League and gain some support in my hero business. I was also planning to start operating outside of Gotham and was currently working towards that, the league would help greatly in not stepping on any other heroes toes.

My only major problem was my age, which I was planning to keep quite on, like a cold and collective mysterious figure. Luckily, batman wasn't one to talk about my secret identity, so I was fine on that front. Afterall he kept quite on Shazam being a kid and I was in the beginning of the meta and super era, I was needed much more now than Shazam in his heyday. On top of that, I'd started my hero career around the same time or earlier than most of the iconic soon to be League members, except Wonder Women. So even if my identity got out to the other founding members I'd probably be good or at least be able to argue my case.

Before that however, I'd have to be strong enough to help. Although I had spent a year refining my abilities, they're was still much to be desired.

For beginners my Zanpakutō, Hyōrinmaru's Shikai was still rather infantile and rough. My control was rather limited and other than controlling the direction of the dragon I shoot out and it's intensity my ice manipulation was rather limited. Sure I could to a lesser degree control ice without my Zanpakutō, but although it was more precise in control it was incomparable in terms of power, intensity, and quantity, it also took slightly longer.

Other than that, my skills outside of my Zanpakutō and ice abilities lied in my Zanjutsu (swordsmanship), Shunpo, and to a lesser degree Hakuda (hand-to-hand combat). Their where also my Kido arts, but they where much too rough and limited to be useful, although the first Bakudō and Hadō where helpful against normal or weaker opponents. There was also Kidou, but it served little to no purpose in terms healing anyone as, right now it was meant for mostly healing the soul and it was to low leveled.

Other than that, I had not even touched my other abilities like [Natural Energy], [Kiss Demon] and the [Random Martial Arts Ticket].

[Natural Energy] because I wasn't going to take the risks without any form of guidance.

[Kiss Demon] because I didn't have the chance to find any female opponent to drain or women to kiss for that matter.

  Finally, the [Random Martial Arts Ticket] wasn't something I could use know as I didn't even have a good handle on my current skill and power set, an extra martial art would only cause me to divide my already strained concentration more.

So deciding to focus on my current skill set, I practiced Zanjutsu and my ice manipulation. In terms of Ice manipulation, I could affectively utilize my Zanpakutō special abilities. Although I hadn't practiced much with the chain it gains in Shikai, I had started being able to access some moves like Tensō Jūrin, to a basic degree and Ryōjin Hyōheki, albite crudely.

As I did so, I felt my connection to Hyōrinmaru deepen every time I used it. The feeling was slightly intoxicating as I felt a rush of power go through my body. I could tell Hyōrinmaru also loved the feeling as it would shiver when ever I sent a large surge of Reiryoku through it to use one of it's moves.

I had also begun playing around and trying to come up with new applications to my ice manipulation. From talking to Aroura, I had learned my version of Hyōrinmaru, had to potential to grow far more powerful than it's canon counter part. She also stated my Hyōrinmaru had better control over ice, something I could feel as I found my ability to manipulate ice was far more free than Toshiro's.

For example, I could make small ice sculpture with my own Reiryoku without any help from Hyōrinmaru, all on my own. I could also change the temperature around me with ease by releasing some Reiryoku.

Another interesting thing I learned from Aroura was my Reiatsu doesn't affect people here, as the entire concept of Reiryoku doesn't exist. Instead it's interpreted as a magical signature, which also lead to another discovery, I had an affinity for magic. Other than that though, my Reiryoku still worked very similarly to how it does in Bleach.

But suppressing or hiding my Reiryoku was still a must as it not only had the added affect of removing or reducing my presence but also made it far harder for magically aware beings to notice me. However, Aroura all but garneted me that Reiryoku was different from magic and was far harder to sense as it was something that flowed along the natural order, rather than against it like magic.

Other than practicing and understanding my power I had also made sure my hero activities for the remainder of this year wouldn't majorly affect my personal and school life. The first thing I had done during this month was to inform the school I'd be away for the entirety of February due to personal reasons.

For this I had done any and all tests, assignments, projects, and quizzes within the same week for February and some going into March. I was given the entirety of January to do so, but chose to finish it all at once, needless to say I passed with perfect scores on all the work, my teachers faces where slack jawed at this and accepted my absence in a subdued manner.

Truth be told, I had already a high enough GPA to pass the grade with high 70s to 80s, even if I did not come to school what so ever anymore. I did this, one, because it was easy, and two, it gave me a lot more freedom to tackle my hero related activities.

Of course, I still planned to attend for tests and projects but I was beginning to think it would be better to skip other days.

Right now, since I had completed all the work up until mid March, I was training. Since I wanted to practice for when I would need to unlock Bankai, I was launching Dragons of Ice at myself at full power and trying to both maximize the power and my resistance and defense to it. I didn't want to so much as sneeze, even if I was in the bottom of the artic ocean naked, though that was still a dream for the future.

I was also using this exercise to use up and train my Reiryoku, in hopes of increasing it's amount. Although I knew their was no way to increase my Reiryoku to the high spiritual power level or lieutenant-class I still wanted to increase by however much I could.

On another not I surprisingly got another two new mission and one was regarding the upcoming invasion...

Less than a month until Appellaxian invasion...