Chapter 8. The Kawasaki ninja

Vultures are circling around the blazing sun. Heatwaves are dancing around the sands, creating a powerful heart amongst the entire area.

The Desert of death is always and will be no laughing matter as Ichitaro walked down to find the magical lake all the way from the Twilight Prince towards the river after he got out- exhausted, hungry and thirsty, despite never being shown much of his facial appearance, as if he was made by magic himself.

It's been several hours and still they're was no sign of the lake, making him felt drowsy and extremely tired and nearly caused him to faint after walking for so long, that even a crow hadn't been shown like he was walking in circles. The extreme heat was so heavy like the ocean above him, Ichitaro's knees both fell from the weakness and the scorching sun knocked him unconscious, leaving his entire body slid through the burning sands of the desert.

With no help or any assistance from Uryuu and Orihime, Ichitaro remained unconscious until a mysterious figure came to his aid.

{ Zen's POV}

[Several hours ago]

Five phoenixs and Zen were shocked to learn about Ichitaro's fate. Confusingly, one of the Phoenix asked the Yamagata woman with deep concerns :

" Woah, are you sure it was Koro's destiny to leave a 15 year old boy wandering around all alone?"

" It's not his wish, but the boy's spirit of his ancestors. Should anything happened to Koro such as death, Ichitaro and his sisters have no choice but to follow that destiny that their forefathers once left those items.", she sighed as she continued whilst peeping through the window, staring at the sunset, " Except for their older brother. Their father was stubborn, as if something bad is going to happen to him. "

She went to the door. In an angry tone she said :

" I think it's best for you to leave. If you really wanted to place him to the world of the living, then he'll be in danger and so does his family - unprepared. "

All got up in disappointment and before they're heading out to the exit, Zen quickly asked her :

" Before we go, Hanabi. There is one question that I want to ask you. Could it be possible for the child to succeed his mission? "

" Maybe, maybe not. Yet, it's our choice to help these kids. To make them stronger and fight for our freedom in return. However, if they've fail this task and those ancient artifacts are in the wrong hands by dangerous reasons like Jupiter, then we'll wait until doom served us all." She answered.

" Very well. " he sighed before heading out to the other group and thought : ' If what she said seems true, then I'll have to catch up to that kid before it's too late. And that's where we're going - Desert of death. '

{ Katsuya's POV}

In his room, they're would be three naked bodies of women in the bed, sleeping.

Despite neither of them are his wives because his pretty wife was busy with something else, Katsuya stood tall at the balcony staring at the sun slowly went to sleep. He smiled at the gorgeous afternoon sky, realising that he had a `perfect` plan.

Those three men arrived after he summoned them few hours ago. As he turned around with his silk robe, he looked at them without pettiness; bruised and beaten.

" I see that you've met the little spirit demon." he scoffed.

" Yes, and he's seems pretty strong." said Deki.

" Hmm. I want you to find him to the Desert of death - dead or alive. Because that's where I believe that my son and his mother were still out there."

" We'll never fail you, your Highness. " said Deki before he and the other men disappeared. He looked outside, close his eyes shut and smiled again. ' I have a son.', he thought, ' I can feel it. We'll meet again soon and nothing will ever come between us, my son. '

~~~~~~

[ Several hours later]

{ Ichitaro's POV }

Ichitaro slowly opens his eyes and rose himself up. He looked around at a strange room filled with hippie inspired bedroom, in which he didn't like. It's very bright and colourful with spiral patterns in each and every items, including the bed.

Confusing as it seems, Ichitaro then realised that he's in another place and by the time he was about to leave as soon as possible, he saw a boy with an ochre jew-fro hair. He looked at him straight in the eyes and said :

" Hey, I see you're okay. I thought you were dead after you've been to a boiling desert."

" Uhhh.... Yeah, thanks for helping me out uhh...." said Ichitaro but didn't know who that boy really was.

" Kenpachi Tengoku. But you can call me Kenny or the Kawasaki ninja. It's a pleasure meeting you Mr ....."

" Ichitaro Kagami.", he said, " It's nice to meet you too, Kenny. "

Kenny was thrilled to see someone for the first time after all of this time, while Ichitaro wasn't really interested at him at all. Instead he had to find the magical lake that the Yamagata heiress was talking about.

" Listen, I had to go somewhere. " he said.

" Which place are you talking about?", asked Kenny raising his eyebrow., " You're leaving already?"

" No... I mean yes. I have to go to some lake." he answered.

" A lake? What are you doing here at lake?"

" It's personal. I don't want to share anything private! Anyway, sorry for shouting at you. "

" Hey, it's okay. Besides my mom's at work. She's usually work late, along with my stepdad. "

Ichitaro looked at him again and he was a little bit `surprised `.

" What happened to your dad? " he asked.

" Well, my mom said that he was a good for nothing piece of shit eating asshole." he said with a smile.

Ichitaro was amazed to hear someone about their fathers, but he learnt to focus on his own life rather than anybody else, despite he thought ' How the fuck can a parent say that bullshit to a kid?'

" Don't worry about it. I'm not here to waste your time. I'm just heading out to a magical lake to get my....stuff."

" You mean creating a certain something?"

" Yeah, a certain something.", Ichitaro said and thought,' What does he think he is, Orihime? '

" Well, it is getting late. We'll find the Lady of the lake and get your stuff by dawn. " Kenny said with a big smile on his face.

" Wait, it's not called a " magical lake", is it? " Ichitaro asked as he sat down.

" The lake has many names, but you can't go in there yet, It's the afternoon and the lake seems to have disappear. So we'll go in the morning." he said.

Ichitaro searches for his phone on his pocket, along with the black diary. He could see that it is getting late as it shows the time :

< 18 : 45 >

< 18 / 11/ 04 >

In relief, the battery hasn't died yet. Although he didn't know that his phone hadn't gave up its ghost after swimming through the river for a really long time nor did he ever find someone who could ` revive` it back to life once the battery died – It was in a perfect condition when he looked at it. Kenny was also staring at him and the phone.

" You know that it's a spirit world, not the world of the living." he said.

" Actually it is from the world of the living. I'm surprised that it survived after I've swam through the entire river. I even had it in my pocket." said Ichitaro.

" Oh, okay." he said as he knew that he couldn't continue any further information about him.

Ichitaro went outside and he could see that it wasn't a bedroom at all, he was at a farm place when he spotted a balcony. As he saw the moon slowly waking up from its daylight shifts, he also sees horses with horns, happily eating the green grasses before hitting their hays. Kenny, on the other hand followed him and said with an awkward chuckle whilst his brown eyes shimmered towards the moonlight:

" I almost forgot. It was Shuru that brought you here to his house. He also thought you're deceased, but luckily you've survived and they're no bruises left in your body. So he asked me to be in charge. And your baseball bat and the Hallow pass are safe because both of it were at the living room, near a corner of the orange shaggy sofa."

" Maybe it's a miracle." he said before going back to the house. Kenny looked at him and sighed. He said to himself :" He might not realise that it's a spirit world. "

~~~~~~~

As the moon began to fall asleep, a slothful dawn moved back in, before sun rises again. Ichitaro had that eerie nightmare again and at the same place he dreamt. But time, he dreamt about a woman in white was holding her hands to a man, wearing in black.

Ichitaro, curiously went to see them and at that moment, something or someone was behind him. It's spiritual energy was more powerful than any gods and goddesses combined and Ichitaro was about to look at the figure, there was no one there and when he looked at the two people he saw, they were gone too. But a cold hand touched his shoulder, waking him up. Despite being in the same bedroom, Ichitaro saw Kenny again right next to his bedside. Yet, he wasn't alone.

They're two of them as well, even though he could see that they aren't related.

" Ichitaro, I was thinking of bringing these two to help you. This is Yuma and Haen. They're my friends and are actually twins. They believed that it's better to leave immediately to the lake before the sun rises and we'll never witness the Lady of the lake. " he said as he pointed out two of them.

One was Yuma, with a long maroon hair and grey eyes and other one was Haen, with a dark blue hair and a grey eyes as well. They seem to be similar, but what separate them were their spirit energy. Ichitaro simply said :

" Cool."

' So early in the morning? Are they crazy?!'

" Well, since Kenny told me and Haen about you...." said Yuma, leaving Haen to finish the sentence.

"..... We decided to help you to find the Lady of the lake...." said Haen, then both of them say all together.

" So we're coming too."

Ichitaro, seems to never had any choices, he got up from a blueish green patterned bed sheet and said :

" Alright, tell me where it is, while I bring my stuff back."

With their excitement reaching to the rooftop, Kenny, Yuma and Haen were going to experience their first ever journey to the magical lake.

' Great. Now I have a bunch of circus showoffs.' he thought with annoyance, despite never showing up his emotions. He, simply took his stuff from underneath the sofa before he heads out while the three of them were following him.

~~~~~~

After a long journey and right on time beforehand, Ichitaro, Kenny, Yuma and Haen had finally reached towards the lake and its showing off its colourful purple-ish dawn sky, mockingly.

Ichitaro, then quickly remembered the black leather diary, in which, it is in perfect condition. He flipped the pages and the ancient letters were appearing and it turns into normal letters when it shines through the diminutive light so that he could read its truthful meaning :

" Two swords - a male and a female, must bound together to create a new spirit sword."

Ichitaro didn't know what it actually means, but somehow he had a baseball bat and a Hallow pass. Not knowing what to do with it, Ichitaro, simply dropped both a Hallow pass and Koro's baseball bat to the lake and sat down to the cliff. Eventually for him, neither Kenny nor the twins were noticing him throwing both items, because they were talking to each other about personal things, that Ichitaro didn't want to be involved. So, Ichitaro watches the sun waking up from the moon's shift to enjoy the petty life of the spirit world.

By the time, Haen and Yuma were joking about their own life, Haen spotted something unusual in the lake as there were bubble surfaces around the lake. He then called out Ichitaro when he was staring at the glorious sunrise.

" ICHITARO! ICHITARO! SOMETHING IS AT THE WATER!!" cried Haen, shaking his entire upper body for his attention.

" What?!" he asked.

" There's something in the water! I've seen it! There's bubbles!" he said, creating a commotion to Yuma and Kenny. They were also shocked about Haen's behaviour.

" Maybe giving him 'mushrooms' wasn't a good idea." Yuma whispered to Kenny. But before he could answered, Kenny, later spotted two swords flying and they were headed towards them. Panicked by the attacks they ran away for their lives depending on them, except for Ichitaro.

He was getting away, but one of the swords with a black hinge had landed on his left side, while the other white sword landed onto his right side - without a single cut from both of his shoulders.

' That was close..... ' he thought. But it was cut short when one silver sword was also sent flying towards him and landed nearly onto Ichitaro's `penis `.

'.... Too close.' he thought. He breath a sigh of relief and unknowingly, looked at the three swords.

Then they've saw something rising from the water and it turns out to be a hand and a beautiful face, which shows her upper body only because she was actually, a woman. Haen, Yuma and Kenny, except Ichitaro, were jaw dropped. They couldn't believe that the Lady of the lake does actually exist. At first, Haen stepped forward to speak to her.

" Magical lake?"

She didn't answer. Haen tried again.

" Lady of the lake?"

She may not be able to speak, she nodded, which created a huge excitement for three of them. Ichitaro, on the other hand, was amazed to see a magical entity. Haen said to her :

" Those things? What are they ?"

The Lady of the lake drew, a sword like figure from water and shown them its true ability.

" What does she say?" asked Kenny.

" She said that those three swords that were at Ichitaro, was a zanpakuto." Haen answered.

Then, Ichitaro remembered something. 'Koro did mentioned about a zanpakuto, but I didn't see it actually.' he thought.

Then, the lady of the lake pointed Ichitaro that made a lot of sense to them.

" Now she wants Ichitaro to keep it. " Haen continued, until he chuckles.

" Hey, what's going on?" Ichitaro asked when he got up and picked up the three zanpakutos.

Haen nearly laughed louder when he saw that the Lady of the lake moved her left fist like hand faster.

" She said that don't jerk off." he snorted.

" Thanks for the advice. " Ichitaro said, sarcastically.

Even Yuma and Kenny were laughing softly, until they've spotted something different.

Ichitaro turned his head to the Lady of the lake as she raised her right hand fist, while she laid her left fist down. She smiled at him before she disappeared after the sun finally rose itself and Haen realised something.

" Now, I get it - Resist. Which means that you could be the hero."

" Come on, you guys. You know very well that I'm not____" said Ichitaro, but was interrupted by a certain familiar voice, placing a knife on his throat.

" Miss me, spirit demon?"