Training

"Did you hear, the captain commander took Minamoto as his student"

"Really!"

"The captain commander..."

These were the talks Rangiku could hear around the academy. It was all about Itsuki becoming Yamamoto's student.

It's been a month since the incident in the real world and Itsuki had completely healed. Rangiku could barely see him unless it was during class or he came to meet their group of friends. At first Yamamoto used to come to Itsuki to train him as it was relatively quiet place and no other student came to train in that particular area. One day, however, a student passing by noticed them and the news got out.

Itsuki wondered how the student escaped Yamamoto's senses but realised that he never cared in the first place. So, from then on, more and more students came to see until it became a hassle for Itsuki to train there.

Realising that they won't get any piece of quiet, Itsuki was transferred to the 1st division HQ where he could continue to train. Although he was still required to attend classes, Itsuki came in late and left the earliest to avoid the pestering students. He did, however, try to spend time with his friends. Being transferred to the 1st division meant that Gin didn't have a roommate, so the academy assigned a new roommate to him. Surprisingly it was the big lad that called him a 'stuck up'.

His name was Amamaki Ketaro. He was very nervous as all the students knew the small group of friends, especially because of Itsuki and Rangiku. What surprised him though was that everyone in the group was very welcoming. Very quickly he became part of the group, mainly due to Gin and Rangiku being more outgoing. Yuroe was shy like always and Itsuki was rarely with them, most likely training, but if he was, then he would barely talk.

Rangiku was worried for Itsuki because sometimes, when she was with him, he would be really exhausted. Although he didn't show it, his eyes gave it away. She knew that she couldn't currently help him, all she could do was just pray for him. She hated this feeling of uselessness.

'I know I can't catch up to you, but I at least want to provide some sort of support'

Gin and Itsuki had both applied for an early graduation and she didn't want to lose out. She picked up her wooden sword and got back to sparring with her fellow students.

While this was happening, Gin was in his own training grounds doing his own training.

"Shoot to kill, Shinso"

Skewering targets, Gin started to slash with the blade extended creating havoc.

'I will get stronger'

Looking at the destruction around Gin, students passing by retreated in fear while silently muttering,

"Hyapponzashi"

Gin got up tired, his narrowed eyes covering his intentions

1st Division HQ, Training Grounds

Rangiku's worries were not unfounded as, currently, Itsuki was surrounded by a dozen Shinigami. Not students, actual Shinigami. They were members of the 1st division and were currently training Itsuki.

Itsuki had two wooden swords either side of him, holding one in a back handed grip with his left hand, while the Shinigamis had the same wooden sword holding different stances.

There was currently a deadlock as Itsuki analysed his opponents. Hundreds of situations played out in his head all depending on who made the first move. One Shinigami behind him suddenly moved with an overhead strike causing Itsuki to turn around and block with his right sword. This was some sort of signal as all the other Shinigami moved to attack. Moving back, he dodged another sword strike and swept his left sword attacking the guts of the attacker. Using pure Hoho and swordsmanship he interlaced thorough the Shinigami, taking them down using the two-step method. Using one step to attack taking down one Shinigami, he was already in his second step in the midst of attacking as he prepared for his next victim.

Down the line, Hiten mitsurugi-ryu allowed its wielders to achieve Godspeed, with the opponents unable to see the sword strike caused by the practitioner. This, in the end, was from human standards. Itsuki had already achieved that and even surpassed it considerably moving at that speed but still had not fully mastered the technique. Only a couple practitioners had surpassed the Godspeed limit, but they had years of experience and mastered the technique, they, however, were ultimately human.

The training session ended quickly as Itsuki was collapsed on the ground with only a quarter of the previous Shinigami surrounding him. Sweat dripped down their faces as they looked at the new student the captain commander had taken.

What they didn't know that it was not Itsuki using all his strength. He was limited to this degree by pure weights. Weights in his arms and legs were hidden beneath the training clothes.

Suddenly, Yamamoto appeared with some more Shinigami and instructed them to carry out the injured, only leaving Itsuki. As the two were left alone, Chojiro appeared with a bucket of cold water and poured all of it on Itsuki getting him up.

Itsuki quickly got up and started running. He never liked this part, but it was still his training.

He had to use Shunpo, only Shunpo. No retaliating. To dodge and retreat as a wave of projectiles were thrown at him. Sensing one approaching, he quickly dodged and was already in line of the next one. The stones thrown were not to be joked around with him as they caused craters here and there while disintegrating on impact. The stones were not the only issue as sometimes a regular weapon was mixed in, ranging from a small dagger to a cavalry spear. Sometimes for this he had to take the hit of the stones. This did break a few bones in his body.

Itsuki could swear he saw a playful look on the two attackers. Though it did hurt, it helps train his senses and intuition while also improving his Shunpo. The only problem was that it went on until he couldn't take it anymore, this time, Itsuki just fell unconscious with a spear coming straight for him.

Just as it was about to impale him an elderly hand quickly caught it and threw it to the side. Chojiro also came a second later and picked the unconscious Itsuki up taking him to the herbal bath they prepared.

They were in a massive closed off space, similar to how Urahara has under his shop, or the one Yoruichi has in soul society where Ichigo got his Bankai. This one, however, was much larger than them.

Another day came as Itsuki got his rest and it was time for kido practice. This one, he could only learn by himself, nevertheless, he had gotten access to a lot of notes on experience and detailed Kidos not found in the academy library. For training purposes, actual hollows were brought and let loose attacking Itsuki. Chojiro was there on standby if anything went wrong as Itsuki was only allowed to use Kido. He still had the weights on as he took hollows down one by one. For the first part of the training session he was only allowed to use Bakudo spells as he tried to bind all the attacking hollows. The second part was using Hado to take down the attacking hollows. Itsuki wanted to let loose but wasn't able to as he had to conserve Reiatsu and not quickly run out. The weights increased his reiatsu consumption and when he did let loose the first time he was here, he was quickly overwhelmed by the hollows causing Chojiro to save him. Since then he had always tried to minimally use reiatsu and abandoning the incantation. Although, compared to saying the incantation, it is less powerful, continuously using it had caused Itsuki to be efficient in using it achieving the same power without the incantation.

Lastly, the third part was barriers and seals. Itsuki was tasked to create a series of barriers and seal to protect him from attacking Shinigami. The Shinigami had to use their abilities to try and break these barriers. First it was him having a set amount of time to erect a series of barriers and seal around him. The Shinigami would attack it and try to break it. Once it was broken, he had to stop strikes coming at him by creating barriers to defend quickly.

After this was a small break where he would meet his friends before coming back and meditates on his sword.

This training would be over a 2-day period where he wouldn't have any classes. Three days of classes, then two days of training followed by a day of rest. During this time Itsuki was strictly prohibited from taking off his weights. Taking off his weights came on the last day. A spar with Yamamoto.

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Author's note

Although I did say a brief overview but once you start writing, ideas start pouring out.

Any suggestions on Itsuki's possible moves with his zanpakuto?

There is a 50 year gap between the hollowfication incident to another part of the timeline so shall I

- send him somewhere, i.e to another anime

- give a huge timeskip to that point

- create an incident up, purely original

- Tackle an incident that may happen in the future, like non-canon

If something does happen in bleach in that span of time please let me know either here or on discord