Leaving.

-------------(General-POV)--------------

The next day came and went. There was no problem with the party. The few representatives that did show up didn't do much besides ask some questions about the phenomenon that happened. They had their own spies and had already gotten the gist of the situation over the past few months. They believed that it happened due to an experiment gone wrong, because that was the information that Yasaka and Elder Gen spread. Ichigo was explained as a victim of circumstances and a guest hosted by them. That was enough to satisfy the smaller factions, since they didn't have the grounds or the nerve to raise suspicion in the first place. The bigger ones knew that something was amiss, but telling the Kyoto faction that, was admitting that they had spies amidst them. While it was an open secret, no one wanted to explicitly admit such a thing. With that, nothing noteworthy happened during the party and everyone left without causing too much trouble.

The devil representative stated the desire of their leaders to meet with the leaders of Japan to form a proper contract. They had been occupying and changing one of the more remote Japanese town to their personal preference with a verbal agreement, which was not enough for both parties. The devils couldn't relax with that and had to divert their attention to schemes happening around them and the Japanese leaders weren't happy to simply hand over a town in their country without anything in return.

Basically, the devils wanted full control and Japan wanted to gain something from selling a town to another race. A date was decided, in which two of the Devil Kings would meet with Yasaka, the representative from the Shinto gods, and a few other leaders to decide on a formal contract. Right now, Yasaka, Elder Gen and Ichigo were discussing the latter's plan.

-------------(Ichigo-POV)--------------

Ichigo really thought that something would happen during the party. Something involving him, but thankfully, nothing happened. Back in his own world, he sometimes felt like he was at the center of the storm and mostly, he was. He realized that after the last few months of thinking. Currently he was with Yasaka and Old Gen to discuss their plan. The old man had said that he would help him, but Yasaka wanted to know how.

"What do you mean how? How do you teach someone practical skills? You bring them out and show them. If they understand the first time then good, if not, just show them a few more times." The old man said, shaking his head.

"This one feels like someone who would learn more from personal experience and observation than any sort of reading or explaining." The old man said, pointing towards him.

Ichigo had to nod his head at that. He had always learned better when he was shown an example and experienced it himself. Most, if not all, of the techniques he had in his arsenal were learned through observation and experiment. His sword training was done and even his fighting style was developed through observation, example and experiment. He had never gone through formal, rigorous training that most of his friends and enemies had gone through.

Now that he thought about that, how the hell did he even win against the likes of Byakuya, Renji, Ikkaku and Kenpachi without any proper training? They had trained and honed their skills for literal centuries and the amount of training and skills he had going against them were negligible. He realized that he won most of the fight due to what he was, how unique of an existence he was and that for some reason he was heavily favored by lady luck. Most of his fights were won by luck than anything else. Either he was underestimated or he overestimated the opponent, wasn't seen as someone worth killing and the one time he was killed, he somehow survived due to his nature.

That... was a depressing thought. Right now, if he fought someone without his powers, he wasn't sure he would win. He was confident in his sword fighting because that had been refined through life and death battles. Other than that though, he was lacking. As he was wallowing in despair, Zangetsu spoke up after a long while.

'Oi, Ichigo! I hope you are not disregarding our instincts! They were the ones who helped us survive so far! Trust your instincts Ichigo, don't throw them aside!' Zangetsu said with a snarl.

'You have been quiet for an awfully long time.' Ichigo said back, startled by the sudden shouting.

'While I don't like all the water and would love to beat the depression out of you, it wouldn't have worked.' Zangetsu said, he could imagine the scowl on Zangetsu's face.

'Right. You always talk about instincts, explain it properly for once.' Ichigo said with a thoughtful frown. Zangetsu clicked his tongue before saying.

'Do you think Aizen taught the Arrancar how to fight? Do you think Ulquiorra learned how to fight from someone? Do you think Grimmjow would let anyone teach him? No, of course not! All the hollows, including the Arrancar learn how to fight through instincts. They trust and follow their instincts.' Ichigo listened to him quietly. Zangetsu kept going.

'During the fight with Yhwach and our spar, did you practice using cero before that? No, you followed your instincts Ichigo. Don't disregard them as something minor. They are what helped you grow so quickly.' This was the first time Ichigo saw his hollow instincts as something positive, something that helped him rather that hindered him. He was thinking about it when Zangetsu started to shout again.

'And for fuck's sake Ichigo! Don't suppress your instincts! It messes with your head! You want to fuck that big tittied woman? Go for it damnit! It's painful for me to watch my king be so pitiful!' The shouting was so sudden and the things said were so scandalous that Ichigo chocked on his spit and started coughing. Elder Gen and Yasaka were startled out of their conversation about where he would be taking Ichigo and looked towards him. He didn't know how exactly he looked but it was clear that his face was red and his heart rate was high. The image that sentence created in his mind was way too exciting for him to not blush at.

Seeing his pitiful state, Yasaka quickly made her way towards him and started patting his back worriedly.

"Ichigo! What happened?" His powers weren't going out of control, so Yasaka thought that it may have been and internal injury and started asking him more questions. He could only hold his breath, look away and try not to take in any of the 'view' that Yasaka was inadvertently showing. He was already in a bad state and rather not go down any further.

Elder Gen, on the other hand, noticed his reaction to Yasaka's close proximity and started laughing.

"Hohohoho. Yasaka, lass! You should give him some space. You are only making it worse!" He kept laughing for a while. He didn't know what caused the initial reaction but he found it highly amusing that such a powerful being was behaving in such a way, like a shy school boy. That thought made him laugh even harder. Ichigo wanted to deny that but before he could say anything, he felt something that made him go still.

Yasaka also understood what the elder was trying to say and rather than move away, she found the reaction equally amusing and decided to press her body on him. Ichigo felt the sensation of something extremely soft pressing on his back and stiffened when he realized what it was. He was sure that even his ears were red by now. He took deep breaths to try to calm himself but the laughter of both, Zangetsu and the old man was not helping. Yasaka pressed herself closer and brought one of her hands around his neck. The moment she saw his red ears, she couldn't help herself but tease him further.

"What's wrong Ichigo. Does it hurt somewhere?" She said directly in his ear, in a breathy sort of voice.

Ichigo took a shaky breath, quickly turned around and pushed her away by her shoulders. He tried to not look down but unintentionally caught an eyeful of a deep valley. His mouth opened but no words came out, his mouth was dry and his mind short circuited for a moment. He was too confused about what was happening. He was embarrassed, happy and confused at the same time. Was she flirting with him? Wasn't this too far to just be flirting? Or was it? Was this even flirting? Was she just teasing him? He didn't know damnit! He tried speaking again but all that came out of his mouth was groan. He was still holding Yasaka by the shoulders and after a few seconds, he let go and looked her right in the eyes. His eyes were burning with desire, his body was begging for some action, his instincts, and Zangetsu, were shouting at him to push her down, but he controlled it. He controlled it and finally managed to speak.

"Don't do that again." His voice was hoarse due to the coughing fit and thirst. He wanted to go further, he really did, but he didn't know what Yasaka wanted and stopped himself.

'Of more than one kind.' Zangetsu happily added. He nearly started his fit again with that cringey line.

He closed his eyes and focused on calming himself down. Yasaka wanted to continue but the raging desire in his eyes and the sheer will it required him to not act on it was enough to stop her. After all, she didn't want Ichigo to hate her. Also the fact that Elder Gen was still with them. For some reason, that didn't really matter all that much. She was disappointed but she moved back to her seat.

"Apologies Ichigo. I couldn't help myself." She said with a cough.

"Don't worry. Just don't do it again. Or I might do something irreversible." Ichigo said waving his hand and looking at Yasaka. The last sentence was said under his breath but the other occupants of the room easily heard it. Yasaka smiled and both of them were lost for a while looking at each other.

-------------(General-POV)--------------

Elder Gen was happily watching this spectacle unfold in front of him. He of course knew how many men had lost themselves in beautiful women and many more had even lost their lived to such women. Yasaka was a beautiful woman. At one point, rather, even now, she was one of the most sought after woman in the world. Many had, many are and many will, keep accosting her in hopes of getting her attention but it seemed that all of them had lost whatever chances they had.

Yasaka was mischievous by nature. If she found something or someone fun to play with, she would. But she had her limits. This was the first time the elder had seen her so openly affectionate or physical with a male. It may not be love now, but the attraction was certainly there. But the problem was that Yasaka was worried about too many things. Her daughter at the foremost. Ichigo, on the other hand was too straight laced, a bit prudish and also worried about his place in this world. All of that stopped them from being honest about their attraction.

'Hmm, maybe, a bit of separation will cause them to be more honest?' The elder mused. It was a bad habit of some elders to try to be matchmakers. Elder Gen was one of them and he was proud of it. He coughed, forcing the other two out of their stupor and blushing when they realized that there was a third party in the room.

"Ahem. What happened kid? Why did you start coughing all of a sudden?"

Ichigo had calmed down enough to answer that.

"Right. I didn't exactly tell you about this either Yasaka." Ichigo remembered that while he had told Yasaka about Zanpakuto in general but he hadn't exactly told her about his own situation.

"Remember I told you about Zanpakuto and their spirits?" Seeing Yasaka nod, he continued. He took Zangetsu from the side of the room and put it on his lap.

"Well, this here is my Zanpakuto named Zangetsu. It also has a spirit named Zangetsu, who basically formed or was born with me. Normal Shinigami develop their Zanpakuto spirits after bonding with a blank sword called Asauchi. I don't know the details about that either. But, for simplicity's sake, Zangetsu can not only communicate with me but also take control of my body as long as I allow it or if I'm incapacitated." Ichigo explained it as shortly as he could.

"Are all Shinigami in your world able to do this?" Yasaka asked after a while.

"No. As far as I remember, I was a unique in this case as well." Ichigo replied.

"Then the one we met when you first landed here was..." Yasaka asked with sudden realization. While it had slipped her mind, she was at first curious about what happened to the spirit that had taken over Ichigo's body.

"Yes, that was Zangetsu. If I ever start smiling or laughing maniacally, know that Zangetsu is in control." Ichigo said, rolling his eyes. Yasaka and Elder Gen thought for a while before the old man brought them back to the topic at hand. It didn't really matter to the elder. He had seen stranger cases.

"As I was saying, I will be leaving in a few days. If you, boy, want to learn from me, you can follow me for some time and observe. I will be traveling around the world incognito while you will be the face of our party. We will take different missions from different parties and try to spread your name as a competent hunter. I will give you some pointers but how you perform and how much you learn will be entirely up to you. What do you say?" The elder looked at Ichigo curiously after the explanation.

"Of course I will go with you. Besides the things you said, I also want to know which people are trustworthy and which people to stay away from to avoid a headache." Ichigo said back, nodding.

With that decided, they quickly left the room leaving the elder shaking his head. He was going to leave first to give the young ones a chance to be honest but they left even faster than him. The next few days Ichigo spent with Yasaka and Kunou, with a drink or two with Kurodo. Yasaka warned him that while he was extremely strong, there were techniques and methods out there that were made specifically for such people. Most common of them were the sealing techniques. The cost of such a technique was high but there were also a lot of people out there that could afford such a cost. She warned him not to be trapped in such a thing. Ichigo would remain cautious but he wasn't really worried about it. Whatever these techniques were, could they be stronger than the ones Aizen used on him? He didn't think they would be. Even if they were, he was also stronger than that time.

Ichigo and Elder Gen left five days after their discussion. They would first roam around Japan helping the local authorities catch some criminals. The criminals of the supernatural world were usually called strays. Whether they be stray devils, stray exorcists, stray fallens, stray gods, stray demi-gods and other such strays. These were criminals who had done something horrible enough that their own faction would throw them out and put bounties on them.

Whenever someone affiliated to a faction did something either within their own faction or with other factions that was bad enough or the person doing it was not important enough, they were promptly be branded a stray and chased until they were either caught or dead. Of course this was sometimes used by people with power to settle their grudges inside their own faction. Ichigo had already said that he would only go after the ones that were proven to be the worse of the worst. The elder had also cataloged the ones that fit that description and they were off without any further delay.

While the elder and Ichigo were gone on their training trip, Yasaka had to make preparations to meet with the Devil Kings. She had been informed that the current Lucifer and Leviathan would be the ones showing up. She also knew why these two were the ones showing up personally. Both of them were known as siscons and their little sisters were the ones who were playing around in the town known as Kuoh. The Shinto gods had already reached an agreement about what they wanted and how much freedom they were willing to give in return. This, transaction so to say, was not between two factions but between a faction and two individuals plus two devil families. Two very rich devil families.

-------------(Ichigo-POV)--------------

As they were leaving Ura-Kyoto, the old man gave him two bracelets made of red beads. He accepted them and looked at the elder.

"They will suppress and store all the leaking spiritual energy around you. Wear both of them together. Going by the amount you are leaking, they will be filled within a year. After they are completely filled, many will pay a hefty sum to buy them off of you. Consider them a gift. You can repay me through your promise." The elder explained, shaking his head with a sigh, like he couldn't believe what he had just said.

"And while we are on this little trip, you should mainly focus on learning to control your energy better, the hunting and all that can be considered secondary." The old man said sternly.

"Seriously kid. The amount you leak is dangerous to any normal human and the weaker brats out there." The old man was still shaking his head. Ichigo knew that his control was atrocious. Everytime his powers increased, or rather, everytime he gained access to more of his powers, too many things were happening around him for him to focus on increasing his control. Now that he knew that he had all his powers, other than the amount sealed by the hell gate, he could finally get started on controlling all of it. Besides it wasn't like he would gain sudden massive influx of power again right?

...Right?

'Heh, you jinxed yourself idiot.'