A Nascent Kaleidoscope.

Chapter 517:

Izanami POV

"Wow, this is amazing!" The excitable young girl looked out in wonder at seeing the streets of the Youkai home for the first time.

All manner of creatures, from things that looked like fairies, to entities that were but heads covered in flames moved down the streets. Humans even weaved through the masses along with Oni and Kappa. Yet, there were no fights happening, no conflicts or slights against each other.

It was rather harmonious.

"There's so many people! Is that a Kappa? His head is so shiny!" She pointed out.

"Thank you!" The Kappa smiled, apparently hearing her as he passed by and waved.

"You're welcome!" Orihime waved back.

Atleast he didn't get upset. Kappa seem to fit into two departments, those that are self-conscious about their bald heads, and those who take pride in them.

I was about to ask her where she wanted to go first, there were plenty of things in immediate view that I thought would pique her interest, but I noticed her staring at a food stall and practically drooling.

"Why don't we have a small snack before we shop? We can have a good dinner somewhere after we're done?" I offered.

Considering the state of her home, the lack of food she had, It wasn't hard to guess that she wasn't able to treat herself...at all really.

Orihime's eyes lit up. "Can we have Takoyaki?"

"Of course." Specifically the one she was going to eat with her eyes.

One might assume that it was odd that an Octopus Youkai was selling Takoyaki, but that was about how things were around here.

"What can I get for you wonderful ladies?" The Octopus Youkai at the stall asked in fluent speech despite being a literal Octopoda in shape and form if a bit bigger and wearing proper clothing.

"Hello mister Octopus, is it hard finding clothing for all your arms?" Orihime asked with clear innocence.

The Octopus smiled with his eyes. "First time in Shin-Kyoto?" He looked at me

"It is her first time, yes." I nodded.

Most people won't ask questions like, how he had clothing specifically for an Octopus as it's answered fairly easily to the inhabitants here. Clothing stores that cater to all shapes and sizes are commonplace in addition to the more mundane and human-sized variety.

"There are plenty of stores for Youkai like me." He held up all of his arms and wiggled them beneath his chef-like attire. "Now, what can I get for you wonderful Ladies? We have Takoyaki and we have….." He leaned in towards Orihime. "Special Takoyaki."

"Special Takoyaki?" Orihime repeated. "What is that? Can we try it?"

The Octopus nodded solemnly. He reached beneath the counter and pulled out a cleaver, then he placed his own tentacle on the chopping board. "Haaaaaah!" He shouted and slammed it down, splitting the tentacle.

"AH!?" Orihime screamed.

"AH!" The Octopus screamed back.

"AH!"

"AH!"

The poor girl nearly fell out of the seat she was in until the Octopus started cackling madly, pulling down the long sleeve of his shirt to reveal that it was a 'fake' tentacle – rather one of the ingredients and not his actual body part.

"You're horrible." I rolled my eyes, though I found myself smiling.

"I couldn't resist." The way he smiled with his eyes just added to it.

"You….don't serve up your own arms?"

"Huehuehue." He lifted up all of his appendages. "And harm my beautiful arms? My wife would be livid."

"Okay then!" Orihime recovered fast, smiling happily.

"Here you are dear." He reached over and lightly pat her head. "I added a few extra, eat up." He said rather warmly.

"Thank you, Mister Octopus!"

"You can thank me by visiting again next time you're around." He chuckled. "And don't visit any of those dastardly Squids."

"Squids?" Orihime tilted her head.

"Beware the squids." He leaned in. "They can't be trusted, ever since the great Octopus and Squid wars of the past."

Orihime's eyes widened.

"Stop it, she's going to believe you." I swat at one of his arms, merely making him chuckle.

"Okay okay." He wiggled his free arms, laughing a bit more.

I put a hand on Orihime's head. "Enjoy your snack."

"Mmm!" She quickly pushed a few into her mouth, making her cheeks bulge.

She's a sweet girl, she deserves better than she had.

"It's delicious! I haven't had Takoyaki since….." She smiled sadly. "My brother."

"You can have as much as you want." I reassured her.

"Thank you, you're really nice!" She smiled.

….not many people would say that to me.

"If you don't mind me asking….what about your parents?"

The girl seemed to tilt her head back and forth like she was trying to remember something. "My brother said they were bad and hurt us so he took me away when I was younger. I talk to my Aunt every few months though! She sends me money sometimes."

"Is that so?" I made a mental note to find her parents when I had the time. "And what about your Aunt, why don't you live with her?"

"Oh….um….I don't think she likes me very much." Orihime looked down. "She said she didn't want the daughter of a….to live with her."

Filling in the blanks wasn't difficult. She would be ostracized if her mother was a prostitute or something similar. Wilhelm could attest to that much even if he had a much different relationship with his own mother.

"Do you like where you live right now?" I asked.

"Yes!" Orhime nodded happily. "I have a lot of friends!"

"That's good." My lips curled up. "Only friends though? Any boys you're interested in?"

"Ah!?" She immediately went bright red. "N-no…" She looked away bashfully.

"Mhmm, no young men that share a similar hair color?" I raised an eyebrow.

"K-kurosaki-kun and I are just friends!" The slight squeak to her voice didn't do much to convince me.

"He seems like a good boy." I decided not to tease her too much.

Orihime smiled a bit differently, warmly and nostalgically. "He's always been protecting me. I used to get bullied a lot when I was younger. I didn't like to get angry or upset at people so I didn't do anything….Kurosaki-kun stood up for me and ever since then. Him and Tatsuki are the people I care about most."

"And who's Tatsuki?"

"She's my best friend!" Orihime said proudly. "She even taught me Karate!" She put her hands up in a sort of comical mimic of Karate forms. "She brings me food too, sometimes." Orihime said quietly. "She's the best."

Children are often more perceptive than adults tend to assume. I wouldn't be surprised if this Tatsuki was fully aware of Orihime's situation and does what she can to help.

"And what about school? Are you doing well in your classes?"

"I'm third in our year." She puffed up.

"That is impressive." I fully acknowledged. "And what do you wish to do after you graduate?"

"Um….I don't know." She smiled blankly.

"That's fine, you have plenty of time to decide." I gave her a small pat. "What did you want to be when you were younger?"

She looked thoughtful. "My brother asked me that one time too! He took me to the beach for the first time and it was so exciting and fun!"

"Oh? And what did you decide then."

"I said I wanted to be a mermaid!"

…..well then.

"Did…..your desire change since then?"

Orihime laughed awkwardly. "I still love the ocean, so I don't know. I thought it would be fun to travel around it. But that's hard, I would need to save up money, get my Passport. And there's so many places to visit, I don't even know where to start."

"Many people travel to find themselves after graduating." I pointed out.

"Well….I'd be scared to leave all my friends too." She laughed lightly.

I was about to respond, but I heard a couple familiar voices behind us.

"Oh look, that's cute!"

"Ugh, too girly."

I glanced over and saw both Jeanne and Mordred walking down the street. They seemed to notice me as well as Jeanne nearly dragged the shorter girl with her.

"Iza—"

"Izzy." I quickly finished for the young Saintess. "In public, please."

"Oh, sorry." Jeanne sheepishly apologizes.

She is also a sweet girl. And considering how things were going, she was going to be close to us soon. "Hello, Jeanne and Mordred. Are you two enjoying the day together?"

"Just bored and walking around." Artoria's child shrugged.

"Mordred was coming to go shopping with me." Jeanne smiled happily. "What are you –" She paused as Orihime seemed to be peeking over me to see who it was I was talking to. "Hello." She greeted.

"Hi." Orihime smiled and waved.

"I'm, Jeanne, this is Modred." She introduced them both.

"Sup."

"I'm Inoue Orihime…or you're foreigners." She lightly tapped her head with her fist. "You can just call me Orihime!"

I looked at the two of them then as Orihime and had a wonderful idea. "Unfortunately, Orihime's apartment was damaged by some unsavory individuals. Wilhelm is dealing with the situation right now, but I brought her here to do some shopping. Would you both like to join us?"

Mordred shrugged again. "Sure, I aint got nothin better to do."

"That would be great!" Jeanne agreed quickly. "You know Wilhelm too?"

"Yeah, he helped us when we went to go save Rukia! She's….erm, a friend of mine!"

Jeanne nodded in seemingly understanding. "He helped me too."

I had a feeling they were going to get along well.

I should call Yasaka and ask for her help in fixing up Orihime's apartment while we're here.

@***@

Wilhelm POV

This isn't how I expected things to go, but I'm not upset.

A consequence free spar? Sign me up. Was it smart to do this when I should be resting? Probably not, but I'll make sure to have a proper rest after.

Ichigo was standing with his big cleaver pointed at me.

I took out my own Zanpakutō in response.

"You're talking big for someone who's overcompensating there." I teased.

"Nah, he can back it up. I saw him naked." Yoruichi spoke up.

"Dammit, don't say that to everyone!" The Orange Haired kid flushed red.

"Yoruichi!" Rukia seemingly was reacting the same.

"Meow."

"Don't pretend to be a cat when it suits you!"

"Now, now. Why don't we leave the playing for later. Tessai is going to handle some cleanup from the recent attack. Schweinorg-kun here doesn't have much time to stand around." Urahara chimed in.

"I will get started." Tessei clasped his hands and headed back upstairs.

"Alright, let's do this for real." I nodded.

"Fine by me." Ichigo huffed, looking serious.

"Quick question though, since I'm a Magus, Am I allowed to use my familiar?"

"A…familiar?" Ichigo blinked.

"Go." I commanded and a streak of lightning covered the distance between us, a rabbit landing on his face.

Ichigo's body slumped back, bewildered, as a Rabbit just kicked him and sent him tumbling across the ground.

"Victory." I said with an even tone.

"What the hell was that!?" Ichigo threw his hand up, pointing at me angrily.

Sir Wiggles landed on my head. "Have you never seen a Rabbit before?"

"That's not what I mean and you know it!"

"I –"

"Kyah!!!"

I paused looking at the sudden noise that stopped me in my tracks, only to see Rukia blushing slightly in sudden embarrassment.

"Anyways, I win." I declared.

"Bullshit!"

"Don't hate the player, hate the game."

"Screw you, that doesn't count!"

I turned to Uryū and Chad. "Judges?"

"Kurosaki clearly lost." Uryū stated, not missing a beat.

"You wanna go next, four-eyes?" Ichigo leveled his sword.

"Anytime." The Quincy didn't back down.

Yoruichi hopped up onto my shoulder. "Since when did you have a rabbit like this?" She poked Sir Wiggles with her paw.

Sir Wiggles, in turn, began to swat at her from atop my head. It reminded me of when Sir Wiggles would 'fight' with that monster back at Chaldea as the two of them were taking shots at each other.

"Since forever." I said casually. "He was keeping a friend company before.

"Ara Ara, Schweinorg-Kun." Urahara unfolded his fan. "I'll gladly hold onto your pet rabbit while you continue your fight with Kurosaki-kun."

I rolled my eyes at his not-so-subtle urging to keep fighting.

Secondly, I didn't trust him to hold onto Sir Wiggles. "Rukia do you mind holding onto him for me?

The noises she made were a yes, I was assuming. My valiant familiar shot over and landed into the petite Shinigami's arms and she squealed excitedly. "What's his name?"

"His name is Sir Wigglesbottom Fluffytail Octavius Benedict III, Crown Prince of the Emerald Kingdom, Duke of Carrot Island, General of the northern Armies, Lightning born, The Devil Slayer. Head of Chaldean department of Phantasmal Beasts. King of France, and King of Asgard.!" I declared for everyone to hear his majestic name.

"…that's a stupid name." Ichigo deadpanned.

"It is not a stupid name!" Rukia argued.

"Is that really his name?" Yoruichi poked me. "You're a lot cuter than you let on." She laughed.

"What's wrong with his name?" I questioned.

"Nothing, I just think it's cute that you made up a bunch of titles for him."

"You're assuming they're made up." I responded.

"….they are….right?" She looked at me blinking. "Right?"

"Some of them are, and not the ones you probably think."

"Holy shit I'm way too sober for this." Yoruichi bounced off my shoulder.

"Alright Strawberry, real fight time." I was done playing around, well, playing around so blatantly.

Ichigo stopped arguing with Uryū and looked back at me and gripped his sword tightly.

I was honestly curious to see how strong he was because I hadn't seen him fight fully. Just the sheer amount of Reiatsu that was flowing off him was enough to indicate that he was pretty damn strong and would only get stronger with age.

Hell, he feels stronger than several Shinigami Captains I've met.

Though the way he controls his Reiatsu is so chaotic compared to the likes of Yoruichi or Urahara who barely have any presence in comparison.

The two of them, their Reiatsu is like a small trickle as it escapes from their bodies, while Ichigo is like a rampant river as it flows out.

Experience is certainly a factor here. He was what, a normal kind some months ago? Super impressive that he's at this level of strength right now. He's strong even by the standards back home.

He launched himself at me with a burst of Shunpo. I had to both marvel and scowl at how easily he picked it up. He learned even later than I did but he was using it pretty damn good at first glance.

Sure he was no Yoruichi, but neither was I.

I was just taking in these first few strikes. The power behind him, the way he moved to swing at me, the speed at which his blade slammed into mine.

I blocked the first one head on to get a feel for his power, he tried to overwhelm me in brute force straight away and as soon as he realized that wouldn't work, he shifted to throw out a flurry of swings at me, picking up speed with each movement, yet he was still going full strength each blow.

I met each one, deflecting or parrying them using the most minimal amount of power necessary while he seemed to be exerting himself on each swing of his sword.

"Your technique could use work." I said, deflecting his blade down to the side as he exerted quite a bit of Spiritual Power into that swing, causing the ground to gouge out as it connected.

"What?" He stepped back, holding his blade up again, looking confused.

"It seems like your main method of attack is to try and overpower someone head on, be it brute force or speed." I pointed out. "Did you notice that you were using more than double the amount of Reiatsu I was in each clash but you weren't gaining any ground?"

Ichigo frowned. "Yeah, you were deflecting everything easily."

"Minimal effort used in both physical and spiritual aspects. As I said, right away, I noticed that you lack a lot of technique in your movements." I gave my honest advice just for our short clash. "Keep in mind, when I say technique, I don't necessarily mean sword mastery, but that certainly helps."

Ichigo held his sword up defensively. "Show me."

He asked genuinely, so I wouldn't mind at all. I sort of mimicked his first actions, using Shunpo to close the distance and swung down my Zanpakutō with full force. My foot hit the ground hard and I followed up with another full strength swing from the side.

He did the same thing I did before and brought up his sword to deflect it, and I let him. I pivoted, and swung at his other side, this time, I didn't use my full force, it was much lighter. He seemed surprised and I kept going in that same threshold with a flurry of strikes until all of the sudden I increased it several fold and what would have been a normal block on his end sent him fumbling backwards, nearly losing his footing.

I casually held my Zanpakutō pointed at him and shot it forward in a stabbing motion, he barely twisted his body to somewhat dodge as my blade tore through some of his clothing and he had to catch himself from falling over.

"Rhythm is important in sword fights. Likewise disrupting someone's Rhythm can create openings." I stabbed my Zanpakutō into the ground and leaned on it as he got back up. "It's not the deciding factor, just one of them. You're going 100%, 100% of the time so you become very predictable if you can't overwhelm your opponent immediately. Though, what you're doing isn't necessarily wrong either, it's a method that some people use. I've used it myself plenty of times, but you lack a bag of tricks to go along with it. In a fist fight, you don't always need to throw haymakers, jabs are important, feints as well. Mix it up, keep your opponent on their toes. Sure cleaving them in half with a full slash would be great, but death by a thousand cuts is equally a victory."

I'm not going to tell him he's wrong for how he fights, against Kronos, I wasn't throwing out lackadaisical 'jabs' with my blades, but that situation doesn't really apply to him right at this moment.

He has a lot of room to grow.

"I get it." He nodded. "Thanks."

"No problem." I couldn't help but smile. "I suggest reeling in your Reiatsu as well, it's honestly very wasteful and it would do you a lot of good."

"Yeah, yeah." He huffed. "Yoruichi and them told me the same thing, it's hard to control it."

"Are you trying to just….shunt it all off at once?"

"Kinda? Like put a lid on it?" He tilted his head. "That's what Yoruichi told me." He pointed out.

"Maybe you should try the opposite direction if you're having trouble. If I had to guess, they started out with their Reiatsu and molded it as they grew you sort of just….got it all at once, in a way. Right now, you're like a raging river and you're trying to throw Logs in front of it and dam it all up at once while it rampages. Rather, start slowly pulling in the edges, narrow the river, and work backwards."

"I'll try it, but I don't know if it'll work. Not that big of a deal anyways." He shrugged.

Well, kid certainly has a lot to work with, so I can see why he thinks that.

I'm not going to push him, he needs to learn to stand on his own two feet with things. I'll happily give him advice, but whether he takes it is all on him.

"Alright." I pulled my Zanpakutō out of the ground. "That was a nice warm up, why don't you show me what you really got."

Ichigo grinned. "Alright, don't say I didn't warn ya." His Reiatsu spiked astronomically. A pillar of it reaching to the ceiling of this underground training area. It was powerful enough that it could nearly push me back if I wasn't paying attention. He held his sword out, pointing it at me then used his other hand, and placed it on his forearm while the cloth on the hilt of his blade wrapped around his arm.

'Bankai."

I couldn't help but grin seeing a Bankai released up close like this.

The Reiatsu around him became significantly heavier and disrupted any vision of him I had due to the whirlwind of dust and Reiatsu that swirled around him.

It all was pushed to the side with the rattling of a chain to accompany it.

No more was he wielding that oversize blade, but he had almost a normal, if pitch blade, Katana in his hand with a chain extending from the hilt. And over his normal Shinigami uniform, he was wearing a black coat.

"Tensa Zangetsu." He breathed out.

"….did you mess up?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean!?" He seemingly didn't expect my question.

"What the fuck is that." I pointed.

"This is my Bankai!"

"You changed your clothes and you're wielding a normal sized sword now." I deadpanned.

"S-stop talking shit about my Bankai!"

"Yoruichi!" I looked at the cat. "Aren't Bankai supposed to be like….big expressions of power?"

Yoruichi looked at me and did a cat shrug. "Meow."

Oh fuck off.

"Why does it matter if it works?" Ichigo huffed.

"True." It was hard to argue with that logic. "Alright Strawberry, show me what you got."

He moved and I felt a tingle on the back of my neck. My whole body spun, because out of the corner of my eyes, he was swinging down at me and I had to jerk my body out of the way to dodge.

I brought my sword up to block another of his slashes on the opposite side of me. I had to lean far as his blade pierced through the air right at me from behind.

This continued for a few moments as his speed began to increase. Every few steps, he left an afterimage after I deflected a blow or dodged a slash. It got to a point where he was moving so quickly that dozens of him appeared around me simultaneously.

Though, I couldn't help but smile happily as we played this little game. Instead of sitting there waiting for him, I began to move as well.

It was almost absurd that his Shunpo was faster than mine at this point.

But we played this little game of tag, only with deadly weapons.

The clashing of steel resounded everywhere, even if normal eyes could no longer detect us. I moved a hundred yards away with a step, and he was on me, swinging his sword down overhead for me to block. I let it glance off my sword and moved to slash at him, and it passed harmlessly through his body and I had to follow after because he moved dozens of feet away at that moment.

It wasn't just speed, though that received a significant boost under his Bankai, I could feel the weight of his blow magnify by 10 fold at least.

I actually strained to take them as I was right now.

No, without any additional boosts from any other source, he was overpowering me on a physical level.

"Alright, I take back what I said before." I slid to a stop, narrowly moving to the side to step out of the way of a slash of his. I think I was eking out a stalemate here because I simply had much more experience fighting at this level and beyond than he did.

"What was that, I didn't hear you?" He appeared not far away looking way too smug.

"Oh come off it." I rolled my eyes. "Is that your special ability of your Bankai? Is it small because it puts everything in speed?"

A normal Bankai, from what I recall, increases your physical abilities by a factor of 5-10 across the board. In addition to that, it seems that his speed was further increased.

"Something like that." He smiled cockily. "You jealous?"

"Hardly." I snorted.

He was still unrefined. God….give him five more years, maybe less, and he would become an absolute monster.

No, that's not right, we were just playing around in all honesty, he's already a monster for his age. He would easily match up with the kids who formed that 'team' or whatever from before. Sairaorg might beat him as he stands at this moment, but he's growing at an obscene rate if we go by how he was merely months ago.

He still has a lot of room for improvement. Hell, once he figures out how to control his Reiatsu, that will be another large increase in his own strength. Right now, he's wasting so much of it and it's unfocused, even in his Bankai.

"You know, there's something you need correcting on."

"What's that?" Ichigo still had that cocky grin on his face.

"Making assumptions in battle. Who told you that I don't know my Zanpakutō's name?"

His expression shifted and he looked mildly wary. "Alright, show it to me."

"Why don't you make me?" I gestured for him to come at me.

That grin of his returned and it grew until it covered his face. I could feel him enjoying this just as I was. Underneath that teenage angst and cockiness, there was someone who seemed to genuinely enjoy fighting.

He held his sword up with both hands, and his rampant Reiatsu soared again until a black aura consumed everything around him, wrapping around his blade, swirling and condensing.

"Getsuga Tenshou." He swung it down and it shot at me like a wave of darkness, consuming everything in its path.

My eyes widened and I swung my blade out. "Reflect – Musū Tengai!"

The wave of darkness washed over me, utterly annihilating the fake mountainous region that was behind me and slamming into the 'walls' of this underground arena.

The space of it fluctuated and shuddered as if its bindings were under strain from the power.

I stood in my small spot, completely untouched due to the effects of my Zanpakutō. It wasn't too rough on me, I could handle this much strain at least. His attack, while absolutely praiseworthy, had quite a few flaws in it that it wasn't on the same level as the likes of Kronos or Indra even if the sheer destructive power was something similar in certain circumstances.

"You missed." I called out.

"Screw you!" He shot back.

I could only chuckle as I stepped back over towards him, I felt relaxed despite physically exerting myself the past…how many minutes we were sparring.

It was a nice stress relief.

"That your sword?" Ichigo dismissed his own Bankai, his Reiatsu settling back down to whatever could be called 'normal' for him.

I held it up for him to see. "Musū Tengai, meaning Infinite Horizons."

"How in the hell did you get your Shikai already." Yoruichi was back on my shoulder, looking at me.

"It's called talent."

She swatted at my head. "No seriously, how."

"Eh, things happened." I didn't really want to reveal it so openly.

"How'd you dodge his attack?"

"You want to know the power of my Zanpakutō?" I raised an eyebrow and I could see both Rukia and Urahara looking at me expectantly, along with the others, like they were all wanting to hear what my Shikai's ability was.

"It lets me…..become immune to gingers."

"Fuck you!" Ichigo swung his oversized sword at me in a huff. "That's not what it does!"

"Then how do you explain it?"

"Bullshit, that's how!" He threw his arms up with a scowl.

"And what did you do?" Yoruichi jumped onto Ichigo, slapping his head. "Your Reiatsu spiked way too high when you used that Getsuga Tenshou!"

"Eh, whaddya mean?"

"You know what I mean! It spiked at least five times over in that instant."

Ichigo shrugged. "My Hollow wanted to pump it up, said something about wiping that smug look off the asshole's face."

I let my Zanpakutō settle down back to its sealed state. "You getting on with your edgy twin?"

Ichigo scowled deeper. "You start shit like that and I'm the one who has to hear him shouting in my head. But yeah, we get on alright. Old Man Zangetsu and him won't tell me anything though, but I fight him every now and then and if I win, he lets me have some more of his power."

"Huh."

"Why the hell didn't you tell us anything, you idiot?!" Yoruichi started slapping his head. "That's not something to keep to yourself. Hollows are dangerous, you got one in your soul and he's just 'happily' giving you his 'power'?"

"What's the big deal?" Ichigo didn't react much at her hitting him continuously.

Yoruichi let out a long groan. "Just…be careful, alright? We'll….call up some friends who might have a better clue as to what's going on. Sooner than we had expected too…" She added on quietly.

"Well, keep working at it, you're getting fairly strong. I think you'd be about in the middle compared to all the Captains I met, maybe higher."

"Only the middle?" Ichigo frowned.

"That's not something to look down on, you idiot." Rukia walked over. "Do you have any idea how strong the Captains are? They're centuries older than you and you're almost on their level."

"I beat Byakuya." Ichigo pointed out.

"He's neglected his training." Yoruichi countered. "Honestly, he's not much stronger than when we left Soul Society originally. You can be sure he's going to train much harder now, especially with everything happening. He still has a lot of room for improvement."

"…how strong are you?" Ichigo looked at Yoruichi.

She laughed. "Five of you couldn't match me as you are right now. But some of the Captains I'm not sure I can beat."

"That Captain Commander of yours is a Monster too." Even after fighting Kronos and winning, well, I wasn't confident about my chances.

Hard to really gauge it, it's not like I can just point to some arbitrary number and see if I ranked higher.

Simply, one of us would die if we fought and it's up in the air who.

"Bringing up the Captain Commander isn't fair." Yoruichi grumbled. "The only reason he hasn't retired in over a thousand years of working is because no one's strong enough to take his place."

Well damn, isn't that a scary thought? Honestly, quite a few of these Shinigami were monsters in one way or another.

It seems that enough time passed because Tessai was seen climbing down the stairs to rejoin us.

"I have completed my job, Schweinorg-Dono." Tessai stated, raising his hand bluntly in greeting.

"You missed a fun little fight, Tessi." Urahara closed his fan with a snap. "Schweinorg-kun here was getting ready to explain how his Zanpakutō works for us."

You know, props where it's due, he delivered that rather smoothly. But I wasn't going to take the bait. "It gives me protection against gingers."

"That's not how it works!" Ichigo went into a huff again.

God, it's fun riling him up.

He reminds me of Godou, I need to visit my step-brother at some point. And Pandora, I need to introduce her to her Granddaughter.

Maybe that's where I can head next after cleaning up this mess with that Amber Girl?

Sir Wiggles plopped himself onto my head from Rukia's arms, earning a disgruntled pout from the petite girl.

"If you're ready, Tessai?" He already agreed pretty much, and while it wasn't an urgent time table, I did waste quite a bit of time here already.

"I am ready to depart with you, Schweinorg-Dono." He nodded.

"Thanks for having me over." I waved at Urahara. Despite his…probing, he was amicable, I suppose. I do prefer people being above board with me, so I wasn't going to get upset with what he was doing.

"It was my pleasure." He smiled brightly. "You're welcome any time!"

"Yoruichi." I looked at her. "Behave."

"Meow."

"And you know how to reach me. If an emergency comes up, don't hesitate."

"Alright." She hopped off my shoulder. "Is your…..friend going to be coming back with Orihime soon?"

"No idea, as I said, don't freak out if she's gone for a couple days. And she did say that she would send people over to fix Orihime's apartment so….don't freak out about anything weird?" I offered her a vague estimation of what I would expect.

Honestly, she's probably going to conscript some of Yasaka's people to fix it up quickly. I expect to receive a message providing transportation services relatively soon.

"Oh, and Ichigo, I have something for you." I walked up to him.

"…huh, what?" He looked confused.

"Well, it's just something you should have. You have a lot of talent, and you're a good kid." I put a hand on his shoulder.

"….you're making me feel weird."

"Just, look after this for me, would you? It's sentimental, I once beat up a clown with it."

"What are you – "

I dropped a brick into his hands.

"….I hate you. I hate you so much."

"Be good, don't get into trouble, I'll see you later!" I quickly grabbed Tessai and opened a portal back up to Remnant before he could do anything.

The legacy of the Brick shall live on.

[***]

Non-Canon Omake: A Very Foxy Summons.

AN: Apparently I forgot to post this outside of one website when I wrote it like last year? So here you guys go.

—-

"So….this is the mechanism designed to summon these….Servants?" Izzy looked around the Chaldea summoning chamber. The placed used to facilitating the summoning of Servants through the FATE system.

I was giving Izzy a tour of Chaldea. No one else minded, after all the help I've given, they were more than willing to let me give her a tour. Not to mention, they would be happy to be on good terms with another Goddess.

"Yup." I followed her gaze as she inspected everything. "Among other things. Their system, while more beneficial in some aspects compared to the traditional Ritual used in the past, is also worse off in others. It can summon...other things by accident."

"What do you mean 'other things?" Izzy asked.

"For some reason, it seems intent on summoning Mapo Tofu and Black Keys."

"What are –"

"A type of Holy Sword, dagger, thing. Hates things the church hates so it does a lot of damage to them. Think Holy Sword but less Star-wars."

"Oh." She just nodded. "And Mapo Tofu, really?"

I just shrugged. "I have no idea. Honestly, this whole facility is held together with duct tape and prayers. I'm scared that if I even look at the FATE system the wrong way, it's going to explode."

"…..and yet you use it to summon exalted figures through history."

"Never said we were smart."

"....which I already knew." She rolled her eyes with a small smile. "Would it be too much to ask if I could see it in action?"

"I already planned for a few uses, don't worry."

"Are you sure? I recall you saying that they had limited amounts of the resources required."

"They planned on using it anyways, I'm just letting you do the whole 'button press' of it."

"Oh, well then, I suppose I shall partake." Izzy perked up. "How do I do this, exactly?"

"First, you need to take a very specific stance, then yell at the top of your lungs –"

"I will smack you." She deadpanned.

"Fine, fine." I huffed. "Just feed your Magical Energy into the device at the center here. Once it hits the threshold, the system facilitates the rest."

She placed her hand on it then pause. "Perhaps I shouldn't ask at this point, but is my identity as a Goddess an issue?"

I shrugged.

"What wonderful insights you provide." She said dryly. "Very well, let's continue."

I felt the power from Izzy begin to flow into the device, FATE was powering up as the systems started activating.

"Oh, this is interesting. I can feel the fluctuations of space and time being bent." Izzy exclaimed.

Huh, I guess she would be sensitive to that kind of thing.

The room lit up with Magical Energy, a pillar of light slammed into the ground as a new figure was coalesced.

Pink hair, Fox ears on her head twitching excitedly, a single tail swaying behind her. "Husband, I have arrived! Your Foxy Wife, Tamamo-no-Mae has come to –" The Servant paused, looking at us, but slowly turning her head to focus entirely on Izzy.

"...daughter." Izzy spoke up to break the awkward silence that ensued.

"…."

"…."

"…nope!" The Servant did an about-face, took a step forward, and dissipated back into motes of Magical Energy.

"….uh, did she just…..?" I found trouble saying the correct word.

"She did." Izzy said blankly. "And she has Three seconds to get back here before I get upset."

"Um, you know she can't just –"

"One."

I blinked, apparently being ignored. "You could try summoning her back or –"

"Two."

"Izzy, that isn't going to work…"

"Three—"

Suddenly, the room exploded in Magical Energy again. "Wait, I'm here, I'm here!" The Pink-Haired Fox apparently decided the Grand Ritual that composes the summoning of Servants was irrelevant compared to Izzy giving her a count down.

"Yeah, okay." I just decided not to question it, I think it was better for my sanity.

[***]

A/N Back from my little 'vacation', and here's the chapter.

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