Chapter Text
“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong” ― Myrphy`s law
“It doesn't matter what happens to you, just what you do with what happens to you!”
― W. Mitchell
It’s so cold… She is running forward, not paying attention to the prickly bushes that tear the pale skin of her hands and feet to blood.
It's so dark... It wasn't always like that. The sun used to shine here. If only she got there in time... Where? What's ahead? The only thing she knows exactly is that she needs to get there.
The bushes are grabbing the sleeves of her white kimono and seem to be whispering her name. She doesn't listen - she really needs to run ahead... Her kimono wasn`t white before, was it? Memory throws up some images of a black as night form. Her heart aches, and she doesn't know why.
Something is so wrong! She needs to stop, to take a breath, really needs to think... No! What she needs is keeping running and no slowing down even for a minute. There is her place, she should be there. Such a familiar voice calls her to that place.
Sleeves of her kimono are already red. Is it blood? Well, definitely. She doesn't pay attention as she was through many worth situations... Right? Or wasn`t she? How does she even know for sure? Crimson flowers keep blooming on the snow-white fabric, intertwining in whimsical and complicated patterns.
The bushes are left behind, and now she stands in the middle of an endless field and can`t take another step. The wind laughs quietly, pulls the sleeves and hem of her kimono, as if inviting to dance. Her soul is somehow so calm...
The sky above the field is dotted with stars, grasses and cereals whisper songs in the wake of the wind. They beg her to stop and stay here forever. She is already home, doesn`t she see it?...
No! It`s not home! That voice, another one, familiar, calls her further forward. Let`s go, take at least one step... So she runs again through waist-height grasses, and the voice keeps calling and calling, breaking off with a hoarse scream from time to time...
"Ichigo!!!"
"Ichigo! Get up, how much long should I wake you up?! You definitely will be late for school!"
The girl opened her eyes with great effort. Yuzu leaned over the bed. Her sister's brown eyes glowed with concern. She needed to get out of seat, overpowering the slumber. Girl nodded slightly to her sister and hurried to hide in the bathroom.
Recently, she had these dreams more and more often. Sometimes she woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and couldn`t fall asleep for hours. Sometimes the dream didn`t let her go of its clamps until dawn. The scenario repeated itself over and over again. The voice calling her seemed to belong to Zangetsu, but the sword spirit himself clearly denied any involvement in the dreams. Ichigo moved her hand - the phantom pain prevented her from throwing the dream out of her head. Something had to be done about it, but what?
With a slight sigh, Ichigo reached for the pile of her clothes. She looked at it and frowned again: lately she`s grown a bit and the form`s become a little too small. It would`ve been possible to go and buy a new set, but the end of the semester was approaching, so it was better to postpone the purchases until the beginning of the new school year. At least she bought her shirts for growth.
One more sigh and the girl took her clothes. There was no time left at all. She would have to go without breakfast again: otherwise she would definitely not get to school on time. By the way, about studies: lately Ichigo has risen to second place in the school ranking (Ishida was still in first place, which made Kurosaki hope to overtake him at least in the new school year), but this did not prevent the teachers from still reminding her of all her mistakes in the past every time something happened... Therefore, running out of the bathroom, the girl shouted to her family that she had already left, and got out of the house in the fastest way possible for her - through the window.
Tatsuki was waiting outside the school. Her friend took one look at her sleepy appearance and shook her head with barely noticeable condemnation.
"Let's go, everyone is already inside. We shouldn't make the teachers wait" - there really were only two minutes left before the start of the lesson.
After all classes, Ichigo was going to visit Urahara - it was Tuesday, so training had to be leaded by him according to plan. Girls sat through mathematics, history and physical education, packed up and went in the direction they needed.
A year and a half has passed since the war with Aizen. Kurosaki was terribly exhausted then - if there weren't Urahara, who somehow managed to use his seal at the last moment, she would`ve literally lost all her own power. Of course, everything ended ridiculously simply, for which Ichigo thanked all the kami (world not to be confused with Kisuke, the hatter still didn`t reach the god in her eyes, no matter how much he wanted) more than once or twice. She then realized that it was only because of her phenomenal (and slightly absurd) luck that it all worked out, so to prevent this from happening in the future, she terrorized the retired Taicho of the Second Division for a month into agreeing to become her full time teacher. Urahara, of course, immediately warned that it would not be easy. But when did something like that stop her?
Ichigo will never forget the first weeks of training. Later, of course, she got involved, but the lessons were nowhere near easy - if anything, the bar was constantly raised for her. Substitute Shinigami didn't tell anyone about the class, not even Chad, Orihime or Ishida, and even more so not Rukia or Renji, who had been showing up less and less at Karakuri lately. Only Arisawa knew, and maybe her father could`ve guessed, she wouldn't be surprised by that.
With Tatsuki, the situation was strange at first. Her spiritual power was actually not one iota less than that of Ichigo's other friends from the world of the living, but for some reason it did not manifest itself at all. Only that her endurance was really high and the reaction speed was far beyond the limits of ordinary people. Girls didn't tell anyone about it at all. Tatsuki had always been Kurosaki's best friend, because no matter what that last morr...well, Quincy, thought, she was the first to know about Ichigo's powers - there were never any secrets between them. Arisawa didn't participate in any of her friend's trips, but that didn't stop her from keeping up with everything. Of course, from time to time it seemed unfair to Tatsuki that Inoue, who often didn`t understand everything that was happening, was, unlike her, constantly in the center of events. But the argument that, although she could defend herself, she was barely able to slap a couple of hollows, was reinforced concrete. Well, that was so at least for some time
She was unlucky once. Well, maybe on the contrary, point of view is an important thing, especially when evaluating events. Ichigo then fell sick and did not come to school, so Tatsuki, as a good friend, promised the sensei to take her notes. Arisawa was only a couple of blocks from her friend's house when she heard that characteristic terrible howl characteristic of hollows. Let's just say that no matter how many times you`ve heard it, it didn't get any easier, it got to your bones every time.
A giant hybrid of a cockroach and a dragonfly almost smeared the girl on the wall of someone's house, but did not take into account that she was not that weak either. One hit on the bone mask - and minus was crumbled to dust.
"It serves you right! "- Arisawa shouted enthusiastically. It never got old. - "Kami-sama, but why was it so weak?" - the girl was really surprised, - "And I didn't have to hit it a second time..."
"Yare-yare, would you like it more if it chased you around the streets for some time?"
Out of surprise, girl even jumped up on the spot. She looked around, but did not find the owner of the voice until she lifted her head up.
"Good day to you too, Urahara-san"- girl sighed. A strangely dressed man in a striped panama was standing in the air above her. Tatsuki was not personally familiar with Urahara, but it was easy to recognize him from numerous descriptions.
"Do you know me?" - Tatsuki only snickered. To be honest, it would be strange if she didn't know. The former captain occupied a huge niche in Ichigo's stories. Mostly as the subject of a bunch of various complaints, but let`s not pay so much attention to details.
That meeting, in a certain sense, became a turning point for the teenager. It seemed that girl interested the scientist somehow. At the very first training that Ichigo attended after her recovery, Kisuke asked her to bring her friend with her to the next meeting. And what was Arisawa's surprise when Yoruichi, who usually sat somewhere nearby while Urahara tormented her student, threw a bokken at Tatsuki and, as soon as she miraculously caught it, pulled out another one, seemingly out of nowhere, and with a simple "defend yourself" struck the first shock.
Since then, both of them have been going to training. And after them, they crawled out of the cave under the sweets shop together and, thankfully that they lived not far from each other, walked home as two drunkards. And you couldn't say that these training did not benefit at least one of them.
As well this day, friends gathered to visit their personal penal servitude. After saying goodbye to all their friends at school, girls slowly headed to the shop. Chad and Orihime had distanced themselves a bit lately, dropping any training above the bare minimum of one or two meetings a week at an abandoned warehouse outside of town. To tell the truth, the Winter War took almost all their enthusiasm and desire to develop themselves further.
Near the house, they were greeted by as usual gloomy Jinta. After greeting girls went inside, and boy shrugged his shoulders nervously as the door creaked shut behind them. He`d been haunted by a bad premonition since the very morning - and you could say, it made him nervous.
The training had been going on for the third hour and was coming to an end. Ichigo tried to put up a high-level barrier against the Garganta opening in the space covered by it, which she failed for the fourth lesson in a row. This particular one required a greater degree of concentration than the volume of reiatsu, which made it difficult for a shinigami whose reserves one would equate to a power plant to perform.
Meanwhile, Yoruichi was enjoying a fist fight with Arisawa. Tatsuki has come a long way in this over the past year, even considering her previously well-placed punch. The spiritual strength of both girls has also grown a lot recently, which the duet of disgraced captains quite deservedly attributed to their own teaching genius.
Urahara, who`d been leaving earlier, came down from the shop. While Ichigo finished her almost finished kekkai, Kisuke wasted no time and developed a stormy scientific activity nearby. According to him, the result of all this should`ve been an improved memory substitute: apparently, the previous versions managed to drive a huge number of shinigami mad with their absurdity, so that Gotei 13 finally issued a decree on the development of a new version. Although Kisuke no longer answered the organisation, it would be inconvenient to refuse the extra income.
Urahara was throwing something, from which side you look, suspicious into the test tubes, when several seemingly insignificant, but at the same time no less catastrophic together, events occurred almost simultaneously. Arisawa was thrown back by the powerful blow Yoruichi gave her. A second later Ichigo finally managed to place a wide ball shaped barrier around himself and Tatsuki was trapped inside with her. That`s when Jinta jumped down from the ladder leading from the shop - and ran into the Kekkai before Kurosaki dispelled it. The barrier was in the shape of a ball, so the with impact it immediately rolled towards Urahara - fast enough that the scientist barely had time to jump out of the way. Kekkai immediately crashed into the table of test tubes, causing a terrible clang of broken glass, a hiss of chemicals, and thick white smoke. After a second, the barrier finally cracked. With a thud, Tatsuki's body hit the floor. Several more broken test tubes rang out. There was no single sign of Ichigo.
For some long five seconds, everyone present simply stood in a stupor. Urahara then appeared at the epicenter of the disaster with a single shunpo step, crouched next to Tatsuki and patted the girl on the cheek while checking her pulse. Having clearly drawn some conclusions for himself, Kisuke stood up with an unmoved face, turned to the seriously frightened Jinta and with incredible calm for such a situation said:
"Congratulations, you just destroyed my work for the last month and made two wonderful souls disappear. So what did you mean to say in such a hurry?"
Ginta was still silent for another minute as Urahara carried Tatsuki's body from the scene to the unconscious body that Ichigo had propped against the wall when she transformed into her shinigami form earlier. And then Ururu's head appeared from a hole in the ceiling.
"Kisuke-sama, where are you? We have some problems here! Tessai-san is asking you to come! Yoruichi-san, you too!"
Urahara let out a faint sigh and went up to the shop. Yoruichi, clearly reluctant, followed him, shaking her head and muttering something to herself. In this muttering, one could clearly make out only "Isshin" and "will definitely kill." Only Jinta remained in the cave. The boy looked around once more, lingering at the mayhem by the table, the bodies of Kurosaki and her friend near the wall, and then followed the others into the store with a clear thought in his mind,«I knew something bad was going to happen today. Kso!»
It wasn't too difficult to guess who exactly Isshin-san would kill here when he found out about the situation. Jinta even didn`t have much hope for mercy.