Chapter 16. His first power

Ichigo doesn't know what to do. It feels like his world had spun around in madness, not knowing if he could survive on his own or not. He closed his eyes in fury and said :

" I have to find him, he could be in danger wherever he is. I've had lost my mother, but I can't afford to lose him again."

He was going to leave, but Ichigo's father grabbed his arm.

" Ichigo, calm down. You've lost your powers, haven't you? What's important is he's safe at the Soul society. They won't harm him, I know they won't." he said.

Even though his words had calmed him, he's still upset. Despite his vow was to protect his family and friends, he had completely forgotten about Ichitaro. After his father let go of his arm, he sat down from the sofa and scratched his head in frustration. He then relaxed his entire body in agony.

" So, what are we going to do about this?" Ichigo's father asked.

" Well, Isshin. I could trace his spirit energy using the Oujia board, six scented candles and six colourful stones. If I could reach him, maybe he'll tell me something. I have two of those items, chalk and spirit salts. Except for the candles." he answered, tapping his chin. He then left the living room towards his bedroom, where he found a bucket, filled with things he needs.

" Yeah, that'll work. I already have them somewhere." , he said and turned to Ichigo. He could see the mixed emotions in his eyes,. " Don't worry, Ichigo. Ichitaro will be back alive. Now, go grab half dozens of them. "

Ichigo quickly went back to his house, which was right next door. In his thoughts, he said to himself as he opened the door:

' Rukia, wherever you are. Please keep him safe. As soon as I'll get my powers back, I will bring him home. I promise. '

~~~~~~

Byakuya and the other soul reaper were seen running away from Jupiter's shadow. Rukia, Renji, Ichitaro, Yoshimura and Rangiku followed them despite they don't know if they're lives are in danger. Just as they've turned their heads around, Jupiter disappeared, along with his shadow. They simply stopped to catch their breath.

" Captain Kuchiki, is he really gone?" Renji panted.

He senses any spirit energy, but nothing. He simply shook his head and said :

" For now."

Rukia looked at Byakuya. But before she'd took out all of her frustration out on him, she breaths deeply and asked :

" How did you find us here ____?"

" I had sensed your and lieutenant Abarai's spirit energy. Quarter of the seireitei were attacked by quincies, which was strange. I thought the two of you were in danger."

Rukia simply closed her eyes in disbelief. Ichitaro could see their reaction, but doesn't want to interfere even though he picked some of the important points. Not so many nights ago, he once senses a spirit energy, mistaken as Uryuu.

' Could, this mean these men that destroyed the soul society, were fallen angels?' he thought. He took out the black notebook and turned pages. He saw those ancient writings again, but this time in a different message as it translates :

" A path of the amulet, will surely judge your journey. "

Reading some enigmatic riddles, he closed the book as his next mission was to find the hallow pass. He noticed the other soul reaper peeping on top of his head.

" It's wrong to spy on anyone's privacy.", he said.

The soul reaper scoffed at him and said sarcastically :

" Sorry, my curiosity just kicked in."

Surprisingly, Ichitaro wasn't amused by his sarcasm. He simply goes somewhere further from him, even though he might cause some damages. Yoshimura grabbed his arm and pointed out on her frozen mouth.

" M mm. Hmmm. " she muttered.

" Oh right. Your solid ice."

" Let me help you getting rid of it. I know just a thing." the Soul reaper said as he took a card from his pocket and chants, placing his card on her cheeks:

{ HADOU 14 : SHINSETSU KASAI}

Yoshimura could feel a solid ice were melting slowly and by the time it defrosted, her mouth squirted water at his face. As soon as the ice were completely disintegrated, she coughed light and could feel her tongue moving again, as if it came back to life by the warmth of fire surrounding her peachy cheeks.

" Yay! I can speak again!" she shouted.

The soul reaper was soaking wet from his face after a splash of water, as he felt a little bit annoyed. He, then wiped his face on his shirt. That was until there was company out there. Byakuya and Rukia's conversation were halted by an unwanted visitor, freezing some of their movements. Its spirit energy were similar to Shunsui, but it wasn't.

Byakuya got up and grabbed his zanpakuto. Same goes for Renji and Rukia.

' If it's that shadow guy again, then what does he want from me?' Ichitaro though. As soon as the figure went closer towards them, tensions of spirit energy grew in mid air, however was shocked by a familiar voice and it looked at them with surprise and confusion at the same time.

" Why is everyone so serious these days? First it's those fallen angels and now this? Captain Kuchiki, you need to calm yourself down." said the paled skin male figure, wearing the same outfit Byakuya wore.

In shock, Byakuya could see him standing right behind of the bushes.

" Captain Kurotsuchi? Aren't you supposed to defeat the quincies along with the others? " Byakuya asked.

" Captain Kuchiki, think twice before saying that. Those men we've fought aren't quincies at all, they're fallen angels. There's no time to explain this information. Come, let's go somewhere safer than here. Even trees have ears." he answered swiftly.

The group followed him and the soul reaper saw Ichitaro and his sisters.

" Hey, wanna follow these guys? "

Neither did he had a choice nor options, Ichitaro said to his sisters :

" Let's catch up with them."

His sisters agreed towards him and they soon followed them towards a certain cave.

" This is was once a mine for Yokais. I always use it as my special place. It's not as dark as the lab, it does have an ample amount of light." he said to them. The other soul reaper turned to Ichitaro and said :

" The name's Shikamaru Yagami. What's yours, blonde?"

" Ichitaro Kagami. Nice knowing you and thanks for saving my twin sister. "

" She's your twin? "

" And so does the other one. We're triplets to be honest."

" YIKES!!", he chuckles before they could get in.

However, Jupiter and Deki could be spotted beneath the autumn trees.

" It looks like they're surrounded. We could be outnumbered by them." Denki said .

" Haven't you forgotten who I am? I once snapped one of their necks, I can do it again.", Jupiter answered with a devilish grin on his face behind his mask, " Don't worry yourself, Deki. We'll be hitting the jackpot and freeing my father. "

~~~~~~~

A large circle had surrounded in the living room writing in Wicca* language. The Ouija board and a bowl of water was in front of him along with the candles, placed it individually. They're lighting sticks and burning incense, clouding with nostalgic smell. Neji was inside the circles without wearing his shirt and kneeling on both feet.

" Are you sure it's going to work? " Ichigo asked, standing between his father and Keitaro, Ichitaro's mother.

" Of course. All that's left is a picture of him.", Neji answers. Keitaro gave the picture of Ichitaro on his first day at school to him. He sighed deeply and thought to himself :

' I'm coming for you, Ichitaro.', He placed it onto the water and closed his eyes as he chanted.

" Dearest Gods of masked and flesh, the ones who created both heaven, earth and elements of life. Please give us strength to find my child from the spirit world and protect him wherever he is."

~~~~~~~

Ichitaro, Yoshimura and Rangiku were delicately eating food filled with ramen soup, meat, rice bowls and green tea on the table whilst they're sitting on an old chair. They weren't at haste despite haven't eaten anything since this morning.

After finishing eating, they almost burped and took a cup of tea. Shikamaru also finished his food, but started at Ichitaro in a curious manner. Rukia snapped him back to reality and said :

" It's rude to stare at guests, Shikamaru."

Chuckles awkwardly, he asked jokingly :

" Aren't you supposed to be with Captain cunt?"

" Stop saying shit about my brother. He'll kill you, if he hear this. He's with Captain Kurotuchi, for your information. " she said.

" What? He needs to hear this. I'm not afraid of him and besides, I'll marry you once I became the captain of the ____."

" That will happen..... In your dreams." she said, giving him a cold shoulder.

' Ouch!' he thought, combing his purplish pink hair and smile.

Ichitaro, saw their petty argument and decided to ignore it, got up from the chair they sat and went to find a Hallow pass. However, Renji called him.

" Going somewhere, kid?" he asked.

" I'm looking for something actually. It's not a big deal." he answered.

" You know you can't find what you're looking for if you don't tell us `the big deal `." Renji commented.

Ichitaro sighed as his looked at his sisters. He finally broke silent as he said :

" The reason why I end up in here, was because of this.", he picked up the black notebook.," As soon as I could find these artifacts, there is a high chance I'll be back home."

" I see." he scoffed, leaving Ichitaro to explore even further. Rukia could see how stressful it was for him to look for something.

" Should we tell him?" she asked.

" Ask him what? " Shikamaru asked.

" About Ichigo. "

" What, has he done something bad ? "

" Well...no ."

" Rukia, we're not telling him shit. You heard him. He knew Ichigo since he was a kid. If we tell him, he'll never trust us ever again."

Renji said, interrupting the conversation between Shikamaru and Rukia.

" But he lost his powers after a mob soul incident to save the soul society! I'm not the one who'll hurt his feelings. Maybe he'll understand. "

Seeing how tense the argument became, Yoshimura and Rangiku decided to follow Ichitaro. Renji clenched his fist and before he could set her straight, he senses a spirit energy from the cave.

" Somethings wrong? " Rukia asked, in a worried tone.

" Looks like we have company.", he said., " I'll go check out on Ichitaro. Rukia, Shikamaru, check out whoever it was."

All three of them agreed and were split into three individuals. Not long before a shadow with a devious chuckles echoed at the area.

Ichitaro looked deeper railway into the abandoned mines. Thankfully, his phone doesn't have a flashligh because they're colourful stones at the wall that light up in his path. Yoshimura and Rangiku carefully sneaked in whilst following their brother, wondered what was he up to.

Ichitaro decided to ignore them until he spotted something that shone gently to his eyes. He went there between the taller stalagmites and larger cobwebs and there he found Excallibur, pecking a skeleton dressing in rags, grabbing something.

As he looked closer, he saw a Hallow pass right inside the hand bone, guarding it like a treasure. By the time he could touch it, Yoshimura disturbed him by poking his spine, saw Excallibur flew away from him. Ichitaro checked on who it was and saw his sisters behind him.

" No wonder you're missing - chasing skeletons like you used to." she said.

" Yoshimura, what the hell?" Ichitaro asked

" Before you're doing something stupid, I just want to say how crazy it is to find you. But we'll support your journey." she answered.

" Once we're done with this adventure, this skeleton key will be getting us home. But we won't tell mom and dad. "

" Yeah, but don't worry about Ichigo as well, I've heard he lost his powers by the time he saved the Soul society. Overheard it by those two soul reapers, arguing." said Rangiku.

In shock, Ichitaro asked to her :

" Wait a minute, if you said Ichigo lost his powers does this mean he's a soul reaper? "

Shyly, she nodded and said :" That's all I heard. I'm sorry, if it's true."

He closed his eyes and sat down in silence. By accident, he layed his fingers on the Hallow pass inside and he could feel a powerful spirit energy like a gale of wind surpassing their weakling bodies, knocking them cold.

* Whoosh *

Renji went to check on the triplets and suddenly could feel an enormous amount of spirit energy gashes through his own. He took one step forward from the violent wind, covering his entire face with his arms. When he peeped through his eyes, he could see the triplets unable to move and their bodies were unconscious.

Their eyes were covered by darkness. In horror, Renji tried to breakthrough to save them, but he wasn't strong enough to go inside. The howling wind of an unknown spirit energy, blew him away from them and threw him to the ground. He rapidly gain conscious and took his zanpakuto as he went charge towards it.

~~~~~~~

Ichitaro slowly opened his eyes and saw himself in another world where it was in black, white and grey. " Where the hell am I?" he asked.

He went further away to find his sisters, but he slipped himself and fell towards an unknown topsy-turvy city landscapes. There he saw a child, nearly 10 years younger than him. When he opened his eyes again, he was in a perfect landing and the child had `ceased ` to exist.

He quickly got up and looked around as he was at the same landscape city turning upside-down. There, he saw his father looking around too.

" Dad?", he asked by confusion, " What are you doing here?"

Neji also was looking around and spotted his son and there he was, happy and worried at the same time.

" Ichitaro, everyone were worried sick about you. Are you still at the Seireitei?" he asked.

" I don't know. We left at there when these guys were attacking and Yoshimura and Rangiku were there ___."

" Ichitaro, do you know it's dangerous out there? You could be injured, sick or worse. "

Listening to his father's words began to break him. He then looked at himself down and his phone. He went to the photo gallery on his phone where he saw a photo of him and Koro three months before his death. He then looked at him.

" Dad, maybe I'm not cut out to this. I just don't know how I'll ever return home, whether or not I'll make it in one piece." he said.

Neji could see how sad he was and noticed something very odd. Ichitaro's eyes glowed black as he was looking at his reflection from his phone. He freaked out and accidentally dropped his phone and by the time he picked it up, a dark energy surrounded and, magically, a shadow like ball floated itself and gave it to him.

" Dad, what's going on?" he said.

Neji sighed. He could see his magic was slowly fading away and said : " My sweet little boy, finish that task and return home in one piece. Or I could find you somewhere. Listen, I don't have much time, just do it for our forefathers."

He then moved his hands, causing the topsy-turvy world to dust. Fogs began to clear away and after regaining conscious by gasping, he looked at the Hallow pass on his hand. ' Dad...', he thought, ' I will come home.'