The metallic sound of clashing blades echo across the barren training grounds as Zangetsu and Ichigo continue to battle. Yoruichi crouches on a cliff above them as she watches Ichigo repel Zangetsu's offence without shattering his current blade in the process.

...He's already able to keep fighting with a single blade for more than 5 minutes... Yoruichi thinks. ...There are less times where the blade breaks from normal contact... She tightens her grip on the thin, coiled rope in her hand, causing energy to burn from it, But... He's almost reaching the limit...

Ichigo charges at Zangetsu with blood running down his cheek as he screams fiercely, "NOT YET!!!"

Before their blades connect, the sword in Zangetsu's hand goes flying as he suddenly vanishes - leaving behind the strange mannequin he had been occupying.

The statue falls over in front of a very confused Ichigo, "...Huh?"

Yoruichi leaps down from the cliff and approaches him. "Put down the sword, Ichigo..." she pulls off tie on her ponytail to let her long hair fall freely. "The first day is complete."

~*~*~

>SPLASH<

"Haaahhhhhh~~~..." Ichigo sighs as he eases his sore, naked body into the warm waters and leans his arms back against the large rocks that surround the quaint pool of water. "A hot spring, huh... I didn't think there would be one boiling in a place like this..." The spring was being fed from a sloping stream that curves down around the cliff face looming behind him. "Now that I think about it, this is my first time in a hot spring..."

He looks around the rocky landscape spotted with dark swords impaled in the earth. "...Training..." he mutters to himself. "For the first day to be over must mean that night came before I even realized it..." He splashes his face to wash the blood off the cuts on his face. "Actually, my body is pretty beaten up here and there... since I can't tell what time it is around here, it's all been messing with my senses..."

Ichigo hears a fizzing sound as his cheek experiences an odd tingling sensation. He looks down to see the open cut on his face close up from coming in contact with the water. "Wha!? What's with this hot spring!? It heals cuts at such an incredibly fast rate! Aah!?" He splashes around, startled. "Before I even noticed the pain fading away, most of the wounds on my body have disappeared!! Whoa! This is amazing!!" (1)

Ichigo cups some water in his hands and brings it up to his lips, I wonder if it can even heal the cuts inside my mouth...

"Ichigo."

He looks over his shoulder with his mouth filled with spring water, "Mmfuhfufun?" (Yoruichi-san?)

"How is the bath water?" she steps up behind where he sits in the spring.

"Mmfuu," (Okay,) Ichigo gargles. "Fumfumfufufuhn." (It feels great.)

"I see. That's splendid," Yoruichi hooks her thumbs into the sides of her pants and starts to pull them down. "So then I'll join you."

Ichigo heaves forward in surprise and spews out water. "BAFUH!? COFFGAHGEH!!" he chokes.

"Y... you idiot!!" Ichigo yells as soon has he gets his breath back. "What are you saying... ah, HEY!!! Why are you taking your pants off!?"

"Fufu..." Yoruichi chuckles. "Your reactions are as predictable as ever... Such an inexperienced boy..."

"Are you trying to make a fool outta me!?"

"...My, don't make such a fuss," the slim black cat wades into the hot spring. "There's no problem as long as I'm in this form."

Blushing red, Ichigo stares at the cat that nearly gave him a heart attack.

"What?" Yoruichi looks over at him. "Were you a little disappointed?" she teases him. "Be honest. Hm? You pervert."

"I'm gonna drown you..." He glares down at the feline.

Eventually, the tension drains out of them as they sit in the comforting waters of the hot spring. Some time passes before Ichigo speaks up again in a much calmer mood, "...Hey, Yoruichi-san..."

"What is it?"

"I've been wondering about something..." Ichigo studies the landscape as he recalls a time not long ago when he trained with the mysterious shop-owner, Urahara Kisuke. "This place looks a lot like that place... the 'Training Room' beneath Urahara's shop."

"Well, you're right," Yoruichi says. "That's because it was made as a copy of this place."

Ichigo looks over at the cat in surprise, "Seriously?"

"Yes," she explains, "Back when Kisuke and I were in our youth, the two of us dug deep beneath the Dual Terminus (2) in stealth to make this place our secret playground."

"'Stealth'..." Ichigo repeats doubtfully, "you guys made a place this incredibly huge in stealth?"

Yoruichi looks away and says dryly, "Ever since the old days, that guy Kisuke has only been morbidly good at doing bad things in secret..."

"...It's an old story," Yoruichi continues, "As children, we would come here every day to play... when he entered the 13 Divisions and I entered Secret Maneuvers, we would match our strengths here..." She recalls her youth as a girl with short hair running through the wasteland with a smiling Urahara by her side in a normal (hat-less) Shinigami uniform. "And then..."

"Wh... wait a second, Yoruichi-san!" Ichigo interrupts. "'The 13 Divisions'... you mean he really was a Shinigami!?"

Yoruichi looks at him, confused, "You mean Kisuke?"

"Yeah!!" Ichigo exclaims, "I knew it was strange! He knows too much about Soul Society, and he carries a Zanpaku sword... There are also guys here at Soul Society whose faces pale just by hearing his name!"

"Please tell me, Yoruichi-san..." Ichigo asks, "what... is he?"

"Damn him..." she sighs in exasperation. "He still hadn't told you yet, huh... He can be so utterly useless..."

"...So be it," Yoruichi looks over at her protégé. "You've come this far so I don't see any reason not to tell you."

"...He is..." Ichigo stands wide-eyed as Yoruichi speaks, "the previous 12th Captain of the 13 Divisions, as well as the man who presided as the first Chief and Founder of the Research and Development office."

~*~*~

Beneath the bright crescent moon, 3rd Captain Ichimaru Gin strides though the night with his apprehensive Vice-Captain, Kira Izuru, in tow. Gin's steps halt at an open boardwalk which leads to a building owned by the 3rd Division. Izuru stops short behind him, startled. Someone else is on the boardwalk, about twenty feet away from them.

"So you two are here together, huh..." 10th Captain, Hitsugaya, stands waiting with his arms crossed. "Just as I had thought."

"Kira's cell was the only one which had been opened from the outside with a key..." Hitsugaya looks at Gin and Izuru darkly, "If you intended to slip away and escape... then you've made this way too fucking easy, Ichimaru."

"...What's this now..." Gin steps forward with his usual crafty grin on his lips, "...What a strange way of talkin'..." His expression, although smiling, turns sharp and nasty, "...Especially after all that trouble I went to makin' sure you'd figure it out..."

"...I'm glad I got here before Hinamori..." Hitsugaya stands ready to strike as he reaches for his Zanpaku sword. Spiritual energy flows from him as he says fiercely, "I'll kill you before she gets here."

A dark figure leaps down from above and lands on the boardwalk between Gin and Hitsugaya with a solid thump.

"...Hinamori...!" Hitsugaya looks down at her crouching figure in surprise.

Hinamori Momo stares at the wood floor as she catches her breath. "I finally... found you..."

Gin stands there silently, unpurturbed.

Slowly, Momo gets to her feet. "So you were at a place like this, then..." she turns toward Gin, reaching for her blade.

"Stop, Hinamori!" Hitsugaya takes a few steps toward her, anxious. "This isn't an opponent you can stand up against! Step back and let me handle this!"

Momo ignores him. With her back facing him, she draws her Zanpaku sword.

"Hinamori!!!" Hitsugaya shouts.

In the next instant, Hitsugaya finds himself staring down the edge of Momo's blade as she holds it level next to his neck.

The look in her eyes is clear - Hitsugaya is her target, not Gin.

Hitsugaya's eyes widen, "Hina... mori...?"

Momo glares at him through her tears, "...Captain Aizen's... murderer."

Gin watches the drama unfold with a grin.


(1)Yoruichi is such a meanie. Why didn't she let him take a healing bath before she put him in intense training?
(2)Sou Kyoku (Dual Terminus) is the execution stand and the long spear that is on a cliff which Rukia can see from her prison window. Go back to chapter 116 and you'll see that Yoruichi took Ichigo to a cave bored into the cliff face beneath the Sou Kyoku to look after him. I think it's safe to assume that this large training area is also within that cliff (...donno how tho).

Notes:
- Curiouser and curiouser... I won't even try to theorize on "who done it?" at this point. I'm just going to sit back and curl up in excitement as I wait for the next chapter. ^_^
- Yoruichi and Kisuke as wild kids... boggles the mind. o_0 I wonder if that means they grew up in Seireitei and not Rukongai... Hmm.
- I find it rather surprising that Ichigo has never visited a hot spring before (damn you, Kurosaki Isshin, you should have taken the kids on an outing!). Yumm, shirtless Ichi... ^_~

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