“Broken Innocence” Chapter 11

Back where Naoko and Tamura were training Ichigo, the drills ensued. Surely Ichigo was making progress, but one could not tell by all the wounds and continual faceplates into the ground.

Rukia rushed onto the scene, “We need to cut the training short guys! We have serious problems on our hands!”

Naoko’s zanpaku-to was holding off Ichigo’s, but at Rukia’s arrival she turned to face her, causing her zanpaku-to to push Ichigo aside as he fell again. With a growl and hitting the ground with his fist in frustration, Ichigo got back up and approached Rukia to learn why she interrupted his training—especially at the moment where he was getting ahead. However, the girls seemed to be ignoring him in their conversation.

“What’s up girl?” asked Tamura.

Rukia replied, “More hollow readings.”

“But we just took care of a bunch not too long ago,” Naoko shrieked.

“So where—” Ichigo began.

“Also Uryu encountered the boy with the strange energy,” Rukia continued, “He came out looking pretty bad, but Yoruuichi found him and he’s at Urahara’s right now recovering.”

“Then wha—” Ichigo tried to talk again.

“But I would guess that Uryu discovered something interesting in this encounter,” theorized Tamura.

“Yes,” replied Rukia, “the boy said some strange things.”

“Oh, really? Sounds mysterious!” Naoko said enthused.

“Rukia, I’m secretly madly in love with you,” whispered Ichigo with eyes closed and head tilted forward. The girls stopped talking and stood in silence, staring at Ichigo. Rukia had a very perturbed look on her face.

Ichigo looked up surprised that this tactic worked so well; too well in fact. “Aw come on now, I wasn’t serious,” he defended, “I was just trying to get your attention. It was a joke!”

“Not funny,” Rukia stated amidst the giggles from Naoko and Tamura.

“BUWAHAHAHA!!!” laughed an all too familiar voice.

Everyone turned to see Don Kanoji emerge from the bushes.

“Heh. Sorry about missing your 7:30 appointment,” Rukia said dryly while scratching her face.

“You should be! I, the Great Don Kanoji, am not used to being stood up like that! I am a very busy man you know!” explained the charlatan.

“WHAT?!? You had a date or something?” Ichigo exploded.

Rukia yelled back flustered, “No! He wanted our help with some hollows.”

“Sound’s like Ichigo is jealous,” Naoko, giggled.

“I AM NOT!” Ichigo shouted.

Don Kanoji gave a little cough to regain attention. He then explained his presence, “Now look kids. There is spiritual pressure popping up all over the city. And that’s not the worst of it. I tried to meet with y’all before to tell you, had you shown up you would have found me with no camera crew. Now, I know you may think I do not know much. But look. You are young kids; you can afford to go around doing good deeds, but once you are an adult, you have to worry about survival. I do what I do and act the way I act for the public so I can make money to feed my family. However, let us not dwell on worrying you poor kids about details like that. The reason why I wanted to see you… is because there is something foul going on. I have an agenda to keep up, but you can afford to look into this. Don’t take it lightly, this is something big… bigger than Bleach.”

All was silent. A rumble was heard in the distance.

“Bleach?” Ichigo’s voice cracked, “What’s the deal? Being bigger than bleach doesn’t sound too hard to do.”

“No kids, ya got ta hear me out!” proclaimed Don Kanoji, “I’m not talking chemicals, I’m talking about the very life we know!” He turned to Naoko and Tamura, “You girls were suppose to have clued them in on this by now!”

“Sorry, I guess we forgot with all the tormen… er… I mean training,” Naoko hit her head, closed one eye, and stuck out her tongue.

“We-eh-eh-eh-ell all right,” Don Kanoji sighed and sat in a meditative pose, “I suppose it will be all up to me… I just hope my wife doesn’t get mad at me for being late for diner!”

“Fine, we’ll go clue in the others and start working on the Hollow problem,” Tamura stated. She and Naoko sprung off, leaving Rukia and Ichigo with Don Kanoji.

Normally the respect and attentiveness that was being displayed would have been unheard of for Ichigo and Rukia, but something in the atmosphere seemed to whisper to them that this was the truth being told. Don Kanoji was actually telling them something they did not know of rather than being a crazy crackpot with supernatural spiritual powers.

Don Kanoji explained of the world they were in and how there were many other worlds out there. Being as they have many similarities as the Earth they knew, there were also slight differences, like laws that governed nature. In addition, these other worlds could not be reached by, spaceship, but a Kidofumi that leads to a main gathering place between all the different worlds could open up a portal. It just so happen that Don Kanoji was a Kidofumi in the world that outsiders labeled Bleach.

Once this new knowledge had been established, Don Kanoji explained how the two energies he mentioned to Rukia before were linked to a problem that was effect all the different worlds. An alliance between strong individuals from other worlds was being formed to work together to solve this threat. Don Kanoji left the two listeners to take this new information. Rukia was slowly beginning to understand Grand Fisher’s plot. Her analyzing was cut short to Chad and Orihime approaching while holding Uryu up between them. Ichigo and Rukia stood up to greet them.

“Hey,” Ichigo said solemnly, “How’s the wound treating you?”

Uryu winced, “I’ll live, but we have more important matters to deal with now.”

“Yeah!” exclaimed Orihime, “Tamura told us all about what’s going on! I knew there was life beyond here, but I always thought we were on Earth, not Bleach.”

“We should stop wasting time,” pressed Uryu, “we need to meet up with the rest of the alliance to stop this madness.”

Ichigo turned, “No, we don’t know what dangers wait beyond Bleach. I will go alone. You would help out more by keeping the Hollows here at bay.”

Uryu forced a smile as if to comply with Ichigo’s strategy.

The others went to take care of the problem at hand while Don Kanoji recited a silly-sounding incantation. Rukia kept questioning Ichigo to make sure he would be fine going alone. A blue pool of light circled about in the air.

“The-eh-eh-ere you go my boy!” Don Kanoji whispered spookily, “What lies beyond is the…”

“Yeah, yeah, you don’t have to make it sound like it’s the end of the world,” Ichigo smiled cockily. He walked up to the glowing portal and walked through it while lifting his hand to wave goodbye.

“There goes one brave man,” Don Kanoji mused.

“Yes, well, we have some Hollows to take care of before dinner now don’t we?” Rukia smirked.



Broken Innocence Chapter 12