Chapter 273 - Soul: The Absolute Hypnosis. (2/2)
”Me I am, and you, you are. Simple as that.”, his absolutely confused face was almost too much for me, I nearly burst out laughing.
Before he could sprout out anything I continued; ”Ready for training, are you? hmm.”.
Ichigo's face morphed through a plethora of different expressions, but it ultimately set in resignation, sighing he simply accepted his fate saying; ”Yeah whatever, it's not like it is boring anyway. It is just a pity that this is just a dream. If this was for real I would probably have results.”.
”But a simple dream, reality is. No proof we have, that dreaming we currently aren't.”, I said that in a profusely wise tone making sure to maintain my wise master persona.
Ichigo appears confused, and slightly perplexed at such affirmation; ” But you just appeared out of nowhere? How the heck something like that is possible in reality?”, Ichogo's voice was filled with skepticism and doubts, he didn't really 'believe it'.
”Infinite the universe is, which means, infinite our possibilities are... Doubt not, the ability of life to surprise you.”, my hope with these cryptic messages I can somewhat help develop Ichigo's mentality, he isn't dumb as seeing by his scores at school. But like a lot of students, myself included, he has a lot of problems applying that knowledge to reality, not surprising seeing the amount of garbage shoved down our throat but with my messages and way of talking I hope to stimulate his mental development too. A weak mind is extremely dangerous in possession of strong power, and I know that all too well.
While Ichigo was contemplating the meaning of my words I decided to continue; ”Little grasshopper, yesterday taught you the basics, I have. Today the basics, we should continue.”, the sword style I was thinking about on teaching him will come after the basics.
And so much like yesterday, our training resumed. I taught him the foundations of [Zanjutsu] to the best of my abilities, and like everyone was able to tell, his talents are absolutely out of the charts. a normal shinigami takes a little less than a year to learn all of this, and I am confident he will learn everything in three days. Yeah, I know normally a Shinigami doesn't just focus in [Zanjutsu] like Ichigo is doing, and his swordplay wouldn't be as refined, but need to give the brat credit where it is due.
Returning him the same way as before wasn't difficult at all. Soon enough another day passed, Kon was created and made a mess, Ichigo went to sleep, and soon it was training time again.
”Welcome, you are. Small apprentice.”.
”Hey stop with the diminutives old man, I am quite tall for my age”, huffing in annoyance he quickly calmed himself, the events of the day passing through his mind.
”Do you think an artificial soul can be considered alive?”, he asked probably still concerned about Kon's situation.
”Created by someone, our souls were. Makes less of him, this fact does not. Different don't always, bad means. Sometimes different, an evolution it can be. Hmm.”, this line was more referring to his hybrid status than anything else. He doesn't know about it right now, but I bet this will help him when he does.
”Training now, we must. Close to finishing the basics, you are.”.
Ichigo looked at me incredulously, he definitely didn't feel an improvement ”In real life”. That is mostly because he couldn't notice, but I bet Urahara has noticed his slight improvement, but that is something easily attributed to talent and coincidence. Hehe, can't wait to see his face when this starts showing extravagant results. He knows I am training Ichigo, he has been quite occupied trying to fish for information about it, he is trying pretty hard to find our training spot to his growing irritation at his constant failure. Lol. We are literally on the other side of the world.
We continued with the third session and soon enough Ichigo had a sufficiently good grasp of the basics of [Zanjutsu], no mastery by any means but he is already definitely better than his canon counterpart.
The next day in the canon would be the day he visits his mother's tomb, something completely impossible right now seeing as she is very much alive. Aizen decided to simply send a Hollow at Grand fisher's level and that was it, in the battle he was noticeably stronger, be it because of my training or because the fight wasn't as emotionally heavy. Anyway, at night he was sleeping like a baby, which means training time.
”Hello.”, this time I opened it with a single and simple hello, as easy as the battle was Ichigo still saw that the hollows were slightly stronger than him, so it wasn't without difficulties.
So I wasn't that surprised when he asked; ”...How can I get stronger old man? I keep fighting, I keep trying, but it always feels like I am one step behind everything.”.
”Hmm. Wrong you are. Do or do not, there is no try. Training and fighting, the best way to improve is. You both, are doing. Now just patience, need you. Hmm”, Ichigo looked attentively at me as if to contemplate my words.
But before he could say anything I continued; ”Finish the basics you have, only polish them from now on, you will. A style, teach you I will. Unnecessary, originally I thought, a style is. But mind changed, I have.”.
Slightly expectant Ichigo asks; ”What kind of style old man? Would it be some cool super-duper attack style? Or something focused on absolute speed above all else.”, his question is valid and I bet I would be curious too if I heard the same thing in my youth.
”Survive. The focus of your style, survive is. Strength, speed, dexterity, energy full of them you are. Surviving for you the most important is. Surviving, alive means, and alive improve can. Dead improve no more.”, I said in a matter-of-fact tone Ichigo's expectations fell flat but I guess at this point he just resigned himself.
What I possibly could've known if I used [Clairvoyance] would be the sheer annoyance this survive-like style is for anyone fighting Ichigo. If the guy was already an absolute c.o.c.kroach in the original, not dying when he literally gave up everything to defeat Aizen.
After learning this style he became the absolute highest annoyance to anyone fighting him, like is aid his [Bankai] already gives him a plethora of Strenght, speed, resistance, and all those attributes. learning to survive will make those attributes an even bigger annoyance than they already are. I know Ichigo shtick is to ”Protect”, but you can't protect anyone if you are dead.