//------------------------------// // Chapter 22: And the Gang's all Here Part 3 // Story: Shinigami In Equestria // by Urimas Ebonheart //------------------------------// Chapter 22: And the Gang's all Here Part 3 The others start asking me about the hollow but I tell them to wait until we're at Urahara's before I tell them, I don't want to repeat myself. Chad notices most of the ponies avoiding us. "Why are they running from us? The ponies in your town didn't," he asks me. I chuckle. "That's my fault, I may have scared some of them when a snobby pony threatened me and I made him faint with my hollow mask," I reply. Orihime then slaps me on the back of my head. "That wasn't very nice!" she scolds me. "Oh really? What about that snob who wanted to hire you as his own personal doctor when you restored his son's broken horn? And only for his family as well, denying anyone else access to your help?" I ask her. She opens her mouth to retort but then closes as she realises I had her there. "Fine, point taken, but scaring people still isn't nice," she says. I then get my phone out and dial Luna's number, I better let them know what happened with the hollow. "Hello, Ichigo? Is something the matter?" Luna answers. "Not really, I was attacked by a dragon type hollow, Renji and I killed it but it said it was here to test me for its Queen," I tell her. "A dragon hollow? Equestria has not seen one for nearly six-hundred years! That explains the magic we felt... We just thought it was thee training with another," she replies shocked. "No, I was attacked and he was pretty strong, I'm heading to a place where I've been training myself for the last few weeks, can you and Celestia make your way over to me?" I ask her. "Very well, this is much more important than the Nobles bickering at each other in court, we shall inform our sister at once. We thank thee for telling us," she replies and hangs up. We arrive quickly at the store and Urahara looks serious. "Renji told me about what he saw of that hollow, but what do you think, Ichigo?" he asks me once we're all inside, that's the first time he's used my first name. "I'll tell you when the Princesses get here," I reply. "The Princesses? They're coming here?" he asks and drops his fan. "Tessai! Ururu! Jinta! Clean this place spotless and get some tea and snacks made pronto!" he yells back to the others. "Okay!" Jinta replies and grabs a broom. "Of course, Owner," Tessai replies and heads into the kitchen. Ururu doesn't say anything but grabs a few pillows for the Princesses. After a few minutes of waiting the front door opens revealing Celestia and Luna. "This is a strange looking shop, how have we never noticed this place before?" Luna asks Celestia. "There are wards here masking its presence, and powerful ones at that," she replies. I stand up and walk over to them. "Thank you for coming out here, I know you're busy but this is important," I tell them. "As we said, tis better than listening to the Nobility squabble," Luna replies with a smile. "So what is this about?" Celestia asks. We all take a seat around the table set up in another room. Urahara and the others are now out of their pony gigai. "Princesses, this is Urahara Kisuke, he owns this shop and has been helping me train," I introduce him. "It is an honour to have your Majesties grace my humble store," Urahara says with a bow. "Thank you, I must say I've never seen architecture like this before," Celestia replies. "It comes from the human world from a place called Japan," he tells her. "And these are his employees, Tessai Tsukabishi, Jinta Hanakari, and Ururu Tsumugiya," I introduce the other three. Tessai bows to them. "Greetings, Princesses. Just ask if you need anything," he tells them. "They're pretty," Ururu says. "Meh," Jinta huffs and gets slapped on the back of his head by Urahara's fan. "Ow!" he yelps from the hit. Luna giggles while Celestia smiles. "Hello, may we begin with why we are here, Ichigo? I'd rather not hold off court for longer than is necessary," Celestia tells me. "Alright, I believe that the hollow that attacked me was an Adjuchas, and he mentioned something about a Queen wanting to test me..." I tell them and frown. 'Who the hell is this Queen? I thought Hueco Mundo was ruled by the hollow King Baraggan,' I think to myself. "A Queen? The hollows have royalty?" Urahara says to himself. "Don't the hollows have that King guy with the rotting powers?" Chad asks. "Yeah Baraggan, there was no Queen in the Anime... Then it's safe to assume that this isn't like the anime anymore." I reply with my right hand on my chin in thought. "Which could mean Aizen is not obsessed with power or the Hogyoku and is just a Captain to the thirteen squads," I say with some doubt. "Yes, that could be true... We'll just have to go into Hueco Mundo and find out ourselves," Urahara tells me and then looks at Chad and Uryu. "So then, who are these two?" he asks. "The giant is Sado Yasutora and the skinny one is his little brother Uryu Ishida. They're just like me and Orihime, displaced," I reply. Uryu groans and Chad chuckles. "I see, I can tell Mr. Ishida here is a Quincy, but Mr. Yasutora seems like an ordinary human to me," Urahara says. "He has powers similar to a hollow," I tell him. Urahara looks shocked but nodded. "Fascinating. I take it you brought them here so they too can practice with their abilities?" he asks me. "Yeah, If that Adjuchas was anything to go by, we don't have much time left and I need to find out how strong these two are to see if they can help in the fight or to at least protect Ponyville while I'm away," I reply. Uryu frowns while Chad looks at his right hand. Orihime glances at me with worry but what I didn't notice is she somehow managed to snag Ururu and place her in her lap while rubbing her ears. Celestia and Luna have been silent this whole time processing what they've just heard. "That is true, very well then, until we figure out what is going on you can use the underground training room for free for now, we need to focus on building up our forces if we're going to have a fighting chance... I might even have to start practising again," Urahara tells me. "Would we be able to train with thee as well?" Luna asks getting a surprised expression from Celestia. "I don't see why not, Ichigo has told me how you two are Soul Reapers yourselves, and seeing as you're powerful alicorns you would be a great help in the coming battle," Urahara replies. "Luna, are you sure about this?" Celestia asks her sister. "Of course we are, if Ichigo has gotten this strong by training here then we shall as well. Besides, we wish to master our hollow powers, what better place to do it than where Ichigo does?" Luna replies to her. Celestia sighs and nodded. "Very well, then I shall as well," she says and looks to Urahara. "Wonderful! Now if you would please follow me we can get started," he tells them. We all head down into the underground room and stand in an empty area. "Alright, first I'll help Uryu learn how to control his reiatsu and form his bow, then I'll help Chad to learn how to use his beefy arm powers. Urahara, can you teach the Princesses about kido and reiatsu?" I tell them and ask Urahara. "Okay, sounds like a plan, please follow me Princesses and I shall teach you what it means to be a Soul Reaper," Urahara says and walks off with the Princesses. Chad nodded and goes with Orihime while I stay with Uryu to help him learn. "Right then, hold your left arm out like this," I tell him and hold my left arm out like I'm holding my bow. "Now feel for the reiatsu within you and channel it into the cross and keep a steady flow of reishi through it," I finish telling him and form my bow. He holds his arm out and closes his eyes. After a about fifteen minutes he frowns in concentration and I can see the grip of his bow forming. It begins to form but the bow itself looks unstable for a few minutes before it completely forms. "Well that's good, you're at least at the Hueco Mundo arc," I say to him as I examine his bow. He grins at his accomplishment but then frowns as his bow destabilizes and breaks apart. "Oh, well no one said this was going to be easy," I tell him and pat him on his shoulder. "Just keep practising and then we'll get to actually using it." "This is all so strange, just yesterday we we're at a convention and now we're in a place that's a mix between an anime and a mythical world. Now I'm here with my brother and I have Uryu's powers with others in the same predicament," Uryu says. "At least you remember your brother, I can't remember if I even had any family," I reply with a shrug. "I guess so..." he says with a sigh. For the next hour Uryu practices forming his bow and channelling his reiatsu. Chad has managed to get his left hand covered in his gauntlet, glove thing which is slowly forming more up his arm. Urahara is teaching the Princesses about kido while Orihime is drinking tea with Tessai, Jinta, and Ururu. While they were practising, I continue my own bow training to improve my aim and forming the arrows faster. Three Hours Later Uryu has now mostly got his bow stable, Chad's glove arm thing is now up to his elbow, the Princesses have started learning the basics of kido while Orihime, Ururu, and Jinta played catch together with a ball. Tessai has been getting refreshments for everyone during that time. I sigh and dismiss my bow and then walk over to Urahara. "I'm going up to get some air and lunch," I tell him. "Alright, I think it's time for a break anyway, be back here within the hour, I want to help you increase the time you can stay in your Bankai form," he tells me. "We wish to go with thee," Luna says just before her stomach rumbles making her blush in embarrassment. "Sure," I reply with a chuckle and we head up and out of the store. We're walking down the street where the ponies bow down to Luna and avoid eye contact with me. "Tis a shame the ponies of Canterlot still fear thee," she tells me. "Meh, can't do much about it, I am the Canterlot Demon after all, that and I made a snobby pony faint in fear in the middle of the street," I reply with a chuckle. "Oh? Do tell," she says. I tell her what happened and how I used my mask to scare him. "While as funny as that sounds, we recommend not doing it again," Luna tells me with a smile. "Eh, they want to be assholes then I'll just be a bigger one. Give as good as you get," I reply with my hands behind my head. We walk into a sandwich shop and get a sandwich each and some other snacks along with a cup of tea. "Tis strange, this Urahara is quite powerful from what we can see, and this kido magic is remarkable," she tells me. "Well you saw me use it against your guards and Celestia, and those were the basic ones. There are some that can seal people away, bind them tightly or make powerful barriers that are near impenetrable," I reply and then take a bite out of my sandwich. "We may have to learn these spells, they would certainly be of great aid," she says taking a sip of her tea. I notice that the other customers of the café just stare at us forgetting all about their own food. I just roll my eyes at them and shake my head. "What?" she asks. "Nothing, just the ponies staring at us like zombies," I reply and drink some of my own tea. She looks behind her and raises an eyebrow at the other ponies. "Please go back to thy meals, we art just enjoying time with a friend," she tells them. Some go back to their food while others continue to stare. "Just ignore them, they wanna stare then let them," I tell her. We finish our food and I pay for it. On our way back I spot a stuffed animal on the ground by a trash can that makes me raise an eyebrow. It looks just like Kon, except it has a red mane, a soft scorpion tail and a pair of tiny bat like wings. 'This can't be a coincidence,' I think to myself and pick the doll up. "What do thou want with that filthy thing?" Luna asks me. "I have a hunch, just humour me," I reply and we continue back to the store. We arrive at Urahara's place and head down to the training grounds. "Urahara! Do you have any battle mod souls in your shop? Like an outdated one that was supposed to be destroyed by the Soul Society?" I ask him. He turns from talking to Celestia to me. "Hmmm? Why would you ask that?" he asks me. "In the anime Ichigo had a mod soul named kon in a stuffed animal that he would use to switch between being human and a Shinigami, I was wondering if you had him here as well," I reply. He rubs his chin in thought. "Well, I do have one outdated battle mod soul, but I don't know if it's the same one you're thinking of," he tells me. "Doesn't hurt to try, it'll practically be harmless in this doll," I reply and wave the doll in front of him. "Alright then, though I don't see how a mod soul can be placed in a doll," he says and goes upstairs. Urahara returns with a small green mod soul in his hand. "This is the one, they were recalled to be scrapped but I kept hold of this one," he tells me and hands me it. "Well, even if it isn't the same one I know, it'll still make the group feel complete," I reply and stuff the mod soul into the mouth of the doll. I hold the doll by its wings and wait. After a few minutes the doll twitches and blinks a few times before looking around. "What?" It asks in a female voice. 'Well it ain't Kon, but no matter,' I think to myself and hold the doll to my face. "Hello, do you have a name?" I ask her. "Erm... no, I don't... You're not going to hurt me are you?" she asks with a worried expression. "No I'm not, my name's Ichigo Kurosaki. Why don't you come up with your own name?" I introduce myself and ask her. "My own name?.. Kira, I want to be called Kira," she says and I gently put her down. Orihime couldn't hold herself back any longer and squeals before picking Kira up and crushes the doll against her chest. "Mff mmmphf, mmmuuff," Kira mumbles, her voice muffled by the expanse that is Orihime. "Huh?" Orihime says and holds Kira out at arm's length. "I said, I can't breathe," Kira replies. "Do you even need to breathe? You have no lungs," Uryu comments. Kira looks at him for a few seconds before shrugging. "What kind of spell is this?" Luna asks and takes Kira with her levitation spell while spinning the doll around examining it. "It's not a spell, she's a mod soul, an artificial soul originally made to posses a dead body for combat purposes, but the Soul Society thought it too inhumane so they scrapped all the souls, except this one," I tell her. "So it is a form of necromancy?" Celestia asks with a frown. "I guess so? I don't know the method behind it myself," I reply. "Please put me down, I'm getting dizzy," Kira says and her eyes are shut tight. "Oh! Our apologies!" Luna says and gently puts her down where Kira stumbles before falling on her back. 'Well, she may not be Kon, but she's a lot more polite,' I think to myself with a smile.