Chapter Text
The Shiba household is absolutely packed . It’s utter chaos, and Ichigo can see Kuukaku looking uncharacteristically wistful--clearly reminded of how the Shiba clan used to be.
Ichigo finds himself hiding away in the training grounds more often than not, a bit overwhelmed by the constant noise, both inside his head and out of it. It’s so good to have his headmates back, of course, but it’s been decades . He’s not used to their constant commentary, not the way he was. None of them are quite the same anymore, either. They’re all a little sharper, a little more bitter and vicious and unforgiving. Even the war hadn’t made them hard the way their binding had. The war, at least, they had understood.
The sealing just made them angry .
But even angry as they are, they don’t want another war, don’t want to see the effect it would have on their friends and the innocents under corrupt rule.
So instead, they’ll have to settle for tearing down the corruption itself, brick by painfully slow brick.
They can live with that.
In the meantime, though, they need to relearn themselves and each other, come to terms with their new abilities. They did some before Rukia found them, of course, but they'd had time then that they don't have now. Equally, they have motivation now that they didn't then.
So Ichigo spends a lot of time in the training room in Jinzen, sparring with the rest of his soul, each of them becoming familiar with the jagged new edges that still somehow fit together perfectly.
They're not the only person down there, either. After the long silence of Muken, the noise must be overwhelming. Ichigo thinks Aizen mostly lurks in his room, or with Byakuya if he’s here, talking strategy or having tea ceremonies or whatever it is that the high and noble do with their spare time. But Gin, like Ichigo and Kisuke, tends to retreat to work on his abilities. He mostly lurks, wary of showing anyone anything, even after all is said and done, but Ichigo can sometimes talk him into demonstrating a kido or two for Ichigo to try to replicate.
Kisuke, on the other hand, wants to fight . Ichigo doesn’t know if it’s a side effect of having Benihime silenced for so long, or a reflexive need to be better, stronger , to never let anyone do this to them again, but the reasoning doesn’t really matter. Kisuke wants to fight. Ichigo fights him.
Several things are immediately apparent.
First, that time away from the game has not diminished Kisuke’s capacities at all . If anything, he’s more vicious, testing new techniques and experimental spells like they’ve been pent up in his head for decades,
Second, that Kisuke held back a lot when training Ichigo the first time around. It’s almost hilarious how far he still is above them, even with their newfound harmony and control and raw power . He’s a gods-damned assassin , with centuries of power and training and survival-need.
He’s not faster than they are, or stronger, and he doesn’t have more powerful kido (although, arguably, they don’t have kido at all, just varying levels of exploding reiatsu bombs).
He’s just… better. His control is impeccable; they never sense him if he doesn’t want them to. Hell, half the time they can’t see him, either. He can cast kido through bakudo, he can string kido into each other, he can layer them on his sword to be left as traps should Ichigo block rather than dodge. He’s got a dozen weapons other than Benihime on his person at any given time, usually knives he can throw with terrifying accuracy and control or recall with a thread of attached reiatsu.
In short, he’s entirely ridiculous as an opponent, and Ichigo is--all three of them are-- thriving on it.
They’re also quite humbled that he’s letting them see as much of his “tricks” and techniques as he has. For an assassin, predictability is death, and yet here he is, letting them see quite a bit of his arsenal. Don’t get them wrong, they knew even as the Winter War dragged on that he was far more powerful than he let any of them see--even Yoruichi--but this is a whole new level, and they’re floored by the trust inherent there.
Aside from that, they’re the most likely to survive training with him, as he forces himself further and faster, and they find that they can do for him what he once did for them, layer the area with hollow-tinged reiatsu so thick that Kisuke can hardly move , forcing him to adjust and adapt to higher levels.
In return, of course, the same training is forcing them to heighten their senses and reflexes and reaction times, as well as their precision , which is something they’ve always lacked, even with a third of them being a Quincy capable of direct reishi manipulation. They learn to make their steps whisper-silent, and then noiseless, learn to sense reiatsu on such a level that they can feel the leftover traces on Kisuke’s knives. They’re still a long ways from being able to play with reiatsu strings, but they can sense them coming, now, sense the layers of a kido trap, know what to expect even from a silent cast based on feel alone. It gets to the point where all three of them blend the edges of their separate consciousnesses to share abilities, the lines between Shiro and Ossan and Ichigo blurring into a single they , more so than ever before.
It’s a hell of a week, and both of them (all of them) leave the training grounds feeling a bit more comfortable in their abilities.
And then it’s time to meet with the delegation.
They aren’t expecting much, really. Even though Ichigo had made an impressive show of force last time--and Shunsui reports that at least one of the captains present has abruptly switched stances for some reason --the ruling nobles are still likely to insist on their own superiority. They’ve survived until now, so why wouldn’t they survive this?
Ichigo is so tempted to just slaughter them. He’s pretty sure Gin would help, and probably Shunsui to boot.
But no, they have to try diplomacy first. Just because they have a ridiculous amount of power doesn’t mean they can do anything they like; that’s exactly the sort of thinking that got them into this mess and has pervaded Seireitei since its founding.
So. The diplomatic approach, involving long hours of politicking and arguing over minutiae and nitpicking over the tiniest agreements.
Ichigo hates this part, really, but he’s good at it, and with Byakuya and Aizen both backing him up, there’s little likelihood that things will go terribly wrong. Worst case, the negotiations fall through, war is declared, and Ichigo plays one-man strike team. Even so, he’s hoping it doesn’t come to a display of force. It’s a bit heavy-handed, considering they’re hoping to become an allied group. It’s definitely not the best way to make a friendly first impression.
As long as the Onmitsukido stay out of this, though, Ichigo thinks they’ve got a decent chance to at least get a full meeting with the Central 46. Frankly, because politics are like that, he’d be content even if that was the only thing to happen today.
##########################
Ichigo stares down at the heavy parchment in his hand, a formal summons for him and his entourage to meet with the Central 46 at the end of the month, and all he can think is,
he fucking jinxed it.