“How come and I haven’t seen your powers yet?” Byakuya asked Ichigo over dinner one night.

Ichigo coughed on his rice and grabbed his tea, gulping it down. It had been about two weeks since his arrival in the past and so far, nothing seemed to be going wrong. Urahara kept asking him questions and prying, like always, and Ichigo busied himself in training Byakuya during the day as well as secretly trying to find out where some of his friends were. He was disappointed to find out that both Rukia and Renji were never heard of and might have been in the Rukon District or not in the Soul Society at all. Even so, no one had mentioned he amount of Spiritual Pressure he was spouting out and luckily for him, he still seemed to have retained a good amount of it since he wasn’t fighting Hollows and Espada all the time.

The question, though, took him very off guard since there hadn’t been any questions like it in a while.

“There’s no need to show it, so why would I show you?” he answered cooly.

Byakuya frowned. “I want to see it.”

“You’re not going to, kid.”

“It would be nice to see the amount of strength you had.” Genrei said, surprising Ichigo. “With such Spiritual Pressure flowing out of you all the time, you must have wonderful technique.”

Ichigo shrugged. “I think it’s more of a slash and crash thing… I’m not really fluid in fighting, just using more of my brute strength. You always hated that… or you will… something like that…” Ichigo said to Byakuya, confusing himself.

Byakuya turned his head at him. “So… do I not like you?”

“Yeah. I don’t know why but you don’t.”

“How is that? You’re so awesome! You’ve got this power that’s like WABAM and stuff and you won’t even show me!”

Ichigo was still getting used to the more outspoken, easily enraged, and ironically awed Byakuya, so he just smiled awkwardly.

“I’m sure if something happens you’ll see it.”

Byakuya nodded when he felt his hair tie get pulled from his hair. He turned and grabbed but was too late to get the intruder.

“I can still get your hair tie, Byakuya. You haven’t been practicing.” Yoruichi said from the other side of the room, holding his hair tie.

Byakuya growled, his hair falling into his face and Ichigo could see more of the man he knew in the boy in front of him.

“Give it back!” he yelled, running after her.

Yoruichi laughed and shunpo-ed outside of the dining room. Byakuya ran to the ledge and watched her as she smiled.

“Are you going to come and get it?”

He growled and stepped off the ledge to shunpo up to her but since his skills were not fully acquired, after a few times, he began to fall instead. The sound of his screams caught Ichigo’s attention and he immediately used is flash step to catch boy.

The appearance of Ichigo under Byakuya before Yoruichi got to him astounded her and she staggered back.

“H- how did you do that?”

Ichigo put Byakuya down and looked at her.

“I’ve always known now to do that.”

“So fast though… that was almost as fast as me.”

“It was faster than you.”

“I was waiting to see if Byakuya would master it but when I saw him unable to, I was about to catch him.”

“That was awesome! I knew you were hiding something!”

“Don’t worry, you’re definitely going to get better at that…” Ichigo said, remembering vividly the first time he ever met Byakuya and how fast he was.

“Captain Urahara wants to speak with you.” Yoruichi said, beginning to leave. “He says he’s gotten a revelation on some things for you.”

Ichigo nodded.

Upon entering Squad 12, he was promptly met by Hiyori’s foot to his face and he fell backward.

“What took you so long?!” she growled, standing over him.

“Hiyori, there’s no need to hurt him. Go play with Shinji for a bit. I’m sure you haven’t called him Baldy in a while.”

Hiyori nodded. “You’re right. I haven’t seen that idiot for a while.”

She walked out but not without kicking Ichigo in the butt as hard as she could. Ichigo hissed and walked into the room.

“Yoruichi said you wanted me to come here?”

“Yes. I’ve been studying the koryu from the Precipice World some more and have presented it to the Head Captain. He believes that you have come from the future to the past due to the data I gave him based on this. In that sense, I have also taken the liberty to check some of the koryu that was on you and have found some… troublesome information.”

Ichigo nodded and sat in the chair behind him.

“How is that?”

“For starters, your powers are waning greatly. I’m surprised you even made it into the Soul society with the amount of reiatsu you were holding in your body… You haven’t been doing any techniques, have you?”

“Just a little flash step but no, I haven’t done anything but regular sword play.”

“I see, I see… Well, despite that, I can sense that you still have an exsorbent amount of Spiritual Pressure within you. Now, I can’t keep you from losing the reiatsu, but I can make you something to limit it as long as you don’t do any techniques.”

Ichigo brightened. “Really?”

“Yes. But like I said, you cannot use any techniques at all. If you do, it will continue to sap the reiatsu. In that regard, I have also figured out a way to get you to your time. I have calculated the exact date for the koryu and I believe I can get you back. It will take a while, but I can do it. Can you wait?”

Ichigo nodded. “Yes. I can wait.”

“Good! I will get started on it as soon as possible! I will get you the formula I have made and like I said, no techniques at all.”

Ichigo nodded and Urahara went to get the formula.

As Ichigo left Squad 12, he was walking toward the Kuchiki mansion when he heard some commotion. It sounded like two people fighting and Ichigo ducked behind a bush. He knew it really was a moot point but he had to see what was going on. He opened the bushes leaves and peered through it to see what was going on. There he found someone yell out and fall to the ground, dead. Ichigo narrowed his eyes, not able to see who was there.

“You did a good job. But tell me, why did you kill him?”

Ichigo knew that voice and watched on as the person finally turned around and he gasped. The boy looked at Aizen with that perpetual grin and squinted eyes and shrugged.

“He did not seem important enough to mention in the future.”

Aizen nodded. “That’s a good answer, Gin.”

Ichigo knew something was going to happen. He didn’t know when but he knew he had to have things take their course or what happened to him would never come about. I have to stay quiet even though I know things are going to go to Hell from here…