“What the hell happened to you?!”

I glared up at the werecat. Yoruichi managed to look simultaneously concerned and amused about my condition. “Oh I don’t know. Maybe it was the Soul Reaper that showed up and had me trapped in that stupid storage room? Y’know the one you told me to ‘have fun with’? Ring any bells?”

Yoruichi looked shocked. “The second squad lieutenant managed to push you that far? Huh, we really underestimated him in that case. All of our info said he was a near-useless fighter.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, confused. “It was the third seat of squad two not the Lieutenant.”

Now it was Yoruichi that looked confused. “The third seat?” She said, then got a pensive look on her face. “That makes more sense I suppose. If her Lieutenant was as worthless as we heard Soifon would have definitely made sure that the third seat was capable of being her actual second in command.”

“That’s great, your girlfriend has a competent subordinate. You couldn’t have made sure who it was before I nearly got my ass kicked?”

“Well I, uh, actually don’t know who the officers in squad two are anymore.” Yoruichi confessed, scratching her cheek and looking off to one side.

I shifted so I was at least sitting down rather than crumpled at the base of the ladder. “Wait, you don’t know who the officers of your old squad are? I know Kisuke said you guys were kicked out around a hundred years ago, but isn’t that kinda a short time for you guys?”

“And how do you know I used to be in squad two?” Yoruichi asked.

“Kisuke leaves things out. Did you know he has a diary?”

She rolled her eyes, “Of course you found one of those. Moron needs to stop leaving personal information laying around.” she muttered.

She walked over to me and reached out a hand, “A hundred years is a hundred years. Even if our lifespans are much longer than living people, it’s still a long time. Now come on, we can talk more when you get fixed up.”

I took her hand and allowed her to pull me to my feet. I’d like to say I didn’t need the help, but even after Yoruichi helped me up I still needed her help to limp further into the underground cavern.

Overall it was incredibly similar to the underground training room under Urahara’s shop. Large rock outcroppings littered the space, sparse vegetation grew randomly, and the roof was artificially illuminated by some unknown source. Probably some sort of Kido now that I thought about it.

Honestly there wasn’t much more to say about the place. It was large, looked like a rocky wasteland, and if it wasn’t covered in swords there was nothing of interest in the whole place.

Speaking of swords, the place was COVERED in swords. The show really didn’t do this part justice with the sheer amount of blades stabbed into the earth. Though there were some dust clouds being kicked up every now and then.

Looking closer I spotted Ichigo fighting a middle-aged man with glasses in a dark cloak. The two of them didn’t seem to notice me or Yoruichi at all. Which was fine. I was at my limits anyway. Talking to people wasn’t very high on my things to do list right now.

“So Ichigo’s training then? And I suppose that's his Zanpakuto spirit since he is the one running around with Zangetsu?” I asked as Ichigo’s blade shattered into fragments. Impressively, the teen got right back up, grabbed another blade, and continued fighting.

“Yeah, if we want him to have any sort of chance against another Captain, he will need to master Bankai.” said Yoruichi. “We are out of time and the only chance we have left is the execution itself.”

She started steering me to one area of the cavern while I gave her a look. “Out of time? Kisuke never mentioned a time limit other than the actual execution, something I should know?”

“Not an actual time limit.” She said waving me off. “But by now we lost the element of surprise. The Gotei will start organizing by now so rushing in will just leave us facing more and more opponents. Oh watch out.”

We both stopped as Ichigo crashed into the ground directly in front of us, another broken blade in his hand. Zangetsu dove down on top of him cratering the ground with his blade when Ichigo rolled away.

I covered my face as we were sprayed with dirt and shards of stone while the two of them bounded off to continue their duel.

“Was that really necessary?”

Yoruichi just laughed, “I doubt it was on purpose. Let’s go. It's right over here.”

A bit further off was a natural hot spring. Or at least it looked natural. Considering this place was apparently made by Yoruichi and her friends at some point I wasn’t too sure just what was natural and what would have been added later.

“Here, this spring should help heal your injuries.”

“This looks really nice actually. Any chance you have a tow- aah!”

There was a strong shove from behind and I briefly found myself upside down looking at a smirking Yoruichi before I was underwater.

I exploded to the surface coughing and spluttering. I tried to glare at the stupid cat but the effect was entirely ruined by me angrily brushing hair and water out of my eyes.

“What the hell was that for!”

“The girlfriend comment!” Yoruichi laughed. I noticed she had managed to strip the pouches and pistols off my outfit and placed them in a pile by the edge of the spring. “Have fun with the bath, I’m going to go supervise Ichigo.”

I splashed some water at her but she was gone in a shunpo long before the water got close.

Even so, I couldn’t help the smile on my face from her antics. It was pretty funny.

Of course now I needed to plan my revenge. Couldn’t let the cat think she got away with this.

A minute of concentration later and I had managed to shift my clothes into a large white bath towel. While I wasn’t uncomfortable being naked in a bath, I wasn’t about to give anyone a free show.

Moving over to the edge of the spring myself, I relaxed into the water and closed my eyes. I could feel my cuts and injuries closing while the tension bled out of my muscles.

Today was exhausting. I think I’m just going to soak for a minute.

-o-

A loud splash startled me out of my nap.

That I actually fell asleep was a bit startling but not very surprising. I was tired. It was actually more impressive I hadn’t accidentally drowned myself while I was asleep. Still, seeing another person in the water had me fully awake now.

Ichigo had apparently decided to enjoy the hot spring and going by how he was acting hadn’t noticed I had been in the spring as well.

He was splashing around like an idiot yelling about how awesome it was that his injuries were healing. I might have been more forgiving about his excitement normally. But he woke me up!

So rather than give him any sort of warning about what was about to happen, I just adjusted so I was comfortable and got ready for a show.

Ichigo was still playing around in the water, having filled his mouth with the stuff, when Yoruichi made her way behind him.

“Hey Ichigo! How’s the water?”

“Mururiri-ran?Omph mirmph mraa! Mro mram ma mram.” I had no idea what he said but it sounded pretty positive.

Yoruichi though, apparently had no issues understanding him. “Oh? That’s good. Then I guess I’ll take a bath too.” and started stripping.

Ichigo pulled off a truly impressive spit-take and started panicking. It was incredibly entertaining watching him bounce between coughing, glancing at Yoruichi, and hiding his face practically all at the same time.

“I-idiot! What are you saying?! Why the hell are you taking off your pants?!”

Yoruichi caught me looking over at them and gave me a wink before going back to provoking Ichigo. “Heheh it’s not that big a deal, loosen up! Don’t be so old fashioned.”

“S-stop making fun of me!” Ichigo weakly protested before shouting. “No, wait! Don’t come over here, stop!”

“Heh who would have thought you would be so innocent.” Yoruichi teased.

“Don’t mess with me!”

My hand was over my mouth, trying desperately to keep myself from laughing. Yoruichi had slipped free of the last of her clothing and Ichigo had his hands over his eyes.

The werecat sent another look at me, clearly trying to not laugh herself, before shifting into her feline form and slipping into the water.

“I don’t know what you’re so worked up about.” She said in her now much more masculine voice. Her tail twitched back and forth while she swam lazy circles in front of Ichigo.

My shoulders were shaking with the effort not needed to laugh.

“Eh?” Ichigo replied dumbly. He slowly peeked through his fingers before dropping his hands entirely and just staring at the cat.

“What?” asked Yoruichi smugly. “Are you a little disappointed? You are, aren’t you. You little pervert.”

Any hints embarrassment vanished from Ichigo and were replaced by an enraged snarl.

“I am going to drown you.” He threatened.

That was the last straw. I tried to muffle it but soon I was nearly howling with laughter.

Ichigo damn near jumped out of the water from the unexpected sound which only set me off again.

“Alexandria?! When did you get here?”

“She was here for the past few hours Ichigo. Did you seriously not notice her when you came over?”

“I-I was distracted by the hot spring even being here! It’s not like you expect to find something like this in a cave anyway!”

While the two of them bickered, I eventually managed to get my laughter under control.

“Whoo I needed that. Thanks for the comedy show you two.” I said.

Ichigo refused to look directly at me, but turned somewhat in my direction. “Uh hmm, if uh, if you want me to come back in a bit I could leave?”

Well that was considerate of him. Jeez Yoruichi was right, he really is innocent.

“Nah, I’ve been in for awhile. Enjoy the water.” I said, “Oh, Yoruichi? When you’re done can you come find me? I have a few questions you might be able to help with.”

“Of course.”

I quickly left the water and made my way over to where Yoruichi had left my stuff when I felt a sudden sharp pain in my chest. It felt like shards of glass were shifting all around inside and then just as fast as I felt it, it vanished.

One hand rose and lightly rested on my collarbone, but nothing else felt wrong.

Odd.

Yoruichi noticed the odd movements though.

“Alexandria are you alright?” She asked, which naturally drew Ichigo’s attention.

I just waved her off and gathered up my things.

“It was nothing, probably just spent too much time in the spring.” I replied as I walked off to find a place to work. I had limited time before the finale and I needed to make the most of it now.

Besides, it was probably nothing… right?

-o-

I think my favorite thing about the weird barrier jacket I had going on, and I probably should come up with a better name for it, was that changing clothes was super easy. Yes, it still took a while to do specific clothing but the default Archer uniform took seconds and was perfectly clean every time.

Between that and the healing effects of the spring it felt like I was completely recovered from all the fights I had gotten in.

It was an incredible feeling not to have to compensate for injuries anymore. And so to celebrate I was sprawled out one one of the larger flat rocks in the area, enjoying the feeling of not needing to keep up my guard while I went over several notes I had taken when developing my Haste spell.

Even in the short time I had been going over it, I had found several places where slight improvements could be implemented just by looking at the spell code. The original version was good for what I had in mind, but even with my inherited skills I was only now starting to understand exactly what was needed for real combat now that I had been in some outside of a spar.

I was working on changing the spell from forward acceleration into a more general speed increase when I noticed Ichigo and Yoruichi making their way over.

Both of them looked clean having come out of the hotspring, but Ichigo seemed like he was determined to do something. He was making a beeline right for me with a serious look on his face.

Yoruichi was following behind him back in her human form at a fairly sedate pace looking much more relaxed, so I hope it’s nothing super urgent. Any new issues would just take away from what little time I had left to improve my spell.

“Hey guys, how was the water?” I asked when they were close enough.

“It was nice. A relaxing bath was exactly what I needed after running around taking care of this idiot.” Yoruichi replied. “We were just about to get back to his Bankai training but he wanted to ask you some things.”

“Okay? What’s up?”

Ichigo looked between the two of us before taking a deep breath.

“Alex, who exactly are you?”

Well, wasn’t this interesting. Ichigo and I hadn’t really talked much. I was usually either busy working on a project or doing something for Urahara when Ichigo was running around Karakura so I hadn’t introduced myself, and the little training match after he recovered his powers was the only other time I really saw him before we left.

Even after we arrived, Ichigo had preferred to run off and do his own thing rather than talk to me. Not that I really made any attempt myself. In fact I might have been worse since I had run off several times myself to do something and barely let any of Ichigo’s friends know what I was doing.

I decided that this conversation was likely meant I wouldn’t be able to pay attention to my spell work, so I put down my notes and shifted so I was sitting cross-legged on the stone.

“Um, what exactly are you looking for here?” I asked, “Cause I don’t think either one of us has time for long stories.”

Not that I would tell him the full story anyway. I still hadn’t told Urahara and Yoruichi about where I came from. The fact they had a somewhat accurate guess worked in my favor, and I wasn’t going to correct them anytime soon.

“You’re right. But I kinda just want to know more about you guys.” Ichigo said rubbing the back of his head. “It's just I kinda realized how little we know about everyone from Urahara’s shop. I mean I’m really glad you guys are helping us out but I don’t really know why.”

“And I’m guessing Yoruichi didn’t want to talk for some reason” I said looking over at the woman.

She shrugged. “I mentioned some things about myself and Kisuke, but we’ve known each other for a long time. I’m fine talking about him because I know what he doesn’t mind being shared out. You and I aren’t like that.” She started scratching at her cheek while avoiding looking directly at me. “And I don't want to say the wrong thing.”

Ah, she was probably thinking about our conversation before we broke into the Seireitei. I had pretty much forgotten it, but I felt oddly touched Yoruichi took my feelings into account.

“Fair enough.” I said, “So you told him you and Urahara were captains, anything else?”

Ichigo was looking between the two of us but my comment made his head snap to Yoruichi. “Wait, you were a captain too?!”

“Yeah, I was the captain of squad two. It’s not a big deal.” Yoruichi said, giving me a dry look. “And no, no I did not tell him about that.”

I winced at that “Sorry.”

She just waved me off, “It’s not like it was a secret. And it would have come up anyway, so there’s no harm in him knowing.”

“How about I just stick to myself then.” I said, “Though there really isn’t much to say. I came to Karakura a little over a year ago. During the first few days I was there, I was attacked by a hollow and Urahara was nearby. I managed to kill it, but got pretty hurt in the process. Urahara offered me a place to stay and once I healed up I started working for him to pay him back.”

“Yeah, definitely wasn’t because you were bored.” Yoruichi scoffed.

I glared half-heartedly at her. “Come on, let me at least sound good.”

“So you aren’t a shinigami then?” Ichigo asked.

I shook my head, “Nope. Pretty sure I’m unique as far as my abilities go. I can kinda copy a lot of what I see other people do but for most of it I need to work out the how by myself. For example-” I held up some of the notes laying around me, “-I need to do all this to figure out how to do my own version of the Flash Step. What I use right now isn’t working out like I need.”

I saw Ichigo’s eyes glaze over looking over pages of notes and spell equations. I knew he was pretty far from stupid but this stuff gave me headaches and I had the entire theory and knowledge how to do this grafted onto my soul. Honestly without the literal archive of knowledge I had available to me it was likely I would never have gotten even this far in a few decades let alone a single year.

Ichigo handed my papers back to me, his eyes still a little glazed over. “Can’t you just, ya’know, do it until you get the hang of it? That's how I’ve learned all my stuff.”

“Eh,” I shrugged, ”I can a little. Practice helps with the stuff I’ve already come up with if it’s just getting better at using that. But if I want to use something new or change the base of a skill, then I need to start with this stuff.” I waved a hand at all the papers. “It can be relaxing sometimes. Others not so much.”

“As much as I hate to break this up, we really need to get back to training. Let’s go, Ichigo.” Yoruichi cut in.

He nodded, said his goodbyes, and ran off to keep up his Bankai training.

On that note, I turned back to my own kind of training. Besides a few places I needed to check for errors, I was making good progress on a new version of Haste. Once I got those ironed out I could give it a test to see what I still needed to work on.

I picked up my notes and got started.

“Okay, let’s see now…”