Bleach: A Grand Adventure

Baiken and Pinkie, following the banishing of Shrieker to Hell, made sure to inform Kisuke about their discovery, where he wasn't surprised by the arrival of the Gates of Hell to take such a foul soul, and he kept a straight face when Pinkie told him about what she had seen on the other side of the Gates.

"I am slightly surprised that you were able to see a Ghoul... usually they steer clear of the Gates." Kisuke commented, but it was the other figure who demanded his attention, because Pinkie had described something he wasn't expecting to hear about, since it was even more mysterious than the Hollows that were sentenced to live in Hell, "As for the other figure, well, that would be a 'Warden', basically someone that tends to the souls that are sent to Hell... must have been the one that Shrieker was being assigned to."

"I take it that we have nothing to worry about, since the barriers between Realms is fine?" Baiken inquired, because Kisuke and the others had told them that the balance between the four Realms was important for the stability of the World as a whole, and that if the 'disc' that represented the World, as Kisuke described it, shifted too much in one direction it would cause chaos for everyone.

"Yes, we should be fine for the foreseeable future. As long as the balance remains stable we'll be fine." Kisuke said, though he was pleased that Baiken, at the very least, understood the lessons he, Tessai, and Yoruichi had imparted onto them, even though he knew Pinkie was likely in the same boat despite how she presented herself, but he still had to wonder why such a figure would show itself to someone like Pinkie.

Other than that Baiken found that there was nothing important going on so she and Pinkie spent the afternoon resting up, since there was no telling what the future might have in store for them and Karakura Town, especially since Rukia was stuck in the World of the Living. From what she could tell the insufficient Shinigami was tending to her body while adapting to her new life in the city, while at the same time Ichigo seemed to make sure that there were no more Hollows to worry about, for the time being, as Chad went home after his wounds were mended. It was still interesting to think about Chad, that he, like Orihime, seemed to now be attuned somewhat to the Spiritual World, though Chad was unable to actually see Hollows and souls despite being able to touch and even hit them with either his fists or mundane objects. Baiken was sure that Orihime was pretending to ignore what she could see, she didn't want to be dragged into the fights that Ichigo was involved in, but it was still interesting to think about the girl, her friend, and everything else that happened so far.

A week ended up passing before anything important happened, so during the time off between the attacks Baiken trained in the underground area with Pinkie and Yoruichi, leaving Tessai and Kisuke to come around now and then to make sure their lessons were progressing smoothly, and that changed when Rukia came by early one morning.

"If it isn't Miss Kuchiki... good timing, we just received some new products from the Soul Society." Kisuke said, which was the truth, he might not be welcome in the Soul Society anymore, but that didn't stop them from sending him things to sell to all of the Shinigami that were assigned to this city, meaning there were likely other stores around the world that happened to do the same thing, "So, what can we do for you today?"

Rukia put in a purchase for a number of items, such as a spare fuel container for her gigai, a bunch of soumafixers, which appeared to be fibers designed to strengthen the bond between the Shinigami's soul and the faux body, something that was followed by Kisuke asking if she wanted a tune up, he was willing to offer a discount for her. In the end she turned him down, she didn't want him to touch her body, even though it was the fake one that Kisuke was talking about since he could eject her soul with his cane, but he accepted her decision and kept the offer on the table. When it came to how she was going to pay for all of this, no doubt using funds provided from her job and therefore on something that all Shinigami carried when they came to the World of the Living, she denied that aspect and held out her phone. Baiken and Pinkie glanced at each other for a moment before shaking their heads, this was a first for them, where Kisuke informed them that Hollows were also assigned bounties and the longer one existed the greater their soul was worth, meaning Grand Fisher had to be worth a pretty penny to the one who claimed his soul.

While they stood there Baiken and Pinkie found that Rukia paced a little, where it was easy to see that her movements were stiffer than before and it made them realize why she and Kisuke had talked about the faux body like that, before she glanced at the pair for a moment.

"I would prefer to use bounty money... some of the Hollows we took out recently have to be worth something." Rukia said, letting Kisuke scroll through the phone and the list of targets that had been assigned to her, the jobs she had completed and how much each Hollow was worth, even though the girls could tell that Rukia seemed to have her own reasons for using this system for her goods as she glanced at Kisuke, "Also, has my order arrived?"

"Well, I hate to break it to you, but most of these guys aren't worth anything... Shrieker, however, is worth something, more than enough for your goods." Kisuke replied, tapping in the code in the phone that allowed the money to be transferred to Rukia's phone, then used a second code and his own card, baring the symbol of his shop on it, that reduced the amount that was on the screen, indicating that the payment had been made, while he nodded to Ururu for a moment.

Baiken found that the girl eventually returned with what appeared to be a pez dispenser, it looked like it, which Rukia took a moment to look at before accepting her goods from Tessai, allowing her to leave the shop and head down one of the alleys before using some of the spirit fibers to strengthen the bond between her soul and her gigai. Such a thing refreshed her and made her movements far better than what they had seen previously, allowing Rukia to head back to Ichigo's and slip in her stuff so she didn't lose any of it, but she took the pez dispenser with her for some reason. That was followed by them going to the school once more, where they found Ichigo and Chad's small group of friends talking to the parakeet, which was now just a normal bird since Ichigo had sent the boy's soul to the Soul Society, cutting down on the bird's vocabulary. When Rukia found them she was definitely in a much better mood, and when she asked to see Ichigo he simply glanced at Baiken and Pinkie for a moment before deciding that this was likely more Shinigami training and followed her outside.

Once they were alone, and the girls confirmed that fact, Rukia withdrew the pez dispenser and tossed it towards Ichigo, to which he caught it as Pinkie noticed that the item had what appeared to be a duck's head on the top of it, and it wasn't long before all three of them were glancing at Rukia.

"That is a Gikongan, an 'artificial soul pill' that we Shinigami ingest to separate our souls from our gigai, which have their own set personality so they'll move our gigais to someplace safe." Rukia explained, where she noticed that Ichigo was looking at the dispenser while the strange girls were raising their eyebrows at her, something that caused the lackluster Shinigami to let out a sigh for a moment as she realized she would have to explain this to them, "Look, I didn't design the thing, because I wanted Chappy the Bunny, which is the most popular on right now... also, it says 'soul candy' on the side of the container because the Shinigami Women's Association didn't like the name, so it was changed three years ago. I put an order in for this once I came to the World of the Living, but the battle with Shrieker, where I would have had to hold him off if it wasn't for our friends, reminded me that you needed this in case I was ever away and you had to fight Hollows."

"Speaking of which, it looks like there are a few coming out to play. Perfect timing, I was getting bored." Baiken said, though in the next instant Ichigo pressed down on the duck's head and a round pill popped out of it's mouth, going into Ichigo's for a moment before he was separated from his physical body, like Rukia had hit him with her special red glove.

As it turned out the soul that was inside the pill was designed to be unassuming, the perfect student and role model, but the group headed off before Ichigo had a chance to complain, where Baiken found one Hollow heading off to the west, one to the east, and another seemed stationary, causing her to smile.

"Good, I wanted to try something." Baiken remarked, focusing on the frog-like Hollow that was on their left, leaving the right for Pinkie and the middle for Ichigo, where Rukia noticed that there was a crackle in the air around her, something that also caused her opponent to stop as it realized that someone was coming at it, "Hado Number 33: Sokatsui."

In the next instant a torrent of blue flames burst out from the palm of her hand and raced through the air, something that came as a surprise to Rukia as she watched it happen, as Baiken's Hado had more power in it than what she thought about using against Shrieker previously. This tore through the right side of the frog Hollow's body before it even had a chance to move out of the way, blowing away a chunk of it's body in the process, and while it was distracted Baiken crossed the gap in an instant before slicing through it's mask, purifying it in no time. Pinkie found that her opponent was a flying type, due to the fact that it had wings and was flying around the place, but she wasted no time in catching a ride on it's back, allowing her to watch as Ichigo dodged an incoming attack from his humanoid foe and cut through it's mask instantly. With that in mind she huffed before summoning her weapon, just as the bird Hollow realized that she had been on top of it, and when it tried to attack her she she flipped forward and sliced through it's mask as she somersaulted forward.

With the trio of Hollows dealt with Ichigo turned and headed back to his school, though Baiken didn't think it was even worth the effort to follow him, she was more interested in the fact that she had performed the Hado spell correctly and produced it's power in an actual battle, making her eager to use the other spells in the future.

"Looks like we've got some trouble, Baiken, as that soul is running around with Ichigo's body." Pinkie commented, because it was far too easy for her to see the soul run down the street with a look of pure joy on his face, meaning he was enjoying having a body and didn't care that he might cause chaos for the one who actually owned the body, which was no doubt going to annoy Ichigo as soon as he discovered what was going on.

Baiken opened her mouth to say something before she felt the presence of another Hollow in the city, four in one day was definitely strange but she wasn't about to argue, and it was easy for them to see that this one was going after some kids in the courtyard of a school. The soul inside Ichigo's body managed to get the three kids out of the way, apparently he had the power to sense where Hollows were, but he also got his left shoulder sliced up by one of the centipede Hollow's claws, only to flee to the roof of the school as the beast followed. Apparently Ichigo arrived at the same time they did, so the three of them, plus the soul inside his body, punished the Hollow and even sliced through it's mask, though the soul rushed over to the area behind it to kick it up into the air before it was purified, all to avoid crushing some ants. Apparently it didn't want to kill anyone, who simply sat down and told them that he was a 'Mod-Soul', created by Soul Society, though shortly after this one was created the order to destroy the Mod-Souls went out and the day after he was birth he was slated for death, leading to the fear of being discovered when he finally escaped.

Baiken found herself feeling sorry for the Mod-Soul, since she knew what it was like to be trapped in a prison for a long time, but Kisuke ended up putting a stop to everything with his cane, ejecting the pill from Ichigo's body, though Rukia snatched it and told him that he wasn't obligated to do anything with the soul in question, she was keeping it.

"That puts an end to that... for the time being, anyway." Baiken remarked, watching Ichigo and Rukia head back to the school so they could finish their day, while Kisuke simply watched them as he wondered what they were going to do with the Mod-Soul that was slumbering inside the pill, before she glanced at Kisuke, "So, what are 'Mod-Souls'?"

"Soul Society, at one point in the past, had an operation that would allow them to use human bodies that had lost their souls as soldiers, with souls modified for battle placed inside them." Kisuke replied, even though he knew Rukia would have filled Ichigo in on what was going on and the information he needed to know, but at the same time he was impressed by what he felt from the young man, his power was growing at a steady pace, especially with the girls training him, "In the end the Soul Society came to their senses, realized that using empowered human corpses to fight Hollows was a terrible idea, and just cancelled the project, leading to the destruction of most of the pills... it makes me wonder how many more Mod-Souls are out there, just waiting to be discovered."

"Well, Kon seems nice, so we shouldn't have to worry about him." Pinkie said, a smile on her face as she spotted Ichigo and Rukia picking up a small lion stuffed animal while they were on their way to the school, which the pill could use as a body, much to it's surprise, though at the same time Baiken wasn't even remotely surprised that she knew something that neither of them had been told.

Kisuke, on the other hand, simply said nothing to that as he and the girls heads back to the shop for the day, as he needed to tell Tessai and the others about this so they could return to being normal shop employees, even though it did make him wonder what the girls might discover next in the coming days.