Bleach: A Grand Adventure

Baiken and Pinkie found that there was only one major change to Ichigo after the battle with Grand Fisher, he was serious about being a Shinigami, he spent his spare time training with Baiken so he could master the art of using his blade while also tapping into his various Reiryoku abilities. The schedule was rather simple, as during the morning and early afternoon he was focused on all of his schoolwork, following that depended on whatever he was doing after school, so they either got to work on his training immediately or waited an hour or two before starting. If a Hollow showed up during their afternoon sessions than it was up to Ichigo to show them that he was retaining their training, allowing him to cut down the Hollows so their souls could be sent to Soul Society, as there weren't many that went to Hell. When night arrived Baiken and Pinkie kept an eye on the city, hunting Hollows so he and Rukia could sleep well and prepare for the following day, and after an hour or two they would get some sleep as well, while keeping their senses open in case of a surprise.

The interesting thing was that the days went by without much happening, save for Hollows coming out every now and then to hunt down souls, though Baiken made it a point to track down the souls that haven't been sent to Soul Society before a Hollow came for them, performing the rites to send them on their way.

In addition to that Pinkie noted something odd about Rukia, her Reiryoku was getting weaker as time went on, in fact, when she sensed the Shinigami's power, she found that the girl just wasn't recovering at all, her power was as weak as the day she went into her gigai. Such a thing worried Baiken, because if the Shinigami was losing all of her abilities, which couldn't be Ichigo's fault, it meant she would never leave the city and would be in Ichigo's closet the entire time, until he finally kicked her out to be left alone in his home. The thing that really worried her was that Rukia might actually be trapped in a human body, like her soul would fully merge with her gigai and she would be unable to go back to the Soul Society, and she made sure to bring up her concerns to Kisuke, since he was knowledgeable on the subject. Kisuke told them that it was possible for such a thing to happen, that extended and constant exposure to a gigai, like what Rukia was going through, but it was rare and just assumed that it was taking her far too much time to recover her power, like he assumed she'd be back to normal in the near future.

The other thing the girls discovered was that there was a show on the television every Wednesday at the same time, where it was about this strange man who was a 'spirit medium', as he claimed that he could see and speak with spirits, went to a lot of haunted locations, and 'purified' it.

"Guy's a phony..." Baiken had commented, after viewing one of the episodes of the man's show, where she heard that some called it 'Ghost Rush', or 'Drop In', or even 'Casual Soul Realm Assault Trip', and she found that she didn't care much for Don Kanonji, he didn't seem to know what he was doing and she had suspected he might be accidentally making more Hollows during his travels, "Don't be surprised if he's actually doing something stupid with his minor sight."

Ichigo shared her opinions on the man, he seemed like a phony and he didn't like spiritual mediums, especially since he had the power to actually see into the Spiritual World and could actually speak with souls, and he had these dumb phrases that seemed to catch the interest of everyone else. One of those happened to be 'smells like bad spirits', almost like he knew the location of the souls he was 'interacting with' and labeled them as bad ones without actually seeing them at all, and there was his 'spirits are always with you' line, which people enjoyed as well. In addition to that they found that Don Kanonji had a really weird pose where he crossed his arms in front of his chest, like an x, and then positioned his fingers like he was going to grab something, only the palms were facing his body, plus it had a stupid phrase to go with it. The only thing that such a thing brought about was Ichigo and Karin talking, thus allowing them to realize that she knew about Reiryoku, she even said that Yuzu had weak spiritual power while Karin could see as well as Ichigo, and Isshin was unable to see anything so he was the weakest of them all.

During one episode, in July to be exact, they learned that Don Kanonji would be coming to Karakura Town and would film an episode of his show at the abandoned hospital, though while Yuzu was interested, and Karin didn't care, Ichigo returned to his room that night and found a worthless Shinigami and his teachers standing there.

"Well, given how Yuzu and Dad are interested in the show, we'll most likely be going when Don Kanonji arrives." Ichigo said, all while ignoring Rukia as she did the stupid pose, showing that she was easily influenced by the World of the Living, which did make him wonder if all Shinigami might be like her in this aspect, though he hoped not, before he focused on them for a few moments, "So, in the off chance that there is a spirit inside the hospital, I'm going to take Kon's pill with me and change if the need arises... though I'm surprised the Shinigami haven't arrived to send such a soul along by now."

"If there is one, it is likely an earthbound spirit, something our sensors are usually unable to detect... not until they turn into Hollows and start attacking people." Rukia replied, dropping her arms for a moment as she recounted the information she knew, even though she was pleased to see that Ichigo was so focused on being a Shinigami that he was now starting to carry Kon's pill with him whenever he went out, just in case a Hollow attacked and she was nowhere to be seen, "Basically, they are spirits bound to a specific place... like the hospital, for example... because they usually regret leaving something behind, for whatever reasons, though unlike Pulses they're usually chained in place and are in the middle of turning into Hollows. As long as no one forces their Hollow hole to open you should be fine, since it will be some time before the unfortunate spirit fully transforms... though you could always go in and perform Konso on them, if one's inside the old hospital."

"Right, so go with the family and pretend to care, while focusing on tracking down the unfortunate soul and determining if one is there: if so, purify it... if not, watch show and go home." Ichigo stated, showing them that he was in his element now, he understood the art of being a Shinigami, to a degree, and now had some pride in being able to usher souls to where they were supposed to go when they died, and was planning ahead so he could be flexible, "Baiken, Pinkie, I'm trusting you two to keep an eye out for additional Hollows that might be looking to devour our souls... if Grand Fisher was interested in my soul, and the other Hollows wanted to eat Orihime's soul, and the souls of the others, such a gathering might attract attention."

Baiken nodded her head for a moment, it made sense when she thought about it, and Pinkie simply smiled as she did the same, letting Ichigo know that they would take care of any additional Hollows that happened to show up, which put a faint smile on his face before he got ready for the night.

Eventually the day of the filming arrived, where Baiken found that everyone in Ichigo's school, save for the boy with glasses that definitely had some sort of power of his own, knew about Don Kanonji's arrival and some even taunted Ichigo with the pose since they knew he hated the show, but he totally ignored them. This told Baiken that he was focused on his task, not on the show or what the people around him were doing, and, sure enough, he had Kon's pill with him, in his shirt pocket, as there was no telling what might happen the the show finally started. A lot of people showed up for the show, to see it being filmed, and sure enough the people were moving around, setting things up for their star's arrival, though Ichigo, his friends, and his family had different opinions on things after someone stepped into the boundary of the earthbound spirit. That was because something got too close to where the spirit was chained up, allowing him to appear to those who could see him, like Ichigo and Karin, while those who were less sensitive could only hear the howls of the soul, which were definitely similar to the sounds a feral Hollow made.

Of course that was when they found that the spirit was simply overly annoyed by the fact that he was supposed to inherit this place, because he was a greedy person when he was alive, and the hospital went to his brother, so his 'regret' was being unable to own this place and using it to live a life of luxury.

"I wonder if his greed would send his soul to Hell." Baiken commented, because that had the potential to have harmed a lot of people, especially if someone might have killed him over his greed and caused his soul to be bound here, though at the same time she found that Ichigo decided to get the show on the road, he slipped the pill into his mouth and walked over to her and Pinkie in his Shinigami form, leaving Kon behind, "You eager to get the show on the road?"

"You mean our job? Then yes... we should check the perimeter of this place, to be sure there aren't any Hollows coming, and then I'll send this soul to Soul Society." Ichigo replied, where he found that the ladies nodded, causing him to jump into the air and head off for another portion of the abandoned hospital, though at the same time Baiken and Pinkie left with Pinkie riding on Baiken's shoulder.

As it turned out they found no Hollows near the abandoned hospital, it was quite odd considering the amount of souls that were in front of it that had an arrangement of Reiryoku, though while they were away Don Kanonji parachuted into the area and started doing his phrases and poses, much to the excitement of everyone else. It was following his arrival that the cries of the earthbound spirit intensified, forcing them to return and found that the man was forcing a staff of some kind right into the soul's growing Hollow hole, both confirming that he could see spirits and that he had no idea what he was doing at the moment. Don Kanonji then shattered the spirit like it was nothing, where Ichigo and the ladies found that it started to reform at the top of the abandoned hospital, taking on a frog-like stance before the white mask finally grew over his head, just like all of the other Hollows they had encountered in the past. The interesting thing was that the newly born Hollow's first target was, in fact, Don Kanonji, like he had some resentment for being turned in the first place, yet Ichigo was on the move before anything could happen, swinging at the Hollow's arm and cut it off, as it dodged as it realized he was coming for it.

He found that Don Kanonji rushed into the hospital to chase the Hollow, but instead of doing that Ichigo jumped up to the top of the building and intercepted the Hollow before it could get too far, where Baiken and Pinkie stood back, because right now he didn't need their help and that was proven right not a few moments later as he purified the Hollow.

"He's gotten better at this, he really has." Pinkie remarked, which was funny because at the beginning of their training Ichigo was a total novice and could barely fight a Hollow, winning by getting sneak attacks or being incredibly lucky, but now, after a lot of training, he was able to accurately weaken whatever Hollow he was fighting and purified them swiftly, almost like he was like her and Baiken.

"Indeed he has... and, despite hating Don Kanonji, it looks like they've come to an understanding." Baiken said, looking at the top of the hospital where the man in the costume was standing and proclaiming his victory for his fans, causing the people to cheer in the process, while Ichigo dropped down to where they were standing as Rukia sneakily ejected Kon from his body so he could slip in without anyone noticing.

While that happened Baiken also noticed that the boy in glasses, who didn't like the show and likely only came to see if the man created a Hollow, slipped into the shadows and headed home for the night, but it made her eager to see what he might do and what the future held for them and the city, while hoping to put Don Kanonji behind them so they could focus on the job they were doing.