"So Mr. Yoruichi licked catnip?"
Inside Urahara Shop, Urahara Kisuke, Tessai Tsukabishi, Hanakari Jinta, and Tsumugiya Ururu stared gravely at the black cat before them.
The cat's eyes were spinning. She wobbled when she walked.
Every so often she let out a meow.
She rolled over and showed a tender belly, begging for rubs.
Urahara's scalp prickled. "Can someone tell me how to neutralize the catnip effect?"
The other three looked at one another.
They had dealt in Soul Reaper tools for years and thought they knew them all.
But none of them had ever heard of a tool that undid catnip.
MEOW MEOW, MEOW MEOW MEOW...
The black cat purred and wriggled.
Tessai's face went blank. "I suspect that when Mr. Yoruichi's consciousness returns, she will eliminate every witness."
Jinta and Ururu sucked in a breath.
Urahara's mouth twitched.
He swore this was the first time he had met a human who carried catnip on his person.
What, does he not have a cat at home?
Ten minutes later.
The four of them stared at the still-rolling cat, scalp numb.
"How much catnip did that brat feed Mr. Yoruichi?"
Thirty-five minutes later.
A heartbroken yowl split the shop.
MEOW!
...
AAAH!
At dawn, a piercing scream ripped through Kurosaki Clinic.
"What was that?"
Half-asleep, Tachibana Yu sat up and looked around in a daze.
"Did we not finish off the Hollows last night?"
Kurosaki Ichigo burst in at top speed, arms waving as he babbled, "Yu, do you remember last night? We met a Soul Reaper and monsters, then we became Soul Reapers..."
"Yeah, yeah."
Yu answered offhandedly, grabbed his clothes, and headed out. "Quit making a fuss. So we became Soul Reapers."
"But they were Soul Reapers and those things called Hollows. I remember we cut down tons of them. It feels like a dream."
"Relax, it wasn't. I even walked Rukia to the shop last night."
Cold sweat dotted Ichigo's brow. "That's exactly why I'm panicking. It doesn't feel like a dream."
Fifteen years of worldview had collapsed overnight.
After washing up, they sat at the table.
Yu eyed the spread and looked in surprise at Yuzu and Karin.
"Yuzu, Karin, is today some kind of holiday? Why is the food so fancy?"
Karin blushed as she set down a plate of grilled meat. "I don't know why. I just wanted to make you something tasty, Yu-nii."
Yuzu nodded hard. "Me too. So I made lots for you, and tempura since you like it."
"I see..."
Yu nodded, thoughtful.
So even after memory cleaning, the subconscious remembers.
While Yu tucked in, Ichigo scowled at his sisters. "I get making nice food for Yu, but can someone tell me why there's nothing in front of me?"
Karin rolled her eyes. "You have milk and bread."
Ichigo's voice turned tragic. "But I want fried meat, grilled meat, tempura, and yogurt."
His protest failed.
He chewed bread, sipped milk, and glared at Yu like a wronged wife.
Before long, Isshin hurried in, waving his arms in exaggerated alarm.
"Ichigo, Yu, did you hear? Last night a train derailed and barreled into our street. Left all sorts of marks."
PFFT!
Ichigo sprayed milk on his dad's face, then looked at Yu, mouth twitching.
You carved those with your sword, didn't you?
...
"Yu, all of this is from you, right?"
Walking down the street, Ichigo stared at the gouges in the pavement, black lines all over his face.
Each one was eighty meters long.
Each one a meter or two deep.
It looked like someone had built drainage ditches across the road.
"Don't let anyone find out." Yu kept his face steady and strode on. "If they make me pay, selling Kurosaki Clinic won't cover it."
Ichigo was speechless. "Why does you paying mean selling my family's clinic?"
They reached Karakura First High without incident.
Seeing the familiar building and classmates, Ichigo grew sentimental. "A day without monsters chasing us. A miracle."
Yu coughed twice. Ever since becoming a Soul Reaper last night, he could at least roughly control his spiritual power.
In the classroom, Asano Keigo waved. "Yo, Yu, Ichigo. I heard like eighty trains derailed into your neighborhood. You guys okay?"
COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH...
They both hacked in unison.
Ichigo ground out, "How many times did you swing that sword?"
Yu thought about it. "Over a hundred."
Ichigo drew a sharp breath and decided to bury the matter deep in his heart.
Not even ten Kurosaki Clinics would pay for that.
Sado Yasutora came over. "Ichigo, Yu, need help?"
Ichigo shook his head. "No. The wall at home and the road are already being repaired. Should be fixed by tonight."
"Good."
Yu stayed out of the small talk. He slid into his back-row window seat and opened his system interface.
He found that after last night, it had updated with many new options.
[Available Points: 467]
[Spiritual Power: 48,800]
[Strength: 5,142]
[Speed: 842]
[Zanpakutō: 1]
[Rei-link: 1]
[Soul Control: 1]
[Reiatsu Burst: 1]
[Reiatsu Armor: 1]
[...]
"Plenty of new abilities, but the main boost is still Spiritual Power..."
Yu grinned at the number. Becoming a Soul Reaper had spiked his Spiritual Power by twenty thousand.
It had already been frightening. Now it was on a whole new level.
Too bad there was no one to compare with, or he could gauge his current tier.
He looked down the new entries, thoughtful.
"Rei-link I know. It's a Soul Reaper sensing ability, to distinguish the unique pressure of each Reaper and Hollow."
"What is Soul Control?"
"Zanpakutō. Will that improve my blade? It's already eighty meters. If I raise it again, it might crack a hundred."
"Reiatsu Burst looks like flaring all spiritual pressure at once, to intimidate enemies."
"Reiatsu Armor, that I know. Coat the body in pressure for a defense that blades and bullets cannot pierce."
After some thought, Yu split the four hundred plus points evenly among the new abilities.
It was not that he did not want to specialize.
He just wanted to test what each one did.
Once he allocated them, instincts bloomed in his body, as if the abilities had been born with him.
A thought, and spiritual power condensed, spreading over his skin to form an invisible shell.
He picked up a pen and jabbed his hand.
CRACK.
The pen shattered to bits at the age of three days and four hours.
Reiatsu Armor's defense was no joke.
With that understood, Yu closed his eyes. Spiritual power and perception spread outward, reaching even as far as Urahara Shop.
...