Chapter 37: Interlude

Ikkaku Madarame

He guided the men carrying Alex to the 4th’s barracks. He usually wouldn’t bother, but since the Captain had removed his eyepatch during the battle, a high enough seated officer would be needed to explain things when they reached there.

And wasn’t that a surprise? Ever since his sudden appearance, Alex’s spiritual pressure was unusually high for an outsider, just around lieutenant level. But from the way he dealt with Yumichika and how much stronger he became while fighting the Captain, he understood that was just a byproduct of his lack of intent.

But even before that mistake was corrected, when he attacked the Captain and forced him to take off his eyepatch, the spike in spiritual pressure was enough to show where he actually stood in their hierarchy, and for him then to learn his lesson on intent and immediately apply it to complete the bond with his Zanpakuto?

He suppressed a shudder. In two hours, Alex went from not even knowing what an Asauchi was to being ready to start the process of learning his Zanpakuto’s name, never mind how quick he was in learning how to wield a blade or how strong and fast he was when he actually tried.

Ikkaku knew he could have won if he fought against Alex after Yumichika, but that knowledge was overshadowed by the fact that he’d need Bankai to do so. What would happen if they went against each other in a month? Or even a week? Would his Bankai even be capable of harming him then? Or would he be defeated as easily as the seated officers that came before Yumichika?

He didn’t know. But he vowed to himself to become strong enough not to let that happen.

___

Arriving at the 4th’s courtyard, he was met by Captain Unohana and her Lieutenant, Isane.

He let his men move on to take Alex to one of the beds to be seen by the medics while he stepped up to debrief the Captain on the situation.

“Captain Unohana, Lieutenant Kotetsu,” he greeted as he came to attention.

“Third seat Madarame,” the Captain greeted with a calm smile. “Can you explain what happened? It’s not every day that Captain Kenpachi fights at that level.”

“Earlier today, a few members of the 11th found him in the Rukongai, fresh arrival,” he started on the excuse he planned on the way there. “And after feeling his spiritual pressure, they decided to bring him to the Captain to see what he thought.” He shook his head, still incredulous at how fast things went. “Captain Kenpachi ordered me to get him an Asauchi and shihakusho, and told him if he wanted a place in the 11th, he’d have to run The Gauntlet.”

The Captain and her Lieutenant sighed, used to the results of The Gauntlet ending up in their division’s care. Although when Captain Unohana looked at him next, he couldn’t help the feeling of unease crawling down his back.

“And he went all the way to the Captain?” She asked simply, but her tone belied something else. Dark amusement and curiosity rolled into one.

“More than that,” he said. “He barely paid attention to the fights he was having until Yumichika, and that was only enough for him to start learning to use his sword. The moment Yumichika released his shikai, Alex kicked him hard enough that the fight was over.”

“And your and the Lieutenant’s fight?” Isane asked, her excitement at the story he weaved clear to both him and the Captain.

“Captain Kenpachi didn’t want to wait,” he deadpanned.

“And? How was their fight!?” Isane pressed, leaning forward.

“It was… surreal,” he sighed. “He learned some basic stances while fighting Yumichika, but from the Captain? He learned how to use those stances, which ones work best for him, and how to predict and react to an opponent.” Ikkaku shook his head at the absurdity. “Captain Kenpachi pushed him just enough for Alex to figure out how to use a sword by himself.”

“And how did that lead to him removing his eyepatch?” Captain Unohana asked. “If Captain Kenpachi needed to train him, I don’t see why he’d need to release his power.”

And that was the crux of the matter, what he was blindsided by, while the Captain saw right through it. Suppressing another sigh, he looked at the Captain of the 4th and answered.

“The best answer I can give you is he lacked intent,” he said seriously. “So much so that his power only came to the fore when Captain Kenpachi ordered him to attack, and even then, he did it without intent.

“Hmm, Isane?” The Captain said, prompting her Lieutenant to stand at attention and, with a nod, rush in the direction Alex was taken.

“I’ll go write a report to the Captain-Commander and the 2nd division, and I’d suggest you do the same, third-seat Madarame,” and with a polite nod in his direction, the Captain left.

With a groan, Ikkaku decided to leave Alex in the hands of the Lieutenant of the 4th so he could rush back and write that report. God knew that he was the only one in the 11th who did any paperwork.

___

Isane Kotetsu

She arrived at the room with the newest member of the 11th division to find him alone, which made her stop. There should have been at least one medic healing him from what she saw of his injuries.

Popping her head out of the room, she saw 14th seat Ibara checking a chart outside a room two doors down.

“Hey, Ibara!” She called out. “Why isn’t anyone here? From his wounds getting in, I figured we’d need at least two medics to deal with it.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought from all the blood,” Ibara said, looking up at her. “But Hiro came out almost immediately, saying that the wound had finished closing before he could even start.”

“Weird,” she muttered while getting back inside the room and closing the door.

With newfound curiosity, she approached the sleeping patient, searching his bare back for the area where she had seen the wound previously.

Well, that was the intention, but the second she focused her attention on his back, a much more obvious scar grabbed her attention.

‘Impalement’ was her first thought, something she’d seen plenty of times after she’d joined the 4th, although it was usually by swords, not spears like this one seemed to be.

As she ghosted her hand through the scar on his upper left, close to his shoulder, she noted how old it looked. Not the usual knotted over skin from a recently closed wound, but the skin of a scar old enough to have smoothed out with time.

She wondered what kind of life he had lived to have received such a wound. She was no expert, but she knew enough about the World of the Living to understand how rare those things had become in recent decades.

Moving on from her musings, she inspected his back for the wound he had received from Captain Kenpachi, and she’d have missed it if she were paying any less attention to her task.

The scar was a thin, almost invisible, pinkish line along his back. She had assumed it was deep from the amount of blood on him at the time, but looking at the scar, she would be hard-pressed to guess anything beyond a weirdly placed papercut. Maybe a new Zanpakuto release?

The idea of Captain Zaraki finally learning shikai, only for his release to be turning his sword into paper, and the mental image of him running after people demanding a fight with it, almost made her lose it. But she contained her mirth to a single snort and turned back to check on her patient.

She focused on the standard diagnostics Kaido, and slowly let her hand touch the start of the scar.

Her breath hitched. The wound felt old, almost completely done healing. And as she kept her hand on it, she could feel the wound finish healing itself and see the pinkish line slowly disappear.

Desperately, she moved her hand to his other scar, keeping it there to make sure she was not imagining things.

She wasn’t, although that wound was healing much slower, as if something was stopping it from doing so at full speed.

With a sigh, she deactivated the Kaido and pulled back, she’d have to report this to Captain Unohana, if only to have her check to see if she hadn’t missed anything.

“Hey”

The sound almost made her jump, and she instantly brought her attention to the one who had made it.

“Oh, hi!” She said, quickly approaching the patient, who had turned himself on the bed and was now looking at her. “I’m Kotetsu Isane, Lieutenant of the 4th division. You were brought here for healing after your fight with Captain Kenpachi.”

“Damn, he really cleaned the floor with me, huh?” Alex muttered to the side before turning back to her with an easygoing smile. “I’m Alex Lupi, no idea where I land on the rank at the 11th.”

“That’s normal,” she said, smiling at him. “The Gauntlet’s results always come after the participants leave here, and if you went all the way to the Captain, well… I’ve never seen anyone do it, but wouldn’t you just be made Lieutenant?”

“No idea,” he shrugged, bringing to her attention the rose-gold locket around his neck.

“So, what’s the verdict, doc? Am I going to die?” He asked, giving her a wide-eyed, frightened stare.

She snorted, looking him over in consideration before saying, “Probably,” with a nod.

“Wait, what?” Alex replied in confusion.

“But not today,” she finished, smirking at him. There was always a comedian making that joke, it was tiring and a little bit boring, so she made it a game of coming up with answers to throw them off their game.

“Haha, very funny,” he deapanned at her.

“Yeah, I thought so,” she replied serenely before looking at him seriously. “So, want to tell me why you heal so fast?”

He blinked at the tonal whiplash before letting out a sigh and relaxing back in the bed.

“Not much to say,” He shrugged. “I’ve been able to do it for a while now, it’s been useful…”

“Up until it wasn’t,” I finished, and it made sense he’d think so. He still died, after all.

“Yeah,” he sighed, before perking up. “Something that I was curious about, but what was it that you were doing to my back? It felt tingly.”

“Oh, that? Just a standard diagnostic Kaido,” she said.

The unholy glint in his eyes after hearing her answer made alarm bells start ringing in her mind.

“Kaido?” He asked, leaning forward and looking her straight in the eyes. “Is that some type of magic?”

“Y-Yes?” She took a step back at the intensity of his stare.

“Well, then,” he relaxed back. “This is going to be enjoyable, at least,” he muttered before looking at her again, although not with the same intensity as before. “Am I free to go? I have to check something…”

She rallied herself. This wasn’t the first, and it would definitely not be the last time that she dealt with a difficult patient. This one had just gotten lucky in getting her off-balance.

“No,” she said with finality. “Captain Unohana still needs to see you, and considering the amount of paperwork your fight will cause, I wouldn’t want to annoy her right now.”

He stared at her, looking for a hint of deceit, before sighing and leaning back.

“Fine. But you’ll stay here and teach me more about Kaido,” he replied petulantly.

“I have other duties to attend,” she said, pointing at her lieutenant's armband. “That means responsibility, something that I can’t just not do to entertain you.”

“And I can just pop out and say later that you never told me that I couldn’t,” was his instant reply.

She stopped at that, while it probably wouldn’t get anywhere, she did have some forgetful moments in the past, usually when she was excited about something.

Which was exactly how she reacted before being sent to check in on Alex.

But she hadn’t alerted Captain Unohana yet. Although Hiro would probably do it, and having the Captain disappointed in her for failing to report something like that was much worse than even the worst case scenario of her forgetfulness being brought into question.

As if hearing her internal turmoil, Alex decided to pipe in.

“You know, if you do it, I’ll teach you some healing magic that I know,” he said with a smirk. “I don’t know how well mine will compare to yours, but it would be interesting to see what comes out of it.”

She felt her face flush at the innuendo, but the bigger part of her was salivating at the thought of a new healing technique.

Would she really go through with it? Cave in so easily to his childish demands?

But she didn’t really have anything important to do for the next few hours. Her excuse of having Lieutenant duties fell flat when compared to something new and interesting.

So, with a sigh, she pulled up a chair and sat down at his bedside, making an effort not to let any of her excitement show.

“I knew you’d come around,” he said with an easy smile. “Now, where do we begin?”

___

A/N: Some early reactions to Alex + the beginning of some character arcs.

Weird how things were so quick to go back to normal, only difference is that my step-father doesn’t go on his daily runs anymore, which should change in a few months.

As always, thank you all for your support. These last few weeks have been rough, so it was nice being able to take a few days off work without needing to go into debt, so thank you.