268 268. Zanpakuto

Shinigami...

Leo looked at Ichigo then at Rukia and asked, "So, then what are you?"

"What do you mean?"

Leo's lips curled into a smile, "This body of yours is quite interesting. It can perfectly contain your spirit without any backlash."

Rukia's eyes shrunk when he heard Leo. A trace of caution appeared on her face.

"What do you know?"

Leo shrugged, "I know nothing. However I do know that this isn't your body, it's just a vessel for your spirit."

Rukia stared at Leo for a while before speaking, "Please, follow us. I'll answer all of your questions to the best of my abilities."

Leo nodded. Ichigo who was listening to their conversation had a lost look on his face.

Along the way Leo and Shinobu asked a few doubts they had in mind. Like where shinigamis came from or what a zanpakuto is.

Getting the answer to these questions widened their knowledge of this world.

The human world, soul society and hueco mundo, these three worlds were a single entity. They were dependent on each other.

When a human die he or she either goes to the soul society or turn into a hollow in hueco mundo. There is a subtle balance between these three world.

And shinigamis keep this balance in check.

After walking for a while they reached a shop that looked deserted. A man wearing an apron and two kids, one boy and the other a girl were sweeping the front yard.

"Tessai, where is Kisuke?"

Rukia asked the big man wearing an apron.

Tessai saw it was Rukia and said, "He went out for some business. Who are they?"

Rukia introduced, "This is Leo and his wife, Shinobu. We were chasing a hollow and Leo who came across it killed it without a zanpakuto."

Tessai was momentarily shocked before he asked, "A quincy?"

Rukia shook her head. Seeing her reaction Tessai's interest was piqued.

"Well, let's go inside and discuss."

Tessai invited them inside. When all of them were seated the girl who looked shy brought tea for everyone.

"Thank you."

Shinobu smiled sweetly at her. The girl hummed shyly and quickly took a seat behind Tessai.

"You already heard my name. Let me introduce these two, this rowdy boy is called Jinta Hanakari and this is Ururu Tsumugiya."

"Nice to meet you."

Ururu spoke softly. Jinta on the other hand humphed.

Leo and Shinobu were amused by the stark difference in their characters.

After some pleasantries Shinobu asked, "I'm very interested in the maker of miss Rukia's vessel."

Tessai nodded and replied, "Our boss, Kisuke Urahara made it. I'm shocked that a civilian could actually see through her."

Shinobu smiled, "We have our own experiences."

Leo pointed at Ichigo's sword and asked, "Tell me more about that."

"About zanpakuto? Why? Even if your spiritual energy is extremely strong you can't become a shinigami."

Tessai replied.

Leo shook his head, "I'm not interested in becoming a shinigami. What I want to know is how to forge a zanpakuto?"

Tessai widened his eyes in shock, "You want to forge a zanpakuto?"

Leo nodded.

"Impossible. A zanpakuto is forged from a shinigami's soul. You are not a shinigami, there is no way you can forge a zanpakuto."

Leo asked, "There is no other way?"

Tessai nodded firmly.

Leo started thinking. He was really interested in Ichigo's sword. From his spiritual sense he knew that a zanpakuto is capable of perfectly merging his spirit.

"It's not like it's impossible."

At this moment someone walked in while speaking. He wore striped green hat and casual clothes.

Leo and Shinobu looked at the man.

"It's a pleasure to meet you two, I'm the owner of this store, Kisuke Urahara."

Kisuke sat down opposite to Leo and Shinobu. He looked at them with interest and asked, "Say, how did you kill a hollow without a zanpakuto?"

"Is it important?"

Kisuke nodded, "Very much. Spiritual energy is required for such a feat, if you can wield spiritual energy with ease then it may be possible to forge a zanpakuto for you."

Leo thought for a second and nodded. He stretched out his right hand and made a slashing motion.

When he slashed down the air rippled and a sword ray flashed. It jumped infront of Kisuke in an instant.

Kisuke was momentarily shocked by Leo's action. He was about to react when the sword ray stopped dead in it's track just a few inches away from him.

"This is how I did it."

Leo's words broke everyone from their trance. They all looked at the sword ray hovering infront of Kisuke in shock. From that small arc of light they felt a condensed form of spiritual energy.

"Amazing...

"Holy...

Ichigo and the rest exclaimed.

Kisuke looked at the sword ray infront of him with interest. This wasn't the first time he was seeing a sword attack, however this one was completely different. It was terrifyingly sharp and extremely dangerous.

Leo put down his hand. The sword ray dispersed into the air.

Kisuke looked at Leo and asked curiously, "Who are you? Even the best swordsman I've seen in my life could never come close to you."

Hearing him Leo smiled, "That's not relevant to the issue at hand."

Kisuke wasn't offended by his response and smiled, "Haha, you're right."

"Now, can you tell me how to forge a zanpakuto?"

Kisuke nodded and said, "Infact every zanpakuto out there was forged by a single person. Only he knows how to make one."

Leo asked, "Why does only he know how to make one?"

Kisuke explained, "This has to do with the zanpakuto itself, as it's made from the soul of a shinigami. Only he has the ability to cut off a part of the soul and forge a zanpakuto without harming the soul."

Leo was deep in thought. After a while he asked, "What's his name? And how can I meet him?"

Kisuke said, "His name is Oetsu Nimaiya. And you can't meet him."

Leo asked, "Why?"

Kisuke thought for a moment and replied, "This involves the core secret of the soul society."

Leo understood what he meant and said, "Thank you for your information. I've one more request if it's okay with you."

Kisuke said, "Go ahead."

"Can you get me notes, theories and techniques related to zanpakuto forging?"

Kisuke was surprised by Leo's request.

"You know, the smithing used by humans are not very suitable for forging a zanpakuto."

"I know."

Kisuke nodded, "Fine. I'll try it get as many as possible. But don't hold out too much hope, there aren't that many records related to forging a zanpakuto anyway."

Leo accepted.

Kisuke suddenly smiled, "Since I am doing a great favour, can I ask something in return?"

Leo smiled when he saw Kisuke's cunning smile, "Out with it."

"Hehe, it's nothing much. I would like you to help out when we are in trouble."

Leo curled his lips, "And I assume this trouble you expect isn't trivial?"

"Hahaha."

Kisuke smiled in return. Leo also smiled.

"Deal!"

Shinobu shook her head with a smile when she saw both of their triumphant expression..

She asked Kisuke, "How did you make her vessel?"

Kisuke turned to face her, "Oh, a gigai? It's actually very simple."

He explained the techniques and several core formulas used to make a gigai. Kisuke was surprised to find that Shinobu was able to follow his explanation.

As Shinobu and Kisuke spoke the rest were sidelined. They waited for a whole hour for their discussion to come to an end.

"Thank you for you hospitality."

Leo and Shinobu bid farewell to Kisuke and company.

As they watched the couple leave Tessai asked, "Boss, why did you so openly speak to them? Even if what you said aren't great secrets those things can't be said so casually."

"Yeah, Kisuke. You seemed particularly interested in getting close to them."

Rukia also spoke.

Kisuke showed a smile and said, "Did any of you sense the limit of their spiritual energy?"

Everyone shaked their head.

"You mean...

Rukia suddenly thought of something. Her face showed a shocked expression.

Kisuke nodded, "Those two are very terrifying. They don't possess any spiritual skills or a zanpakuto, but even without it, their strength is so horrifying."

Ichigo asked, "Are they that strong?"

Rukia spoke instead of Kisuke, "More than you could imagine. Even Kisuke couldn't sense their spiritual energy, this could possibly mean two things. Either their spiritual energy is so high that it eclipsed ours, or they were able to perfectly lock in every ounce of spiritual energy within their body."

Kisuke added in, "Or it could mean both. Either way, they are strong and worth trusting. So why not do a small favour and get a big one in return for the future."

Tessai nodded, "A great deal as always, boss."

Kisuke laughed, "Haha, I'm a genius."

Rukia scoffed, "Tsk, more like shameless."