9 Relaxation.

------------(Ichigo's-POV)------------

Ichigo learned another thing about himself. Apparently he liked soft things. The three days he had before going back again were heavily spent brushing Yasaka's tails. It was relaxing. At one point, when he was doing just that, Kunou showed up and started pouting that she wanted the same. So his few days in Kyoto ware spent brushing 13 tails for nearly three hours daily. During the last day, he also went to drink with Kurodo and was once again talked into sparring with the guards. Besides that, most of his time was spent with Yasaka, just... cuddling. They hadn't gone further than kissing and weren't in any hurry either. Both of them were clear on how much time they had and that they could go at this at their own pace.

Kunou was indeed very happy to see him and had somehow gotten herself a few holidays from her usual teachers. This time he took her out to do something he had just started enjoying, skydiving. She was not a human child so her definition of fun was different from them. It was a lot of stupid fun just flying around and also throwing her around in the sky. She also talked him into fighting her in a mock battle. He took this chance to tell her that there were a lot of people out there that could harm her, without even lifting a finger. So he was a bit heavy-handed and released some of his spiritual pressure. Just enough to immobilise her but not nearly enough to harm her. Seeing this, Yasaka thought that it could be an effective form of training for Kunou.

It was in the instinct of many to be terrified of an overwhelming enemy. Many were so terrified that they couldn't even breathe let alone move. If Kunou was ever faced with such an opponent alone, Yasaka wanted her to at least be able to run away. Though they only had two days, so the training didn't go that far. During the last day, he also told Yasaka about the one thing he was keeping from her. The Hell Gate and his connection with Hell. He was surprised she hadn't asked him about the tattoo because he had seen her looking at it with interest.

"Yasaka, do you have a place where no one can see or hear what I'm going to say?" He asked her on the fourth day, hours before leaving. She looked at him for a moment before telling him to follow her. He was led through a strange place of fog, trees, valleys and streams and a few other related things.

"It's an illusion barrier, Ichigo. They are not the strongest but they are the most isolating. They are best at confusing your senses. Everyone sees a different place and what they see can tell the caster a bit about their opponent." She let him digest that before asking.

"What are you seeing?"

"A strange yet beautiful place filled with fog, trees, valleys, streams and a few other related things." Ichigo answered while looking around. He tried to touch a tree but his hand passed right through it.

"Hmm. The fog and valleys tell me that you are lost about something. The trees and streams tell me that you are in some way connected to the natural order. The lost one is easy and the connection to natural order? Maybe because you are a Shinigami that deals with death, the natural end?" Yasaka mused out loud.

He kept quiet and followed her. After a few minutes, they were standing in a large open expanse. It was completely silent. There was not a single sound besides their clothes rustling and Yasaka's breathing. He couldn't see the ends, but that could be another illusion.

"Where is this?" Ichigo asked, seeing the strangely peaceful environment before him.

"Fufufu, I can't tell you that Ichigo. It's not just my secret to keep." She answered him playfully.

"Now. What did you want to tell me?" She asked him seriously after a while.

"Better just show you." He said with a shrug.

He slowly started to loosen the dam around him and letting in more spiritual energy. After he got that tattoo, he was able to call the gate if he wanted to, not just wait for it to appear. Slowly, the silhouette of a gate started appearing behind him and soon a four meters tall, sinister looking gate with embedded skeletons was floating behind him. Yasaka looked at him with raised eyebrows.

She could feel something ancient about that gate. She could also tell that it was connected to one of the hellish dimensions. Was Ichigo a lord of a dimension? Was it a completely uninhabitable place, that's why he didn't want to tell her?

Ichigo looked at Yasaka and saw no fear. He already knew that only those that knew that they had committed a true evil would have fear towards any sort of retribution. Seeing only confusion on her face made him understand even more how special she was in this fucked up world.

"What is that, Ichigo?" She asked pointing towards the gate.

"It's a Hell Gate." He told her directly.

"A Hell Gate?" She asked with some confusion.

"Hmm? Yes. A gate connected to the Hell dimension." Ichigo answered, equally confused now. She looked at him for a few seconds, before a slightly mischievous smile appeared on her face.

"Which one?" Yasaka asked, acting innocent.

"Which one? What do you mean which one? There are more than one?" Ichigo said with a frown, now even more confused.

"Oh Ichigo. You really don't know do you?" She said, shaking her head with a smile.

"Now you're just playing with me. Tell me what I'm missing." He said narrowing his eyes at her.

"I really have to explain it right from the beginning." She said with exasperated sigh.

From there she told him about the two original dimensions, their constant expansion leading to collision. The creation of different worlds and dimensions because of the remnants of the collision. The birth of the creation gods, their escapades, a lot of death and birth, the two originals taking notice, enforcing their rules and creating a unified cycle and finally the current times.

"So basically, there are different types of hells and heavens? No one knows how many there actually are and each of the pantheon makes use of this 'system', to have their own heaven and hell?" Ichigo asked back, his eyes twitching constantly. Back home, he was worried about how Yhwach was going to kill all of creation, than he landed on this world and his worldview shattered. Now he was being told that there were uncountable number of such worlds like his own out there. Ones with their own heaven and hell. His worldview was completely obliterated, blown to smithereens. But it also explained the the existence of places like the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo. He sighed when he thought about how utterly insignificant his efforts were back in his own world, if all of creation was indeed near infinite.

"Yes, basically." She said back with a slight frown, most likely knowing where his thoughts were going.

"Ichigo, I won't say I understand the feeling of losing everything I've loved, because I don't, but I do remember how insignificant I felt when I first learned of all this. It felt like whatever I did or whatever happened to me, in the end, it wouldn't really matter. I'm not even a speck of dust in the grand scheme of things." She said shaking her head with a sigh.

"How did you get over it?" Ichigo asked back, somewhat forlornly.

"It's called an existential crisis, everyone goes through it at least once. One way to get over it is to connect with those that matter to you. You fought because of the people that mattered to you right?" She asked pulling him in for a hug. He nodded.

"Not because the world forced you or anything like that but because of the people you loved, right?" She asked again.

"Right." He said, slowly regaining his wits.

"Then, would you consider that a wasted effort?" She asked him, almost chiding him. He hugged her back, tightly.

"No. I fought for them because I loved them." He said back.

"Exactly! So stop being stupid. It doesn't suit you." She told him with a huff. He couldn't help but chuckle at his own thoughts and her rebuke.

"Now! Where were we?... Ah, yes, the Hell Gate. Tell me more about how you got it." She said, pulling away from the hug after a few minutes.

Now it was his turn to explain about the fiasco with the sinners, his sister being kidnapped to hell, the fucking asshole Kokuto, him being his stupid charging self, being beaten, the chains, his escape, again rushing back, being beaten again, the help from Kushanada, him controlling the chains and their final escape. Then it came to the point where he was about to die in the dimensional gap, the sudden rush of energy that helped him survive, the gate appearing in his inner world and finally what happened with the lich.

"So, not only is it filled with sinners but also the guardians called the Kushanada that punish these sinners as well as having an ego of some sort?" Yasaka asked after he was finished. He nodded.

"Then it can't be one of the lower or the middle ones. They only have extreme conditions and no such thing as local guardians, let alone an ego, no matter how rudimentary. Hmm, I'll have to ask Amaterasu-sama about it. Maybe she knows something." She said with a frown.

He really thought that this hell situation would shock her or something but in the end, he was the who got shocked. As he was thinking about it, Yasaka suddenly came right up to him and said.

"Ichigo! Let's fight!" She said excitedly.

"What?" How the hell did all of that talk about this and that lead to her asking for a fight?

"We are in a highly secure and isolated place. If I raise the output of the barrier to the maximum, we will, rather, I will be able to fight with my full power and it should be enough to contain your powers as well, for some time that is. I want to see the distance between us." She said, already doing something to the barrier as a visible film started to form around them. The barrier was at least a few kilometres wide from what he was seeing. But before that.

"Why?" Ichigo asked the busy Yasaka.

"Because I want to!" She replied still just as excited. Before he could say anything else, she was already turning towards him.

"Done! Let's do it." She said as her body was covered by a bright expanding light.

"You really want to do this?" Ichigo asked, holding back a grimace.

She had already transformed into a huge golden nine tailed fox. She was at least a dozen meters tall and nearly thirty meters long due to her tails.

"Yes Ichigo, we are doing this." Her voice reverberated around the clearing as blue fire started to materialize around her tails. He let her do her thing as he slowly broke the dam on his powers. The rush was just as exciting as when he first felt it. He decided to not hold back at all and released all of his pressure. He raised Zangetsu and powered a Getsuga, all the while Yasaka was trying to get up from being forced to the ground. He kept powering it until there was bright bluish spiritual energy covering Zangetsu. He was looking at Yasaka trying her best to get up from the ground and thought whether he should use his hollow mask or not. He decided that he should and did just that.

The pressure on Yasaka suddenly increased even further. Before she was being forced to the ground, now she was leaving a crater as her massive body was crushed to the ground. The bluish spiritual energy coalescing on Zangetsu turned a sinister black and red as a vicious looking mask appeared on his face, complete with sharp teeth and two long horns. It was the mask he had when he turned full hollow. The markings were still the same, two thick red lines going from the forehead, through the eyes and down to the chin. He noticed the tattoo on his right hand also glowing slightly.

Before he could think or do anything else, a weak voice reached his ears.

"...ichigo.." He snapped back into attention and quickly let the mask and the gathered spiritual energy on Zangetsu dissipate. Yasaka started taking in large gulps of air as her body was enveloped with light once again, though it was weaker this time. She turned back into her human form and laid in the crater, he also started to build the dams again.

"That's why I asked." He said getting closer to her while shaking his head.

"I-I knew you were strong but, for there to be such a large gap..." She looked down dejected.

"Even if I tapped into the leylines, I would barely have survived the attack that you had gathered on your sword." She said while pouting. As she had said before, personal power mattered a lot in this world but so did your connections to different powers. He could feel some of that mentality as he travelled. While she was clearly sad that she lost without even putting up a fight, he felt no resentment. In fact, she was already starting to smile.

"Fufufu. You are even stronger than Amaterasu-sama, the strongest in Japan. Ooh, I can't wait to brag!" He went ahead to pull her up and saw her giggling slightly while swaying on her feet.

"Carry me Ichigo! I'm tired." She seemed to be high, she had this stupid yet cute looking grin on her face. Her eyes were also barely open, like she was on some drugs.

He was very amused by that reaction. Usually the other party would be resentful by such a complete defeat, but she seemed even happier. He shook his head and decided not to ask about it and just put it as another strange logic in this strange world. When they went outside, he realised that he was very late. He had to leave before afternoon and it was already night. He just sighed and decided to leave tomorrow. For now though, what he did to Yasaka was still on his mind and making him feel a bit uncomfortable. He felt like he should at least apologize for that.

As they made their way back to the castle, many people saw them and their position. He was still carrying Yasaka because she had fainted just after leading him out of the barrier. All in all, a very shocking and eventful day.

------------(Break)------------

The next day he left early in the morning and made his way to Europe, where was he supposed to go? He had no idea. The old man had said that he would be the one to find him. Apparently, quite a few powers had established their bases around Europe. He was supposed to meet the leaders of these powers to either form alliances or friendships of his own, or if that was not possible, 'curb their arrogance' as old Gen had put it. Why he had to do such an annoying thing? To establish his presence and show that he was not a pushover.

The old man was sure that sooner or later he would be forced to show his powers to the world and he wanted an already established image of the person known as Ichigo Kurosaki in the world. It would be helpful later on as less people would do stupid shit and piss him off, so he agreed to it. He already had some idea of what happened to those with extreme power but no prior image or presence, they would be annoyed by different flies. He knew his own temper, he might accidentally kill someone if they started bugging him. As annoying as it was, it would still be less irritating than the idiots that would show up in the future.

Ugh, he could already imagine some sort of battle junkies, like Kenpachi or Ikkaku coming at him with their weapons drawn. He enjoyed a good fight and all but constant fighting was a pain in the ass. For now, where the hell was he supposed to go? He only knew some of the more famous places in Europe like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, or the Colosseum in Rome, Stonehenge somewhere in the UK, the leaning tower of Pisa, Big Ben in London and... that's it. That's all he knew about Europe. Rather, these places existed in his world, were they the same here as well? He decided to just land somewhere and start moving around.

The old man said that he would find him somehow, so he would travel to the most conspicuous places he could. Other than that, this was a chance to move around in a completely different country. His English was passable at best, but he didn't need to talk to anyone. Just like that, be landed somewhere in between buildings and started to roam around. He had enough confidence in his new method of controlling his powers to move close to humans. He still waited for a few minutes to see if any of the humans moving around him would faint but thankfully no one did. An hour or so later, he realised that he was in London. How did he know without talking to anyone? He saw the London Eye and from there the Big Ben.

He was moving around the plaza when someone stopped him.

"Hey you!" A blond man shouted, pointing towards his direction.

At first he ignored the man. No one came to him even with his flashy hair and him still wearing a Yukata. No one had even looked at him and he knew how he looked, it was clear that no one could see him. So, when the man shouted at him again, he ignored it once more. He kept ignoring him until the man came right at him and grabbed his shoulder, to which he replied by punching his face. He staggered backwards holding his nose. The people around him looked at him like he was performing an act, some even applauded. He had to hold back a snort at that. The man looked angry but said to him while gritting his teeth and glaring at him.

"Follow me." Saying that, he turned around and started walking away.

He shrugged his shoulders and followed. While he doubted this was someone old Gen had sent, he was too stupid for that, it should still be more interesting than just looking around aimlessly. He was led to an alleyway like in some cliche movie. The man looked at him and frowned. The man opened his mouth but before any words could leave it, Ichigo interrupted.

"I don't speak English well." He said with a heavy accent. The man's frown got even deeper and he nodded, motioning him to follow his again. This time he was led to a quiet bar. It was bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside. The moment he entered it, he could feel it. No one inside was normal and everyone could see him. The blond man took him to a shifty looking middle aged man with black and blond hair with a goatee. For some reason, looking at this one reminded him of Urahara. His voice, his posture and his expressions as he talked to the blond man were eerily similar to Urahara. Their talk finished and the middle aged man turned towards him with a smile and started speaking to him in Japanese.

"Hello, young man. My name is Azazel and my friend here just told me that you were strolling around blatantly using your powers with no precautions. Isn't that a bit too risky?"