The Double Edged Sword

16

Recap:

"Okay! Preparation complete!" Ishida declared while kneeling on the ground with Ichigo's sword strapped to his head. Izumi stared on trying to hold in a laugh; in truth, it wasn't a bad idea. The young Quincy had adapted to his surroundings and figured out that the perfect power-up ability stood right in front of him. Though she thought that he could have figured out a different way that wasn't so ridiculously funny to see.

"You are an idiot aren't you?" Ichigo questioned while looking down at the dark haired boy confused and uncomfortable. At that Izumi lost her composure and let out a huge burst of giggles. A blush covered Ishida's face as he glared up at the orange haired boy.

"Stop complaining! If I constantly touch your sword, and you use your spiritual power, I can shoot an unbelievably enormous arrow! Now unleash your power! Control it and max out your spiritual energy!" Ishida declared feeling pride well up in his chest as he found a proper way to beat such a strong enemy.

"But I never control my spiritual energy." Ichigo commented, making Ishida screech in reply. He quickly looking towards Izumi who blushed and was scratching her cheek. No one knew that she was the one who regulated almost every drop of Ichigo's power; even when she had explained that to Kisuke she made sure to skim over the part about his complete lack of ability to control the unsuppressed power she couldn't control.

He stared at her in shock while millions of thoughts passed through his head. One being that the girl in front of him really was amazing. 

....

Before Ishida could contemplate on the subject anymore, there was a sudden spike in spiritual pressure which was enough to send any regular human to their knees. The dark haired boy, along with Ichigo stared up at the monster behind them with shocked faces as it's power began to increase. These two boys had never faced something so monstrous before, they had no idea what they were in for, or even what the thing was capable of. 

Rukia sat helpless at the sidelines where Urahara had left her kneeling on the ground; she was unable to speak, or move, the only thing she was able to do was watch. Every nerve I her body was screaming for her to stand as she felt the increase in the monster's power; unlike the boys, she knew exactly what it was capable of. The beast was going to use a blast technique known as a 'Cero'. If anyone was touched by such power they would be destroyed immediately on impact. Her only thoughts and prayers were for her new friend, Ichigo Kurosaki, to run like hell and get to safety. 

On the other side of things Ichigo stared up at the beast with nervousness filling his body, all he could think of were his friends and family; of how this beast could affect them. Ishida, on the other hand, was more than willing to put the monster down; he hand no one left for his thoughts to run to. 

"This is the only way! Let's do this, connect your sword to my body again!" before he could even finish his statement Ichigo had taken off in the direction of the beast; Izumi stood firmly in her place while watching it unfold. She feared for her friend's life, but ultimately knew that this was a fight she only had to make sure he survived; they were the ones who got themselves into this mess after all. 

"Kurosaki! Wait, where do you think you're going!?" Panic ran through the boys body as he watched his rival run on towards the beast in front of them. Ishida thought the boy was completely clueless as he ran in without any plan, he was taught that running into your enemy using only overwhelming power was just suicide; he knew that the monster would not allow the boy to hit him a second time. Without Ishida realizing it, Izumi had stepped forwards and was now standing in front of the boy with her arms crossed; with her back to him and her eyes on her best friend, Izumi put one hand in the air before turning to look over her shoulder. When the dark haired boy's eyes connected with hers, he could see an emotion pooling in hers that he couldn't quite decipher. Time seemed to slow around them as Ishida stared on trying to identify the strange look she carried; as this moment proceeded, the beast had let out his beam attack which was headed straight for Ichigo. When the beam of light connected with Ichigo's sword, the metal seemed to reflect it; the sheer force of the connection pushed Ishida back a few steps while Izumi took the bulk of it. In that moment, Izumi mouthed two very important words.

"Brace yourself." 

With a swift hand movement from her, an partly unknown power began flooding the area; it was rapidly increasing; air burned Ishida's lungs as he tried to find the source of such a strong resonance. After searching the space for a mere moment, his eyes locked onto the orange haired boy who seemed to be struggling less and less to repel the monster's attack. Sure enough, the boy's spiritual pressure was seven times stronger than it had been before, and it was continuing to increase; the Quincy couldn't believe what he was seeing. His mind drifted off to the strange predicament Ichigo was in with his own power; how he 'never controls it'. He thought about the basic laws of spiritual pressure, about how no matter how high one's pressure is, if you are constantly giving full power, then eventually that power would dry up.

Ishida then thought about a sink to help him better picture his own thought process; if you turn a water tap and a large quantity of water comes out, then most people will instinctively close that tap. Then he thought about how Ichigo didn't control his own energy. He compared the boy to the tap and thought about his regular amount of spiritual pressure that normally came out, which was already high to begin with; then that was him at his lowest point. The dark haired boy then turned to Izumi who was standing perfectly still while watching the orange haired boy intently. 

"You're the tap." he mumbled while seeing a completely different side of the girl he had watched for months. She was now scarily silent, and her eyes were void of any emotion; she seemed like a completely different girl. She seemed older, wiser, and way stronger than he ever thought possible. 

What he didn't know, was with Ichigo's seal broken, over half of her power was rushing back into her body at once; she was almost back to her whole self and was struggling to hold it back in and keep any from surfacing. It had been years since she was at one hundred percent, and with all the power traveling inside of her she knew that sooner or later she would snap; power was addicting after not having it for awhile. Keeping her eyes trained on the boy she had spent many years protecting, Izumi watched on as Ichigo easily cut down the Menos Grande; she was proud, but also scared since her seal was now broken.