Lu_2007 said:
Just some thoughts...
First, to have you doing Bleach stories... it's like rain upon a dry desert. Taking in count the lack of *good* Bleach fanfiction, to have *you* do not only Warborn but Mentor as well (and all the others ideas you have mentioned before in this post) it's like having a taste of paradise. Fans of good fanfiction can rest assured that with you on the works this can only be one hell of a fic. The fact that more than 4000 persons have checked this thread, that more than a hundred have posted nothing but praise is more than enough. I'm late doing so due to lack of time and because, quite frankly, I'm new at the TFF and I'm just discovering its wonders...
This set aside:
-You said that Ishida was KIA (if I understood correctly) while assaulting Las Noches. But Ishida, like Sado is a human, not a soul. If he dies shouldn't he appear back at Seireitei like everybody that dies in the form of a soul? When his grandfather died he appeared back in Soul Society right? As a Quincy... with Kurotsuchi waiting to collect his Quincy soul to do his "research".
Btw what happen with the real bodies of the characters?
-Orihime, still trapped in Las Noches? How comes that if the Gotei 13 knows that Aizen wants to use her to awake/repair/activate the H?gyoku (at least Uruhara seemed to recognize the possibility) they didn't do something to extract her from Aizen's base beyond Ichigo's own disatrous try? And how does she feel now, after years being trapped there? As sweet and forgiving as Orihime is I doubt she would take this "abandonement" well, more if her fiends have moved on, started new relationships and so...
Personaly I feel bad for her
? and find hard to believe that Ichigo, with his drive to protect his nakama, would not be thinking about it...
-The fight between Yoruichi and Ichigo... aside form the fact that they are one of my favourite pairings (along with Ichigo/Soi Fong and Ichigo/Orihime) and she is my second favourite character (after Ichigo) and that fight was amazing, I still find hard to believe that she would be powerful enough to defeat Vizard+Bankai+post her training Ichigo no matter how powerful her shunko could make her.
For instance in the manga, back when she crossed paths with Byakuya, before the three day training with Ichigo, she stated that she wouldn't have been able to defeat the shinigami captain, that the only one that had the potential to do so was Ichigo. She kept watching him those three days and didn't train herself so she has to take in consideration her shunko when she said that...
Also Ulquiorra stated that at max power, before the incursion into Las Noches, so before his training with Yoruichi and before being able to use his hollow powers, Ichigo's reiatsu was higher than his. Ulquiorra is supposedly a vasto lorde-class hollow turned Espada Arrancar which in turn means that even before, as a "simple" hollow, he was more powerful than a shinigami captain.
And then if Ichigo uses that hakkuden (sp?) shouldn't he have been abe to counter Yoruichi's shunko?
Dunno but at the very least the fight should have been more like a fight of equals with a slight edge of experience in favor of the dark-skinned shunshin and sheer power on Ichigo's...? ?
Anyway I hope this doesn't vexes, bores nor anything like that to those reading this post. Most of all Fosfor, this is writtin with honest respect and profund awe of you and your works.
Simply amazing.
Simply brillant.
?Nuff said
Lu
Dragonlord
I'm vegging right now, but you asked some valid questions so I'll answer them.
Ishida: our favorite quincy died assaulting a hollow dimension, and that's right after he transferred most of his gathered power (roughly half off the power he had) to Chad, burning the cross wound onto his back. After it healed, Chad had the tattoo made, as a reminder of Uryuu's sacrifice and friendship. Ishida is dead for good.
Though his death made hollows so fucking afraid of Quicies like you wouldn't believe. Ishida's a horror story in Hueco Mundo. He went for a full burnout in his last moments - something like when he fought Mayuri, only to the n-th degree.
His death was a VERY memorable event. Aizen lost three Espada, good part of Las Noches and so much resources it isn't even funny. Ichigo was responsible for a lot of damage, but Ishida's last moments were total FUBAR for any hollows in the vicinity. He died, but he died damn epic death.
Orohime: Matter with Orihime is... rather complicated. She is technically MIA both from Aizen and the rest, though Aizen technically knows where she is. She is still in Hueco Mundo, though, and can't go back for number of reasons. I won't be saying anything more for the sake of the plot.
Chad and Ichigo's bodies are gone. They simply couldn't stand up to the regular output of their spiritual power and were finally converted into reishi. Chad went first, and then Ichigo had to do bankai in his mortal body - bang. No more body. It will be explained.
Yoruichi case. Hah. I've been waiting for somebody to pick that up. B) Okay. Here's the deal. Yoruich stayed out of battle for 100 years. She said so herself. She STILL was able to kick Soi Fong's ass, meaning she WAS able to fight a captain level shinigami. After 100 of damn near inactivity as far as battle is concerned. Yoruichi is the Goddess of the Flash - THE fastest shinigami around. Period. Ichigo comes close. Very, very close. Now Yoruichi is the product of family of warrios, born and damn near bred to excell. She is so far beyond normal shinigami like an arrancar is beyond simple hollow.
But she still had trouble keeping up with some more powerful arrancar.
Now in comes Ichigo - as powerful as a Vasto Lorde. IN theory, anyway. Nobody knew for sure, then.
Ichigo's training was as much for him as it was for her.
Aizen's goal was to 'surpass' the limits. Only not everybody is created equal. Some people have more potential than the others. Yoruichi is one of the people who, like Ichigo, have potential in spades. Pressed by the situation and her own pride she went so far out it isn't even funny. Hence her new incarnation of shunko. She combined the best aspects of shinigami arts and then went beyond them.
Aizen wanted a shortcut. Yoruichi, observing Ichigo, pounding him to paste and gauging his reactions, and his power's reactions, in every possible way, learned a lot. And then she used it to build herelf up in the similar way she went about training Ichigo - by nearly dying every time she trained.
She's a genius when it comes to combat and one of the strongest shinigami ever born. Add to that she has insane amount of skill... There are precisely four people in soul society that are able to go roughly even with her when she pulls all stops: Ichigo, Yamamoto, Zaraki and the fourth would be a toss-up between Chad and Byakuya.
Yamamoto is grooming her for the next Commander-General position for a reason.
I always felt that the 'set limit' thing is idiotic. sure, there are SOME limits - but not everybody is born equal. Some people are born stronger, some weaker. Some are born with speed, some not. It is talent vs. hard work argument. You can level the playing field with hard work - no doubt about it. Talent isn't everything. But the higher the stakes, the more important it becomes. Without talent, or with a mediocre one, you can only go so far. So every shinigami having a 'set limit'? Uh uh. No. I'm not buying it. Besides, I DID say she learned to 'use' what she learned. She's not like Ichigo - not a vaizard. But... Well, she is closer than any other shinigami. She won't be going hollow, but she learned to go beyond her own limits. She just went a different way about it than Aizen did. Of course, Aizen's way IS more powerful, but has it's own disatvantages, as does the Vaizard way.
Yoruichi created Shunko by mixing Hakuda and kido. It is the similar principle here. She also doesn't have zanpakuto anymore. She absorbed it totally. Sort of as if hse had the bankai inside of her 24/7. She just made her WHOLE power 'hers'. And she she suspects she STILL has room to grow. Because slowly, very slowly but surely, she still grows in strength.
Ichigo still has more power. Always will have. But even after those years, Yoruichi has him beat on skill. Besides, she's his teacher. She knows him very well. Unless they went for the kill, nine out of ten would see Ichigo eating dirt simply due to Yoruichi's knowledge and superior skill. As she is now, she'd be able to fight any espada one-on-one and most propably win. She's a freak, like Ichigo or Yamamoto. A total powerhouse.
If it was peacetime and the whole government was still around, they'd be scared of her, because she'd remind them far too much of Vaizard for their peace of mind. It is good that most of the Gotei 13 has no idea HOW she became stronger or how much exactly, or they'd be tad uneasy, even with Ichigo, who is technically a Vaizard around.
And make no mistake, Ichigo isn't more powerful than he used to be. Not all that much, anyway. He just has all of his abilities under his complete control now and more than enough skill to put them to good use.
Some of it will be mentioned later on, but not much. This part of backstory wasn't that terribly important at the time so I just left it there. Yoruichi is Yoruichi, after all. THE killer kitty B)
And Mentor... Heh Heh. B)
