Right. I don't own anything. Has that not been established yet? I especially do not own either Bleach or Tenchi Muyo GXP in any sense of the word and/or meaning! This story is for entertainment purposes only!

Spirit Police

Chapter Seven: Secundi gradus

Training Room #71, S-Vise Headquarters, Galaxy Police Headquarters

He couldn't help but gently clutch the badge in his grasp. Visually it was no different than when he had first relinquished it two days ago... Spiritually he could say the same. Even so he couldn't up but spare a glance to those around him. Officially all three of them were proctors... unofficially... to hell with it. They outright admitted from the get go when they handed him his badge back that they were paranoid that something would happen. Basically they thought he might explode or become horribly mutilated should he make use of it again outside of an initial test to ensure all is well; while dubious given the monitoring system, for all intents and purposes he had been unable to access his full power since he left the Soul Society for the first time; neither he nor they knew how much was being held back under the current circumstances, hence the precaution...

XVX

Observation Room

The opening of the door drew Vector's gaze to it, and with it a smile was roused. "Ah, Mikami! What brings you here?"

Immediately everyone who was already at attention by virtue of performing their jobs stood straighter as they put forth more diligence into their work. A few that were able to had snapped off a salute. Only Vector's was in any way considered lazy, not that she nor anyone else seemed to have minded in the least as made evident by her warm smile and their overall resumption of previous duties unabated respectively.

"Colonel, how have you been?"

"I'm fine, thank you for asking, " he hummed before turning back to the live feed before him. "Are you here to observe our latest recruit?"

"I've been curious, yes," Mikami hummed back as she came to stand next to the much larger man. "By the way, how have those other two been doing? Any success so far?"

The commander of the S-Vise division sighed. "Sadly none so far. In fact I'm beginning to fear they may end up having to be transferred to the main divisions."

"Oh come now," Mikami good naturedly admonished as she glanced over to him, "you make it sound as if that's a punishment for them."

"Can you really blame me?" Vector half huffed as he frowned in the direction of screen. Mikami only hummed as she likewise did the same.

"I suppose not. I'll admit it's almost disheartening really, the poor recruitment rates."

"Try personally overseeing it for as long as I have."

"Oh now you're just being a curmudgeon."

Vector sniffed at that but otherwise said nothing to validate her claim. "Begin when ready!"

XVX

Training Room #71

"Begin when ready!"

With a quiet sigh Ichigo rolled his neck and worked out the kinks in his neck before rolling his shoulders with a grunt. Once he felt to be properly loose and 'relaxed' he swung his arm out as he glared at the newly materialized robo—marionette. He still didn't understand why there was a distinction like that.. Even so he drew upon the experiences of before. Before his eyes the bars of his sword's old crossguard erupted from the badge. Instead of attacking however he simply stood there, staring at it. Every now and then he looked to the officers surrounding him for any signs of anything that had gone wrong without his notice. Thus far there hasn't been any...

After a few moments of waiting he drew his arm back and swung at the target marionette.

XVX

Observation Room

"Any changes?"

"None so far, sir," a technician answered. "Then again it's too early to tell. Between the initial test which reactivated his powers for the first time and the test where we had to early abort the artifact test it's hard to say where his limit actually is for the time being."

"Fair enough."

Mikami hummed with a teasing lilt. "One of our more awkward recruits, isn't he?"

Vector gave a noncommittal hum in return in lieu of answering her as the entirety of the room monitored Ichigo's exercise in their own respective ways.

XVX

Training Room #71

It hadn't been very long before the ground began to clutter with the broken remains of marionettes as they spawned one after another in groups no less. Groups that were becoming increasingly more hostile with enhanced abilities to match. Had it not been for the proctors' generous warning that they were increasing the aggression level of the things he would've been decked by level five bots alone by now. As it stood now however his gym variant of the cadet uniform was getting scuffed from the semi-successful grabs at his uniform and his own stumbling to ensure there was a fair enough distance between himself and the growing horde... as much as he didn't want to he couldn't help but grumble at how rusty he had gotten despite the fact he hadn't had much reason to fight such odds.

"Activating one skirmisher unit at Level Eight."

"Eight?" Weren't they at level six at the momen—

THWOK!

"GAAH!"

Taken by surprise from a blow to the back, the sheer force that struck him had him outright bowling into the mechanical mob, scattering them and even dazing them despite being machines by nature. Amidst the tangled limbs both busted or whole, never mind the rest of the bodies in question, Ichigo hefted himself to peer over the impromptu crater of metal to see a differently colored marionette. A... not quite dark maroon one. He didn't know if there was a particular name for this shade of maroon. Nor did he care as the second striking detail that separated it from the others, a large red dot for an eye, focused on him and narrowed as it hunched down like an animal ready to charge.

With a scowl he got up and glared at it as his grip around the badge tightened...

When it launched itself at him it created a splash back of dust and gravel in its wake. From there its charge was nothing less than animalistic compared to the more brutish but human-like blue counterparts, not the mention faster than them too... but not fast enough not to be tracked. To be ready for.

The second it made its final lunge at him Ichigo's disused instincts brought back a technique all but forgotten to him... shunpo.

The maroon berserker hide no way nor any time to correct its course from smashing into a blue counterpart as it struggled to stand back up from its kneeling position considering its target outright disappeared right before it.

"Getsuga TENSHOU!"

BOOM!

A brief moment of pity flared within Ichigo as poor blue marionette parts came crashing back down on to the ground. He instantly felt less guilty once he spotted bits of maroon joining the newfound trash heap.

... any at all remorse he had for crushing the disabled bots however died the moment he spotted another maroon marionette spawning by the dust cloud...

Like its compatriot it lunged at him despite the distance with animalistic vigor.

XVX

Observation Room

"Spiritual levels are steadily increasing. As they are now they are threatening to breach magus thresholds."

Mikami's brows rose to their limits as any pretense of teasing simply left her in shock. "Magus, so soon?"

Vector however remained impassive as did most of the crew manning the observation room's gadgetry. Some were on the jittery side however. "His reaping days—"

"Soul Reaper sir," a technician corrected.

"Yes, yes, Soul Reaping. Their pinnacle of power would be their bankai, yes?"

"I believe that's their standard set up, sir," another technician replied.

"Including what appears to be augmentation with the abilities of their natural enemies the Hollows," another piped up.

"Don't forget the written reports of the power kill off battle!"

"I see," Mikami half sighed as she regained her composure. "He's nowhere near standard even by S-Vise standards, is he?"

"Quality over quantity. Not bad for a streak breaker," Vector happily agreed as they watched Ichigo tear through more and more skirmisher models...

"Advise the proctors that we are about to deploy one destroyer model. Win or lose, we're ending the test afterwards."

"Understood—"

"Uh sir," one crewman hesitantly raised his hand. "Shouldn't we reserve that for a later test? For all we know he could be pushing his limits to unst—"

"Readings are starting to fluctuate!" another crewwoman announced.

"Belay the destroyer model then," Vector announced as he brought his full attention back to the screens bearing Ichigo's progress. It seemed the skirmishers' spawn rate finally overwhelmed him. While nowhere numerous as the mob models from before, their ferocity and agility, not the mention penchant to dodging attacks when able, finally enabled enough skirmishers to put him into the close quarters defensive; four in all, cornering him in a nook to severely hinder his mobility and swarming him like the predators they were practically based on in their programmed mentality. It was more than enough to start leaving scrapes and bruises on his person, not to mention tatter his uniform. More than that he was so focused on keeping not only his enemies at bay as well as within his sight that Ichigo forsake his own awareness over his powers. As it was now his own spiritual pressure was creeping up over his arm from his badge, twisting, writhing and roiling over his arm like an unholy yet benign union of vines, flames and tattered cloth that only grew without Ichigo noticing as he ducked, weaved and lashed out as best he would with his only means of effective assault; sensors indicated three of his fingers paid in the price in learning the hard way that skirmishers were nowhere near as susceptible to punches to the face.

Be it leaning in, squinting with growing intensity or likewise watching with matching passion, it was clear everyone was watching, anticipating what was going to happen. Even the proctors who taken up positions to quickly come to Cadet Kurosaki's aid at the drop of a hat...

"Evolution confirmed?" Vector drawled.

"We're about to find out sir..."

Then it happened...

Boxed in in a cave, his options were either to fight back in order to break free of their trap or succumb to the superior numbers and abilities. He chose to fight. Whether he realized it or not he flung his shrouded arm at the first target of opportunity and rushed into the resulting cloud of dust regardless if the marionette lived or died. It seemed it hadn't seeing he emerged on the other side unscathed. Even so it didn't mean another skirmisher wouldn't intercept him and his only path to freedom as the remaining models lunged after him from behind. There wasn't time for his to charge up his attack as he had previously done, only react.

As his badge bearing hand slashed at the machine the black bars of energy that encircled the wooden artifact converged to form a crude makeshift blade of energy which rent through the marionette's chassis with surprising ease. An ease seemingly lost to the orange haired young man as he sped out of the cave with enhanced steps to ensure he had a measure of distance between himself and the remaining machines. Once he was at the mouth of the cave he was trapped in he stopped and turned to face the oncoming skirmisher models still in hot pursuit and drew his arm back much like he had before the badge's spiritual output began to morph into a new method of attack. Whether he was distinctly aware of what was happening or not was still up in the air as the blade bulged with a new flood of energy getting ready to be unleashed.

"Getsuga... TENSHOU!"

As before he flung his arm forth yet what would've normally be best described as a spinning wheel to the naked eye had been replaced by a pure surge of energy, a torrent of power that sought to overwhelm and destroy that which threatened its summoner. In a confined space like the cave it wasn't much of a task to hit the remaining marionettes. Especially since they had no real means to either duck or at least spread themselves out to help mitigate such an attack. As such they were swept back and ripped apart before eventually being ripped apart by the unforgiving surge. As this was happening Ichigo panted hard and fast as his eyes twitched to and fro to ensure there was nothing else to take a swing at him. When it seemed as if he was finally safe for the time being he tiredly raised his arm just enough to observe what was going on just as a ragged band of orange-yellow energy fluttered around his wrist like a sleeve. He then eyed the 'blade' with stoic curiosity even as one of the technicians announced into an intercom that the test is over.

XVX

Training Room #71

Having limited experience with the simulation rooms, Ichigo was marginally surprised that the marionettes didn't simply vanish with the vanishing artificial terrain as the room was wiped back to its stark white grid-pattern state. Regardless however... he was just plain exhausted. Simply standing there and breathing heavily through his nose was all he could do without hunching over and potentially keeling over the second he cancelled his feed to the badge.

He bartely even had the strength to simply acknowledge the sharp whistles and clapping offered by the proctors... who may or may not be taking bets on whether or not he'll collapse on the spot.

"Congratulations Cadet Ichigo!" Vector boomed as his image appeared on a screen that bloomed right in front of him. Between the weeks of growing familiarity of such intrusion plus the fact he didn't even have the energy to spare to be mildly startled, Ichigo didn't react in the least. "We will call it a day now! Go and get some rest! Soon enough we'll be conducting further tests to see whether this alteration of your energy output is either a result of the modifications that had to be made to the badge or a natural phenomena trying to seek out a more appropriate means to be utilized! If we are lucky we can finally begin with the body modification procedure within two weeks from now at this rate!"

Body modifications... essentially it made GP officers into superhumans in terms of traditional enhancements such as strength and speed to even heightened natural defense and healing. Well, natural as what was basically a glorified medicinal shot packed to the brim with nanites can be. Sadly however this procedure was... finicky with the Special Divisions. Sometimes spiritual powers and machinery in any way, shape or form simply didn't mix, and as such caused more harm than good... The rate of failure for the procedure was extremely low across the board if every department was included however, including the entire history of each department's little snafus with the procedure. Even rarer were the cases where something did happen that wasn't able to be fixed in some manner, though that often required more old fashion surgery. Rarest of all was the fatality rate however. One death period throughout the GP's history. Kind of amazing really.

"Right, I'm going to head back to my room then," Ichigo stated as he tried to lift his arm up for a lazy salute. Sadly he didn't have the energy to make it more than halfway though. Even so, thankfully it seemed as if the colonel knew this and accepted the attempt as is before genially smiling and disappearing.

"Alright rookie, let's help you out of here," a proctor sighed as he walked up to the cadet, wrapped his arm around the proctor's neck for support and began to walk him back to the door they originally came in from.

"Thanks," Ichigo mumbled as he shuffled like a corpse alongside him.

"Not a problem kid. Not a problem."

XVX

Meanwhile in the observation room...

"HA! I WIN! SUCK IT GUYS!"

"Oh come on! That has to be a mistake!"

"Oh don't start that! He broke the record for most destroyed mechs in on go for an activation test!"

Mikami merely rolled her eyes and smiled a good natured smile as she and Vector showed themselves out the door and began to walk down a hallway.

"Granted your team wouldn't have given it back if they thought otherwise but I am curious. Were there any problems with removing the tracking and limiting devices from his badge?"

"None that were observed at the very least," Vector answered her. "If anything I am more worried about the tracker. Who knows what has been observed so far before it had been noticed by our analysts."

"Yes, troubling indeed," Mikami gently hummed as her smile faded to a concerned frown. "Nor do we have any sort of friendly connections with his planet's... balancers. The most we can hope for is that they would be willing to open dialogue with us should they find our cadet's current circumstances an issue."

"Doubtful," Vector muttered as they rounded a corner.

"Doubtful that they would be willing to converse with us, or doubtful that they would find an issue with their unofficial reserve member joining an intergalactic police force?" Mikami queried with barely a glance sent toward the colonel's figure.

"The former," he admitted. "Once the artifact stabilizes I'll be assigning him a partner to watch over him should he finally start asking for leave time."

The matriarch of the Kuramitsu family glanced over to him once more with a considerate hum. "Be sure to have someone willing to be diplomatic should there indeed be a conflict. We wouldn't have to unnecessarily alienate the poor young man from his home planet if we can help it."

"I plan to," Vector agreed. "Besides, if it does happen I guess there wouldn't be anything stopping you from snatching him up to 'tend to his broken heart' as it were," he added with a teasing smirk without looking over. At this the official barked a laugh.

"I'll have you know I'm not that bad," she pleasantly sighed with a grin.

"So you say Mikami. So you say."

A/N: Hello everyone! First of all I would like to say this fic, nor A Repear Amongst Straw Hats or even Soul Universe is dead! ... I just gotten very bad at updating everything. Sorry about that.

... Second of all, Belated Happy Thanksgiving/Early Merry Christmas everyone! I meant to get this out earlier as a special two post a month sort of thing but between life, dragging my feet and a newfound addiction to HS Battlegrounds... sorry.

Still though, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and at least helped fix your cravings at least a little for this fic.

Monkeybandit2, making off with your attention! No refunds.