Ichigo walked up to Thalia's porch. He knocked on the door and a couple second later a boy with blond hair and green eyes opened the door.
"Well, you've certainly grown since the last time I saw you, man. How have ya been Marco."
"Don't patronize me, Ichigo."
"S..sorry," Ichigo said while scratching the back of his head.
"Anyway, I'm looking for Martha. She's getting Asuka's stuff and I'm here to help her."
"She is upstairs in her room," Marco then pointed upward, "She's been up there for a while now. Probably sorting her stuff out."
"Thanks."
Ichigo was walking towards the staircase when Marco called out to him.
"Hey. Don't forget to let her visit her family. The kids here will miss her a lot."
Ichigo looked back at Marco and gave a small smile.
"Of course."
Ichigo proceeded upstairs towards Asuka's room. When he walked into Asuka's room, Martha was sitting on the floor with a book in her hands. She seemed to be really invested in whatever she was reading because she never noticed Ichigo walk in.
"Whatcha reading there?"
Martha startled by Ichigo's appearance quickly closed the book and wiped something out of the corner of her eye.
"Oh…um…Ichigo…I…uh…wasn't expecting you to get here so early."
"Yeah. I guess I finished up with Asuka a little early. She really is strong for her age. I could see her beating weaker and some of the more experienced royal guards with sheer power, speed, and ferocity. Though she is a bit too arrogant for her own good. Wonder where she got that from," asked Ichigo while giving Martha a look.
"I know for a fact you are not accusing me of-"
"I'm not accusing you of anything. I'm just saying she might have had some inspiration from an unknown source."
Martha just rolled her eyes.
"Anyway, I hope you weren't too harsh on her. There's no telling what I'd do if you hurt her severely ."
Martha cracked her fist and looked at Ichigo with fire in her eyes. Ichigo put his hands in the air and a sweat dropped from his face.
"Hey now. No need to get violent. I promise I didn't push her further than she could handle. She's resting in the room we've set up for her right now."
~
Elsewhere, a girl lie in her bed with bandages wrapped all over her body.
"Bastard. He has such a calm and approachable aura when he's relaxed and yet he's more ruthless than Martha in training."
After Asuka's thought, a knock on the door could be heard.
"That was fast. Are they back already?"
"You can come in."
Expecting her sister or new teacher to be the person knocking she called out allowing them to enter. But the person who walked through was not the person she thought.
"Who is this woman? And why is she so pretty?"
Asuka was so entranced by the woman she didn't even realize she was staring.
"Um, are you alright?"
"Such a gentle voice too. Is she a goddess or something?"
Worried about Asuka, the woman walked over to her bedside and placed her hand on her forehead. Even when doing this, Asuka never lost eye contact with her.
"Has anyone ever told you that your beautiful?"
The woman was a bit taken aback by this compliment.
"Oh..um…thank you. That was very kind of you Asuka."
That last part woke Asuka up from her trance.
"What, how do you know my name?"
"Ichigo told me you'd be here and that I should take care of your wounds. My name is Mei by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Mei extended her hand out for Asuka to shake. Asuka clasped her hand.
"It's nice to meet you too. Also, I don't need my wounds to be taken care of. Ichigo gave me some ointment. I'm feeling better already."
Asuka then flexed her arms and gave a cheeky grin to show she was fine. In that very same second, she winced in pain from her muscles being sore.
"Ok. Maybe I still need some healing."
"Well, it's a good thing I'm here now. Now, please lay down."
Mei took a plant out of her bag and placed it on Asuka. As soon as the plant was put on her, the aching in her muscles stopped and her energy came back.
"Healing type huh. Granny used to heal my wounds after training, but this is on a whole other level. She must be very experienced at this. Was she a former royal guard."
After Mei finished, Asuka sat up and looked at her arms and flexed them.
"Whoa. Good as new."
"Ichigo usually holds back a lot when fighting demons. So he usually comes back all bruised up. So I learnt how to heal to be of some help to him."
"Wait, why does he hold back. Wouldn't he want to go all out from the start."
"Well, usually a person's anima will only stay within a certain range of the person. But for people whose anima reaches the level of a captain, it becomes much harder to control especially while they're fighting. If not careful a captain's anima could cause tremors across the entire continent. And for people like our king and Ichigo, the entire world. So they use seals in order to put a cap on how much anima they can use at a given time."
"What happens when they lose control of their anima?"
"Depending on how strong they are, they could cause someone to go insane or even die."
"Can Ichigo do those things."
"He can do much more than that. Especially since he's a…."
"No. Ichigo should be the one to tell her, not me."
"C'mon, don't leave me hanging here. What is he?"
"Nevermind. It's not my place to say. He'll tell you himself at the right time. In the mean time, you look hungry. I'll teach you a small and easy meal to make for yourself."
"Really? What are we making?"
"Meat pies. Come on," Mei said excitedly.
Mei took Asuka's hand and walked down a flight iof stairs to walk into the kitchen.
On the table there were the ingredients needed to make the meat pie.
~
Ichigo and Martha arrived at the house and were about to enter the house when they smelled something a bit off.
"You smell that, Ichigo? It's like something is burning."
They enter the house to find Mei and Asuka trying to put out the fire in the kitchen.
"Oh, hey Ichi. If you wouldn't mind, could you please help us with this," Mei asked with a bright smile.
"How did this even happen?"
"Let me guess. You left Asuka to cook didn't you," hypothesized Martha.
"I SWEAR I LOOKED AWAY FOR ONLY A SECOND," exclaimed Asuka.
Ichigo put his head in his hands and sighed.
"Martha if you could please?"
Martha without responding cupped her hands together and slowly opened them, revealing a small ball of water. She then threw the water ball at the flames and extinguished the fire. All Asuka did was look in amazement.
"Whoa. How the heck did you do that Martha? You never told me you could control water."
"It's a topic you will learn eventually. I'm not qualified to teach it. Ichigo will teach you when you are ready."
Asuka looked down in disappointment. Ichigo then chimed in.
"So, what was it you guys were making here," asked Ichigo.
"Just some meat pies. I wanted Asuka to be able make something small in case I'm not around."
"Yeah, I wouldn't let Asuka anywhere anything flammable. Last time we tried to teach her how to cook…let's just say someone had to find a unique way to use the bathroom."
Asuka tried to hold in her laugh which was met with a glare from Martha.
"Anyway, I think I should be the one to take over the cooking."
After Martha and Mei finished making the meat pies and some drinks at the suggestion of Ichigo, all four of them sat at the table and ate their dinner. While eating, Ichigo was telling stories of his adventures around their continent.
"Whoa! I didn't know you could do that with a sword."
"Neither did I, but it all worked out in the end."
"Well anyway, it's getting late. We should unpack Asuka's things. I have an early day tomorrow, so I need to get my rest," said Martha.
"Hold on. Where are my things?"
Ichigo then stood up from his seat and walked over and knelt down next to the shadow made by the wall.
"They're right here."
He placed his hand on the shadow and pulled, stretching the shadow upward as he stood.
"This is my pocket dimension. I kept all your stuff in here."
"Whoa. That's really cool. Is it cool if I can go inside."
"Sorry, that's not a good idea. In my space there is no flow of time so things can stay preserved in here so long as I'm alive. So, if you entered you would be frozen in time."
"Wait, so how can you get my things?"
"Once you get to a certain level of power, you will be able to move freely in a space with no time. Now let's go to your room and get you set up."
They all then walked into Asuka's room. Ichigo opened his dimension and took things out as the others put everything in its place.
"Well that about does it. I'll be seeing you guys."
Martha then began to walk away.
"Hey, no hug sister. We won't see each other for a while you know."
Martha looked back at Asuka who outstretched her arms with a pleading look. She could not resist. She embraced Asuka in a tight hug that almost made the girl pass out.
"Make sure you stay safe okay."
"I promise."
Martha then stood up.
"Well then, I'll be off. Bye guys."
Everyone waved Martha goodbye as she walked through the darkness of night.
"Well Asuka, you'd better head to bed. I'll walk Mei to her home."
Mei failed to hide the blush on her face.
"N..n..n..no. That won't be necessary Ichigo."
"Please I insist. Plus, we need to catch on things. Its been a while since I've been busy these last couple months."
"Y..yeah I guess."
"Oh, so it's like that huh," thought Asuka giving Mei a cheeky grin.
'Oh, it's like that alright 😏.'
After Ichigo and Mei left, Asuka was left lying in her bed with only her thoughts.
"So, my journey has finally started. The excitement is unbearable. I'm finally achieving my dream."
A face flashed in Asuka's mind which made her happy expression turn serious.
"Don't worry sis. I swear I'll become stronger. You don't have to be afraid anymore."
Asuka closed her eyes and eventually fell asleep.