Ito was climbing a tall mountain a decent distance away from the Seireitei. He lacked any proper climbing equipment or supports, and only had a pair of rough gloves to help, and to add to the difficulty he had tied a boulder to his body. This training was just as or even more difficult than whatever Yuki was doing, yet he was pushing through anyway.
He extended his hand out and tried to reach for the next suitable place to climb up on but he couldn't reach it at all. At the same time he felt the exhaustion set in as his footing started to crumble away. He was going to fall.
"I'm going to climb to the top, just like I promised."
Then with a sudden burst of strength, he forced his entire body upwards and grabbed onto his hope. He would continue to keep climbing all the way until he reached the top.
At the end of his tour, he looked down and saw the entirety of the Seireitei buzzling and filled with life. This is the reason he climbed, for views like this. A high place where he could watch life pass by and enjoy a moment of peace and quiet for himself.
It was also the perfect spot where he could enjoy some 'private' activities.
He then whipped out his bag and pulled out a very suggestive magazine. This was a limited edition of the Seireitei bulletin summer collection which contained pictures of many of the hottest girls in Seireitei all wearing swimsuits. Especially the women of the Gotei 13.
Ito made a perverted face as he turned bright pink while enjoying the book.
"The guy who took these pictures was so lucky to see them in person."
Suddenly, he got an amazing idea.
"These magazines are published by Seireitei Communication which is managed by division 9. If I join that division, then I'll have a chance to take pictures of hot babes myself! I need to win that tournament no matter what!"
He got up and instantly started to perform a volley of punches and kicks in the air with renewed vigour. The newfound desire to take pictures of women in swimsuits was now his strength.
Meanwhile at Ikkaku's dojo
Shinten was getting his ass kicked by Ikkaku who was screaming orders at him, and tips on improving his Zanjutsu. He constantly strove for improvement and as a result he was making a little progress everyday. Not enough to become a god at sword play, but just enough to match up to seated officers in maybe a years time.
Yuki was doing her endurance training as she would normally do. Her insane feats of strength and determination on display for all to see.
Unlike the other two, Kai was meditating on the floor trying to do nothing yet something. He was desperately trying to enter his inner world and speak to his Zanpakutō spirit, this time of his own volition. Yet for some reason he just couldn't. It wasn't that it was too difficult, but he felt something blocking him. There was just one more road block which stopped him, but he didn't know what it was.
And then 1 day...2 days... and eventually 1 month passed by, and he had still made no progress.
Growing tired of the inaction, he got up and expressed his frustrations with everyone.
"I'VE HAD IT WITH THIS. I HAVE BEEN SITTING ON THIS SHITTY MATT FOR THE LAST MONTH AND YET NOTHINGS CHANGED. EVERYONE AROUND ME IS GETTING STRONGER, HECK! EVEN ITO IS DOING SOEMTHING, BUT IM JUST SITTING HERE ON MY ASS, WAITING FOR SOMETHING THAT'S NEVER COMING! I QUIT!"
In anger he threw both his Zanpakutō's at the ground, and left the Dojo in a hurry. Ikkaku shouted at him to return, but he ignored his teachers demands.
"That brat! Can he not hear it? The sound of his Zanpakutō crying?"
He walked the streets of the Seireitei hoping for something interesting to happen. And as he did, he was hollered by many stall owners, that tried to get him to buy something, which he refused.
Eventually he happened upon a small bridge with a river underneath. On top of it was a young boy waiting for something. He was about to go talk to him, but then a stranger stopped him all of a sudden.
"Hey! You better not talk to that kid. You won't get anything out of him."
Curiously Kai asked why and so the stranger responded,
"His parents were murdered on that bridge, and the bodies were thrown into that river. But despite that they were found anyway. That kid is their son, and he won't talk to anyone that comes by. Eventually if no one claims him, he'll be thrown out into the Rukon district."
Taking a new found interest in the boy, Kai approached him anyway. He got down and asked him,
"What are you waiting for?"
But he didn't reply.
Instead Kai took a place next to the boy, and started to wait with him. When he got hungry, he would get food for the both of them, when he got cold, he would get blankets for the both of them, and when he got bored, he would talk to the boy even if he didn't talk back.
And then a week passed by in a flash.
"Why are you waiting with me?", The boy asked him.
"It's because you haven't answered my question yet.", Kai responded.
"I was waiting for my mother and father, but I know they aren't coming back. I don't know what to do anymore so I've just been waiting here, for something... anything."
This kid was exactly like Kai. Waiting for a change but unsure how to go about it. The boy was fed up and entered a state of immobility.
Kai patted his head and said, "You've been trying to reach out to people, yet you were shutting them out anyway. You can say you want to make friends, but it doesn't matter if you don't let them see your heart. I guess that's what I've been doing this whole time, wasn't I?"
Suddenly the boy got up in a hurry, and quickly ran away. Despite his hastiness, he had a smile on his face. Almost as if the burden which he had been carrying had finally been lifted.
Kai smiled as he waved back at him, seeing him off.
He then quickly ran back to Ikkaku's dojo with an eagerness to resume his training.
He slid open the doors, alerting everyone inside with his presence. Ikkaku shouted at him,
"Where the hell have you been?! You blue haired shit!"
Ignoring his insults, Kai instantly got onto the Tatami matt which was still in the spot he left it in. He crossed his legs as he sat on it, and laid both of Zanpakutō's on his lap.
The second he started to meditate, his consciousness began to sink and then suddenly, he found himself sleeping on someone else's lap. He immediately got up and saw that it was his Zanpakutō spirit.
"I said I wanted to understand myself so I came to talk to you. But that wouldn't be possible if I kept rejecting you right? I hate you, because your me. We are both too weak to do anything by ourselves, so we have to keep borrowing the powers of other things we don't understand. But us getting stronger starts with me accepting you. And then maybe we can finally understand what that thing is together."
He extended his hand out and tried to ask her if she was with him. But Surprisingly the Zanpakutō Spirit jumped onto Kai instead, and hugged him tightly. Kai's face turned red with embarrassment as he asked her what she was doing, but his reaction changed the second he heard her crying.
"What took you so long you idiot? I've been waiting for you to say that for so long."