Before I begin with the chapter I’ll explain why I was gone for like a week. So, first I had to go on like a 3 day trip with my family and had to leave behind my laptop, then returned really late on Sunday so I didn’t upload. Then, Monday I started my college classes again so now I have a full schedule and can’t upload daily anymore, my only free days are Friday and Saturday, so you can expect at least 1 chapter per week with the occasional extra chapter through the weekend.

At first, I didn’t really know what to say, I mean I never thought I’d meet a Quincy nor that I had to make up a background for myself.

Mistaking my silence for wariness he states, “Fine, I guess it’s only fair I introduce myself first before you do.”

“I am a Quincy, a special clan of humans spread all throughout of the world, and here in Japan it is the Ishida Clan. Although I am part of the Ishida clan, I am retired and no longer in much contact with my clan, as for relatives I do have a few sons and nephews, but they’re not in this area they are more to the West in the Kanto region. I even heard one of my nephews settled in Edo, hahaha!” he states merrily.

Although I listened to him pretty well, I was quickly piecing together a background for myself to appear less suspicious.

“Now, your turn.” He states.

Although I could technically lie to him and not reveal anything about myself, I doubt he’d believe me as the stronger someone is the stronger their senses and I doubt any Quincy, especially from this time period, would allow a human who feels like a hollow to walk around freely. So, the trick here would be to be honest and mix in some lies.

“I… I am Alan Whitlock, I belong to a very special and small clan which is technically not a clan but a community.” Making eye contact with him to see if he’s following I continue, “We are born whenever a pregnant woman is attacked by hollows and survives, from then on the unborn child carries hollow spiritual power that mixes with their making them gain special abilities. The abilities we gain from this spiritual power depend on the individual and is frequently tied to an individual’s affection for certain objects, so we termed it Fullbring.” I state.

Nodding for me to go on I continue.

“People who awaken said power are termed Fullbringers and become incredibly strong or versatile. I managed to awaken my Fullbring at a young age and was supposed to go into training, but my ability was deemed useless and therefore banished.” I then add, “my Fullbring is called Essence Manipulation, and it allows me to modify biological objects.” Although that is not the full extent of my ability it is always best to keep a few facts to themselves to have some trump cards.

“Hmm.. Interesting.” He ponders over the new information I brought him and then asks, “So, how many of you are there in said community?”

“Not many, only around 3-9 every few generations.” I said in a firm tone, though inwardly I’m just hoping this ends soon as I am running out of gibberish to talk about.

“Do you want to go back to that community” he asks.

“No.”

Immediate denial, I mean why should I go back to something that doesn’t exist, or at least not yet.

“Ok, now that we got the introductions out of the way let me ask you this, Alan, from your use of spiritual power, I can tell you have received no training, but have you trained in anything else?” he asks.

Shaking my head I reply, “No, I learned everything myself.”

“I thought so, I must say though, despite your usage being so terrible it wouldn’t even hurt a fly, your physical strength is pretty good.”

Feeling a subtle jab at my efforts I just stay silent as I’m smart enough to know not to contradict an expert.

“Starting from tomorrow, I will train you, so go back and rest for the day you brat.”

I then left to explore the rest of the place before heading back to my room.

(The next day)

“Before we begin, I must explain the basics.” He states.

“In this world, there are humans, whenever we die, we become souls, or otherwise known as Pluses. Sometimes, said Pluses start to get corrupted for various reasons and become a hollow, or that monster you fought the other day.” I nod in understanding and he continues, “Just as there are Pluses and hollows, there are beings known as Shinigamis, they are the protectors of the world, they hunt and purify hollows and guide the Pluses to what us human would term as an afterlife. This place is called Soul Society, one of the three major realms that exist since long ago.”

“The three major realms are the World of the Living, Soul Society, and Hueco Mundo. While the World of the Living has all the humans, Soul Society and Hueco Mundo house the Shinigami, Pluses, and Hollows, respectively.” He finishes.

“There is still much more to this, but this should do it for now.”

“Now on to the next part.”

“While Soul Society and Hueco Mundo are mainly composed of Spirit Particles(Reishi), the World of the Living is mostly composed of Holdets(Kishi). Compared to Shinigami and hollows who use their Spiritual Power to fuel their powers, we Quincy use Spirit Particles in the air to fuel our powers, pretty cool, eh” He explains, as he gives me a smug smile for some reason.

“For now, I won’t go into much detail over Shinigami and hollows, as their powers function differently from us humans, so I’ll talk more about Quincies. Quincy make use of Spirit Particles to make a variety of weapons such as swords, or most commonly, bow and arrows.”

Although I knew a lot of this information, it is good to confirm that my knowledge of the series is still correct and also serves to jog my memories in case I forgot or misinterpreted something.

“Let’s get started, I’ve had enough of explaining we should start while the sun’s out.” He excitedly states.

“Since we are human, we have a harder time sensing things like Spiritual Pressure and making use of our Spiritual Power, so we have to train our bodies to be able to do this properly, starting from now I want you to wake up at dawn and run 5 laps around my property carrying these rocks on your back.” He states as he points towards the soccer ball sized rocks beside him and the Karui(bamboo backpack).

“Isn’t that too much?” I nervously ask, “I mean, I’m 8 years old, I can’t carry that much, especially for that long.”

“Don’t get smart with me kid, I can tell your boy is as strong as an adult’s, plus I am not dumb enough to not notice that your strength is partly because of your so called Fullbring, this training serves to train both of your abilities, now get a move on or else you’re not eating tonight.” He states tyrannically.

“Yes, sir!”

And so began what would become part of my hellish workout every day for years to come.