I Have No Name

(Preface): This is an alternate story arc fan fiction that stays true to the manga all the way up to Chapter 215. For those of you that don't feel like looking up what exactly is happening at that point, Ichigo has gone to the Vaizard hideout in order to gain the hollow suppression technique in order to defeat Grimmjaw, but he refuses to join the Vaizards for it. However, Hiyori lets him know that it isn't really his choice whether he wants to or not, and transforms into a hollow, ready to commit horrible violence upon him until she forces his hollow out. From then on, the story changes dramatically, as you shall see…

Chapter 1: Emergence

Ichigo stood in shock as Hiyori's hollow exerted its power and covered the face of the small, obnoxious girl with a grinning mask. Hiyori's reiatsu spiked incredibly, and Ichigo felt bloodlust rush out as the slavering mind of a hollow reached out to him hungrily.

"Kurosaki Ichigo, don't think you'll get out of showing us your hollow," Hiyori sneered at him. "I'll beat it out of you if I have to, and then if you're strong enough we'll make you one of us!" She leaped at him viciously, her zanpakutoh snapping around in a killing blow.

Ichigo caught her blade heavily on his, and pushed it aside. He jumped backwards, but Hiyori was already behind him and slashing him across the back. Ichigo winced and whirled around with his giant blade, and Hiyori caught it with hers. As the two blades struggled, she grinned through her mask and kicked Ichigo square in the gut, sending him flying backwards. With a disgusted look, she temporarily re-sheathed her zanpakutoh and waited for Ichigo to recover his feet.

Ichigo got up painfully, and she snapped at him angrily, "I'm starting to get impatient here, and I don't think you'll like that. It's hard to push you like this and not kill you, so if you don't bring your Hollow out soon I might accidentally decapitate you!

Ichigo took a deep breath and held his zanpakutoh out towards Hiyori, focusing inward. "You're just a brat who wants to have her way all the time. I have people that I need to protect, and I'll be damned if I have to take your crap before I can do that!"

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Hiyori screamed at him in a rage.

"I don't have time to play your little game and be part of your group; everyone is counting on me and I will not allow you to stop me! You say I don't have a choice in the matter? Well, I'm going to make it my choice! BAN-KAI!" Ichigo's reiatsu detonated as he roared out the command to Zangetsu, filling the room. Some of the other Vaizards began to move forward, but Hiyori held a hand out threateningly and they backed up again.

Ichigo, once again wrapped in the frayed black cloak of old man Zangetsu, wielded a jet-black katana of normal size. His eyes burned with determination, and his hand gripped the handle of Tensa Zangetsu tightly.

I cannot lose! I won't let this brat beat me, and I won't lose to the Hollow inside of me either! he thought as he flickered from Hiyori's sight. Hiyori took a step back in astonishment, and Ichigo dropped from above her, created a hexagonal grid of slashes. Hiyori's hollow aura flared again, and she met Ichigo's attack head on, wildly parrying and counterattacking.

(Interesting how you talk about the hollow inside of you Ichigo…what makes you think that you could ever defeat me?)

Momentarily Ichigo faltered as a cackling voice rang through his mind, and Hiyori immediately took the opening, slashing Ichigo across his shoulder before he yanked backwards.

Not now damn it! I can't afford to have you interfering right now! Ichigo thought viciously as he held a hand over the bleeding wound. "You aren't going to screw me up this time bastard! I won't let you!" he screamed aloud, as his reiatsu all but imploded, trying to fight the hollow within.

(We shall see, but you much do you think you can handle at once?)

A sheet of black and white engulfed his mind, scraping across his brain in a symphony of raw pain. Ichigo screamed again as the hollow attempted to invade his consciousness. He dropped to his knees and his zanpakutoh clattered to the floor. Hiyori stood confused, trying to figure out whether she should attack him or let the paroxysm run its course. His reiatsu aura dwindled to nothing as he fought the massive internal struggle. He knew that if he weakened for a second now that the Hollow would take over his body again.

Hiyori came suddenly to a decision. She grinned nastily and leaped at Ichigo, ready to kill him in his moment of weakness. However, as she reached him and swung her zanpakutoh, the clash of steel on steel echoed through the Vaizard's hideout. Ichigo, was still on his knees, but he held Zangetsu vertically with its point digging into the ground as his hand trembled with pain. Though his movements were weak, a fire of determination burned in his eyes so powerful that Hiyori shuddered and turned her glance away from him.

"I…will not lose!" he bit out slowly, torn between the external and internal fight that threatened to overwhelm him. "There are too many people depending on me for my strength to give out now!" He stood up again and his reiatsu flared around him in a blue nimbus, buffeting all in the room as he focused to his utmost power.

Hiyori merely sneered and struck at him repeatedly with an animal viciousness, keeping Ichigo entirely on the defensive now as her relentless attack left no room for countering. Ichigo knew his speed was abysmal compared to what it had been in his fight with Byakuya, but he had no way to get out of this. He would have to continue and hope she presented him with some opening that would allow him to win.

Meanwhile, the Afro-Vaizard suddenly noticed something. He stared intently at Ichigo for a few second while Hiyori savagely beat at him, and then he turned to Hachi.

"I hadn't noticed until now, but something seems strange about his reiatsu aura. It feels restrained…What do you think Hachi?"

Hachi, who hadn't been paying very much attention, intent on containing the explosions of Hiyori' hollow power, turned an eye on Ichigo. That eye widened suddenly and he gasped in horror.

"You're right! There's a very powerful yet subtle seal on his reiatsu! Those foolish shinigami friends of his must have placed it on him to seal his hollow side. This must be why he has such trouble bringing out his Hollow. At this rate, Hiyori may kill him before she can elicit it!" he began to lumber into the fray as Hiyori finally snapped and raised her zanpakutoh over her head in a full-power killing blow. As Hachi ran, he chanted a spell, and as he reached the two combatants he placed both hands on Ichigo's back and called out the spell's name. "Let all that once was sealed come undone in the end times of the wavering dragon! When the fire extinguishes and the water evaporates, when the Judgement comes upon the lands that float upon the golden sea, let it be released! Way of Binding 94, Ragnarok!" A circle of magic flashed upon Ichigo's back and then blazed through his body as Hiyori's sword came down, and Hachi winced, hoping he wasn't too late.

(What utter fools)the cackling voice gloated in Ichigo's mind as the pain suddenly grew tenfold and Ichigo's consciousness fell into a dark pit of slashing knives and razor blades.

The Vaizard hideout was rocked by a massive explosion as Ichigo's body erupted in pure soul energy. A massive column of tangible power smashed straight through the roof and roared into the sky as a terrible laugh echoed inside the warehouse. The other Vaizards strained to see through the globe of coherent light that now surrounded Ichigo, Hiyori, and Hachi, but its brightness eclipsed the sun itself within that small space and they were forced to shut their eyes against it.

However, after a few seconds it dissipated and the aftermath could be seen. The first thing the other Vaizards noticed was Hachi thrown halfway through the back wall of the warehouse, barely twitching. The next was a ghostly white, mask-less Ichigo holding the blade of Hiyori's zanpakutoh with the thumb and index finger of his left hand. She appeared to be struggling with all her strength to force her blade but it moved not an inch.

Gleefully, the pale Ichigo lifted Zangestu high into the air, snapped Hiyori's zanpakutoh in half with a twist of his hand, and with a blurring motion sliced off Hiyori's sword arm. It fell to the floor along with her zanpakutoh and she screamed in pain and terror as she stumbled backwards and fell over. Ichigo was immediately surrounded by a host of Vaizards, their zanpakutohs drawn and held to his neck. However, rather than appearing frightened or daunted, the ghost-like Ichigo laughed aloud.

"What the hell was that?" shouted Hirako to the other Vaizards, who seemed clueless as well. "This is ridiculous; the power from his emergence is greater than any we've ever seen, and he doesn't even have a mask on!" he grimly met the eyes of the other Vaizards. "It might be possible that this is something other than a Vaizard transformation…something completely beyond our experience," he lifted up Ichigo's nightmarishly pale face with his zanpakutoh. "What are you, demon?"
The pale Ichigo giggled again and fixed Hirako with an insane look. "I…am…FREE!" he leaped at Hirako, ignoring the other zanpakutohs scratching his throat as he moved past. Hirako brought up his blade to block, and quickly hybridized, the Hollow mask liquefying into being and covering his face. The other vaizards did similarly, attempting to restrain the former Ichigo as he savagely beat against Hirako's iron defense. The biggest of them grabbed the Hollow-Ichigo's arms and held him fast and the others resumed their places around him, the zanpakutohs held much closer and more alertly this time.

"We have to find out what to do with him and do it quickly. Hiyori is bleeding to death over there and I'm not sure what condition Hachi is in. Keep him like that…with his arms immobilized he shouldn't be able to get the leverage to attack anyone. I think we'll have to revive Hachi and have him re-seal whatever this is. It isn't a normal Vaizard that's for sure." Hirako said as he paced around in front of the still grinning Hollow-Ichigo.

"That's quite correct my masked friends," responded the pale figure, "From what I can tell you are speaking of forcibly splitting your psyche into human and Hollow halves and controlling the Hollow half in order to gain its raw power. You made the mistake of assuming that Ichigo's alter-ego was simply that part of his consciousness acting out. I am something that has never existed before, a true Hollow living inside a human body. You freed me from the seal that a certain enemy of mine placed upon me, and for that I am somewhat thankful but mostly amused at your foolishness. You have no chance against me, now release me and stand aside," though the voice was high-pitched and cackling, the last words he uttered gained a power and resonance that bespoke a terrible strength.

Hirako laughed, "You've gotta be kidding me. We've got you completely restrained and at the end of half a dozen blades, and you're threatening us? We're not exactly frail beings you know…each one of us has the power of a Captain of Soul Society."

"Maybe a normal shinigami, or even a Hollow would be helpless in these circumstances…but I happen to possess a zanpakutoh of unique power, power that the foolish host of this body will never be able to unlock. Also, you have no idea of the power that you have unleashed this day." An aura of energy began to coalesce around Hollow-Ichigo, and too late the vaizards surrounding him attempted to lift their zanpakutohs to attack.

"Zero Getsuga," he uttered quietly as the aura swirled into the blade and erupted in a slicing wave of spirit energy that bisected the Vaizard holding him from behind. Then, as if the other combatants were moving in slow motion, he moved with unbelievable celerity, avoiding dozens of blows that came from every direction. Each of the Vaizards he felled with a single stroke of unparalleled violence, breaking through their zanpakutohs as if they were made of glass and slicing clean through their bodies. Hirako surveyed the slaughter with a stunned silence. Whatever this thing is, it is purely a creature of battle. That is what it exists for. The only word I can think of to describe this scene is…unstoppable. Composing himself, he attempted to escape using a hasty flash-step, but as he emerged from the first step he felt the blade of Tensa Zangetsu slide through his chest. He stared numbly at the long, black blade sticking out from his breast, and then felt something beyond pain as the pale Ichigo crunched the blade sideways through his ribcage and pulled it out of his left side. Hirako fell to the ground and was instantly surrounded by a pool of blood.

"They never stood a chance. Then again, no being alive has a chance of surviving against me," another insane cackle escaped from him, but suddenly a realization came to him that changed his demeanor. The twisted smile gave way to a terrible snarl of hatred "Damn! The aura that I generated when I first emerged was massive! That bastard Urahara is somewhere near here and I know he must have noticed. I have to get there immediately before he notifies Soul Society!" Hollow Ichigo disappeared from the scene, leaving the Vaizards to die in the abandoned warehouse.

Immediately afterwards, a short figure appeared from nowhere in the middle of the room. He was short, stocky and wore heavy glasses. Long silvery hair fell to his shoulders as he critically surveyed the scene. Hirako, somehow conscious, saw the figure as his vision blurred into oblivion.

"Madera…-sama…help me…" he groaned as he felt what little life was left in his body trickle out onto the cold, hard floor.

The figure, now identified as Madera, smiled a cruel, icy smile and walked over to Hirako. Without warning he delivered a vicious kick to Hirako's severed ribcage, making the dying Vaizard's eyes open in pain and shock as he rolled onto his back. Madera's eyes glinted with a steely air of evil as he surveyed the broken body.

"I have no need of failures Hirako. You did not succeed in doing what I asked of you and you dare ask me to help you?" Madera's voice rang out crisp and deep, with a biting edge to it that was filled with the promise of death; an imposing power certainly not expected from his physical stature.

"He was…beyond strong," Hirako protested, straining to keep his vision and voice active even as a coldness settled into his very bones. "I don't know what he was…not a Vaizard…but he was stronger than any shinigami…"

"Yes…yes he is. I doubt that all the shinigami that exist in Soul Society would be capable of defeating him…this one with no name," Madera said gleefully, his irises shifting colors wildly as a maniac expression altered his features.

The coldness Hirako felt chilled through to the very hole where his heart should have been. "You…knew then…" it was not a question, but rather a hopeless statement.

"Oh yes I certainly did my young friend Hirako," Madera laughed insanely. "I finally found what Urahara and the rest of Soul Society hid away a hundred years ago, so I was able to use you to get it for me. I don't know what he was doing in that boy's body, but he is certainly not the boy's Hollow half. He is the Unnamed One, the first of the Arrancar. He is not as weak as the 'assisted' Arrancars being produced by the truckload by Aizen Sosuke…oh no…he is a being of true power. There is something I must get from him, and I thank you for your services Hirako, but what just happened accomplished two goals of mine in one go—I can't be leaving loose ends such as you Vaizards around after all—so if you'll excuse me…" another deep laugh echoed through the warehouse and Madera disappeared, leaving silence as Hirako lay on the ground, cursing his fate as the life drained from his body.