"BANKAI"!
A piercing light stunned onlookers as Ichigo unleashed Zangetsu's second released state. The few survivors who were not running for their lives could see a shadowy form moving beneath the cloud of smoke that had been thrown up at the declaration of the substitute's transformation. With a single swing of his newly formed blade, Ichigo threw the smokescreen off of him. He stared down his enemy, the possessed Rukia.
"Tensa...Zangetsu" Ichigo said under his breath as he put up his guard. He was not sure why he had activated his Bankai; after all, he had no intention of killing Rukia simply because she wasn't in her right mind. Even as he thought this however, the gruesome visage that Ichigo was trying to convince himself was still Rukia somehow raised its weapon.
He examined it for a moment while on guard. This was the strangest weapon that Ichigo had ever seen, and that was saying something. The long scythe was a deep red with black spots along its deadly length; its impressive handle was bone white and from the look of it, was not going to break as easily as Byakuya's zanpakto.
'Stay focused' he told himself, 'it's not Rukia, she would want you to do this, and she would want you to fight as hard as you could.' He looked at Rukia's new form and felt sick, this wasn't the first time that she had been subject to mind control, but it was defiantly the most...disturbing. Her clothes had changed with her transformation (as they often did around here), her Shiningami kimono had turned chalk white and her hair was the same muddy purple colour of a beetroot.
Despite these thoughts, Ichigo found the handle of his Bankai was becoming greasy with sweat. He held it all the tighter as a result of his confliction. He had never had to fight Rukia this seriously before, sure they had trained but...there was never any intent to kill.
Half of the fights that had moulded him into what he was had been to protect Rukia...Renji, Kempatchi, Byakuya...what he say if she was killed? Before he had time to day dream about his past fights any longer, Rukia's scythe had collided with his black swords hilt, narrowly missing his fingers.
Gasping in alarm, Ichigo jumped back and immediately counter attacked, swinging Zangetsu straight at that stupid scythe's blade, he thought shattering the blade would get him his friend back.
This proved foolish however, when the two weapons clashed and the evil sickle didn't even quiver. Rukia parried the slash effortlessly and without a pause for a breath, was back on the offensive, slicing Ichigo's torso twice and cutting his sword arm very deeply. Even with that brief contact, Ichigo had felt the powerful reiatsu behind that freaky weapon.
Wincing from the pain, Ichigo threw himself back, trying to gain some ground on this monstrous new strength that Rukia had obtained. He quickly examined his newly made wounds; they were deep and bleeding badly. She must have severed an artery. 'Damn it' he thought, 'how am I so damaged from that'?!
He gasped as the blood slipped through his hands as he tried to stem the flow of his life-force to no avail. It was now or never, he had to act. Ichigo ignored the blood and raised his zanpakto over his head, this was it, and if this didn't end it-nothing would.
"GETSUGA! He roared as Rukia went flying at him again with her weapon raised.
'Now'! He thought 'Do it now!'
But something was stopping him from uttering the second half of his attack; he was worried how much damage it would do to Rukia's body. He was...he was too scared to finish the attack!
He considered maybe that he could simply hold out and wait for help to arrive, the other Shiningami would come to help. That way, he wouldn't need to use his 'Getsuga Tensio'. Just as Ichigo felt these doubts, he felt a migraine crackle into live inside his mind. At the same time, he heard a familiar high, cold voice in his thoughts.
So you want more help? Well answer me this: why do you have to wait for others when I'm right here"? With this question, Ichigo felt a tugging inside him, a yearning, a will for freedom as if a mighty lion was pummelling the side of its cage, roaring for release.
With his free hand, Ichigo gripped his head firmly and concentrated desperately on keeping the voice suppressed.
'Ignore it' he told himself, 'just ignore it, it's not in charge-you are'. The voice laughed mirthlessly in his mind.
'So you don't need me huh, that's adorable Ichigo'!
Lost in his inner battle, Ichigo couldn't defend against the fourth merciless scythe blow, this time to the side of his head. The force of the impact sent him flying into a plateau, which he smashed into with an earth shattering crash. The force had been so great that an impression of Ichigo's form had been made in the rock. It took a few moments for gravity to take its course, but he inevitably fell on his face. And there he lay, struggling to stand up.
He was sure that this slip up would be fatal, but there was surprisingly little damage. Ichigo struggled back up onto one knee and felt a strange weight upon his face. Confused, Ichigo felt his head, and the top right corner of his mask fell away from his face. Ichigo stared at it. A large chunk was missing from the space just above the eye. That must have been what compensated for the impact.
'What are you doing'?! roared the voice inside his head, now sounding more panicked at its masters rapid blood loss, 'let me take over'!
"Why" Ichigo muttered under his breath, his heavy bleeding very apparent.
'Because I can regenerate your body moron, I can stop the bleeding 'the voice explained hurriedly.
"You're a liar" Ichigo spat, "you're just trying to escape my head…I won't let you kill her"! Ichigo clamped his hand over his face, panting hard and focused on keeping the demon inside him suppressed.
'Don't be stupid! The voice shrieked inside him, the pressure of its influence increased, you can't fight anymore, keep this up and all you'll end up doing is bleed out and then Rukia's really fucked! Ichigo's resistance was lessened slightly by the mention of Rukia's name. He loathed giving up his free will to that freak but Zangetsu did seem to inflict more damage when his hands were holding it. Maybe he is the best option right now, Ichigo thought, realising that the feeling in his legs had completely dissipated and he must have easily been missing a quarter of his blood.
'YES I AM! The voice inside Ichigo's head sounded triumphant but was still panicking. YOU CAN'T FIGHT, YOU'RE TOO SCARED OF HURTING HER, LET ME FIGHT AMATEUR'!
Ichigo felt very heavy, he saw Rukia flying towards him, scythe raised, ready to kill…
'but that's not important'; Ichigo found himself thinking, 'at least…I tried'. Ichigo's eyes began to feel heavy as the blackness started to appear around the borders of his vision, the creeping darkness that was his beast's release, the ghost of a smile played around his lips and he spoke.
"Well, I guess that's it, I can't hold out anymore Rukia…I'm sorry" Ichigo whispered just before his eyes closed entirely.
But Rukia's real ears were too far away to hear him. She pelted towards the kneeling Shinigami, scythe poised, ready to pierce his throat. There was nowhere for him to go, he was pressed up against the plateau. Her aim was perfect; the trajectory on point, there was no way she could possibly miss.
She was so certain of her victory that when Ichigo's spiritual pressure skyrocketed, she did not notice, nor did she take any notice of the mask, rapidly forming over her preys left eye…of the confident smile forming around his pale lips.
The scythe stabbed…and struck hard against the rocky impression that Ichigo's neck had occupied not a few seconds before. Ichigo's head had jerked to one side, just clear of the oncoming attack. It was then that those two ghastly visages met eye to eye.
Two grey blank emotionless eyes met a single black eye and a quarter of a mask with another black eye, both with eerie gleaming yellow pupils. These eyes were nowhere near emotionless however; they were wild and excited, as if belonging to a child on Christmas morning.
They contained none of that innocence though; they were mad and sadistic, just like the ghoulish grin that seemed to spread unnaturally wide across Ichigo's face, staring Rukia down like some kind of insect awaiting inspection…or dissection.
"My turn"…murmured Ichigo, though not in his own voice, but in the voice of his own inner hollow, the cruel, war like counterpart to Ichigo Kurosaki was now free for the entire world to see. Almost immediately after saying these words, Tensa Zangetsu had ripped through Rukia's right shoulder, the force of this attack threw Rukia back a few paces, knocking her temporarily off-guard.
Despite the pain, Rukia managed to correct her guard just in time as Ichigo came flying at her, laughing and slashing like mad. He was wielding his sword in a completely different fashion than he had been a few minutes ago; he was spinning and swiping at her with Tensa Zangetsu, holding it by the long black chain that extruded from its hilt.
He was also clearly aiming for her vital areas, instead of merely parrying her. It was clear that this man was not holding back. He would kill her if he got the chance. With her scythes speed, Rukia managed to dodge or block the first few attacks and even got in a hit on Ichigo's right leg. Ichigo's barrage of attacks ceased when this happened, and with a weird high pitched exertion noise, flash stepped back to a safe distance.
Rukia was about to get back on the offensive when she stumbled on the first step forward, blood shooting out of her left shoulder. She composed herself for a moment; she must have not been fast enough to evade all of those attacks. The blood loss was heavy, that blade must have cut deep, but what did it matter? She had inflicted far more damage on him than he had on her. That little show with the mask meant nothing.
Looking up at the Shinigami, Rukia saw that she was wrong. Ichigo was standing a few yards away, giggling loudly and staring unblinkingly at her. Rukia noticed that the cuts on his body were steaming and hissing.
"What's the matter-that all you got"?! He blurted out, breathing heavily but still maintaining that insane grin. Rukia's eyes narrowed at his cuts as they began to knit themselves back together. She then stared back at the bizarre man before her. He was talking to himself.
'Remember, you promised not to get carried away, I think it's the scythe, take that out and she should be set free' echoed the voice of Ichigo, the real Ichigo.
"Yeah yeah, I got ya" the hollow answered back impatiently, "Stop whining". Rukia had waited long enough. She charged the mad warrior, scythe poised, aiming for the steadily growing mask.
In response to the advance of his enemy, Ichigo began to spin his sword around by the chain in his right hand.
"Alright...watch and learn amateur" he muttered under his breath, his one exposed eye narrowing with anticipation. At the last moment, he seized the hilt of Tensa Zangetsu and clashed with Rukia's scythe. The impact shook the mountainside, every Shinigami for a mile felt the clash of two great powers. The sword and scythe shuddered and sparked as their owners each pushed the other back.
Ichigo brought his face as close as he could to Rukia's and cackled "How's about we test that tooth picks strength"! His reiatsu began to intensify as it was concentrated into something. Suddenly a burst of powerful force pushed Rukia back a few feet, just enough for Ichigo to get his other hand on the swords long blade.
He grinned ear to ear and proclaimed:
"PIERCING HEAVEN!"
Hi, thanks for reading. I am considering continuing this story but this is only if there is a demand for it. If you want this story to be finished, please leave a comment saying so. If not, I will just consider this a one-shot and leave it at that. cheers. Johnathan :)