Undercover

by whitespiderlilly

UP FOR ADOPTION! The winter war has ended and things to going back to normal for Ichigo. But now Ichigo has been voted to be a captain and has to go to the acadamy. And he has to deal with his new "brother" while he's at it.

Announcement at bottom

Also I did some revisions. Enjoy.

XX

The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his. - General George Patton

XX

Ichigo groaned as he was woken up by his deputy badge. Again. The blasted thing was currently screaming at the top of its (nonexistent) lungs. Rolling over onto his side he saw the time as he reached for the badge and groaned again. 3:46. Why did hollows have to come around so late at night? Honestly this was the fifth freaking time in one week this had gone off. Did hollows just sense when you were sleeping or something? Grabbing his badge, Ichigo pressed it to his chest and his soul was separated from his body. The now soulless body fell limply onto the bed. Ichigo looked down at his soulless body and wished he could still be in it catching up on the, oh, at least 12 hours of sleep he had missed all week. Hollow activity usually came in "waves." There would be weeks where there would be minimal hollow attacks – one or two hollows every couple of days – and then there would be a week or two where there seemed to be hollows every few hours. This was a normal occurrence all around the world, though it was amplified in Karakura town. And unfortunately, this week was one of those weeks where hollows were just popping up all over town like daises.

Leaving his room via window (really, what was the point of having a door anymore? Almost nobody used it), a now alert Ichigo jumped from rooftop to rooftop, heading towards the park where the hollows reiatsu was coming from.

'Ya might want to be careful, aibou,'a familiar voice in his head said, 'It could be the new hollow that hat-n'-clogs told ya about.'

"Yeah," the orange-head replied absentmindedly. He was still thinking of the nice, comfortable and oh-so inviting bed he had left and the oncoming headache he was going to get tomorrow when he crashed in the middle of class again as well as the teachers "punishment" he was going to get. Really, was a high school teacher allowed to act that way? And why did it feel as if she had been a karate teacher or a professional wrestler before her teaching career?

After the war ended two years ago, Ichigo lost most of his powers, leaving him unable to even see a shadow of a spirit for months. His powers gradually came back to him and now he was once again at captain level; he wasn't as strong as he used to be though, since there was no war or any foe to fight Ichigo had no reason to push himself to his limits. Also, during the two years, Ichigo and his hollow had become a little closer as apposed to what their previous "relationship" had been, which was a brutal fight every time they met or a battle to the death. Of course, just because they stopped trying to kill each other didn't mean they stopped arguing and fighting each other. There was just a bit less blood. Thinking back, the change in the albino's attitude started when Ichigo gave him a name: Shiro. Not exactly a creative name, which Shiro had no problem pointing out, but it fit and it stuck. Ever sense then, the two talked more and the albino would talk to the shinigami when he was bored (or the other way around) or to remind the teen when he had forgotten something; of course this was only when he needed what he had forgotten. Shiro never bothered with reminding Ichigo about the small things, such as a shopping list here, a textbook there, a sock in the toaster waaaay over there (he still had no idea how that one ever happened). And now he was reminding the orange head of a warning Urahara told him a few weeks ago about some strange hollow with a unique ability. What this ability was they didn't know.

Ichigo was brought out of his musings as he landed in the park. Reaching back, he griped the handle of Zangetsu and unraveled the zanpaktou as he searched for the hollow. Nothing. Ichigo gripped the handle harder as a knot of apprehension formed in his stomach.

'The hollow was definitely here a minute ago,' he thought, 'but it's not here now. Did it go back to Hueco Mundo? Or is it just waiting in a fold to get a surprise attack on an unsuspecting soul?' Before he could make any movement, a large, white blur shot out of the trees to his right. Reacting in an instant, Ichigo shunpoed forward before turning around, and, the hollow now in sight, ran towards it, Zangetsu ready to strike.

With surprising speed, the hollow managed to dodge the attack but it still lost one of its arms (or was one of his feet?). It stopped underneath a streetlight and growled at him and Ichigo could now see what it looked like.

It strongly reminded Ichigo of a scorpion. Actually, that's what it was: a giant scorpion. It was as tall as a horse and, not including the tail, was about ten feet long. The tail looked the be just as long as the body and at the end had a sharp, long stinger that was dripping a clear, purple liquid that the he guessed was poison.

Before he could take in anymore of the hollows appearance it lunged at him again. Ichigo ran towards it, intending to stab the mask but the lack of sleep the past week slowed him down and the hollow dodged to the right, its tail striking him, leaving a shallow cut on his shoulder. Pain exploded from the wound. Holding back a scream, he swung his sword at the hollow again, only to miss and get stabbed again, this time deeper, into his side. This time he let out howl in agony, vaguely noticing that Shiro was screaming as well. He had to finish this quickly.

The hollow was running at him again and Ichigo pumped reiatsu into Zangetsu as he raised it. When the hollow got close enough that it couldn't dodge, he swung down, releasing a Getsuga Tenshou. The pain was too much now and Ichigo was losing consciousness. The last thing he heard was the cry of the hollow and someone shouting his name before the world went black.

XX

Chad had been heading home from the always-open convenient store, grocery bag in hand. He had woken up earlier from a dream he couldn't remember and was unable to go back to sleep. He decided on fixing a light snack that would help calm his nerves. Unfortunately he was running low on food, so he decided to go out and buy some. 'No time like the present' he thought. The walk to the store was uneventful but when he got there he sensed a hollow in the park nearby. He was about to go and take care of it when he felt Ichigo's reiatsu heading in the direction of the hollow. Knowing his friend could take care of such a low-class hollow himself, the silent teen went in and got what he needed.

However, as he was leaving the store, Ichigo's reiatsu started fluctuating. Worrying that his friend was in danger, Chad made a beeline towards him, running as fast as he could. He soon ran into the clearing Ichigo was at and his eyes widened at the sight in front of him.

Ichigo was just standing there, sword raised, as a scorpion like hollow was charging at him. Then he swung down, releasing the familiar attack that hit the hollow dead on. As the hollow cried out, Chad looked at his friend who started falling as a soft purple light engulfed him.

"Ichigo!" The giant ran toward his friend, ignoring the dissolving hollow. Before he could reach the now oddly glowing form of his wounded friend, however, something strange happened. The teen's image began to distort before it widened. As he got closer, Chad gaped at what was happening in front of him. Ichigo wasn't widening he was splitting. 'It's like mitosis,' he thought absentmindedly. In less than a minute the 'mitosis' had finished and a duplicate of Ichigo lay beside the shinigami.

But it wasn't an exact copy. There was definite color difference. Instead of bright orange hair, the other had stark white hair and instead of tanned skin, it was white as well. Actually, everything about the other was white, except for the wrapping on the duplicate Zangetsu, which was inky black.

Chad wondered what happened and how it happened but pushed those thoughts aside. Now wasn't the time to wonder, he needed to get his friend help. Picking the two Ichigo's up, the dark skinned teen headed toward Urahara's shop.

XX

For Ichigo, waking up was a slow process. The first thing he noticed was that he was warm. The second was his sense of smell. The aroma of bacon wafted in through his nose, causing his stomach to announce its hunger. The teen was comfortable and reluctant to get out of bed but his stomach was insistent. He almost jumped out of his skin when he heard a voice in front of him.

"Well, well, looks like someone finally decided to wake up."

Ichigo snapped his eyes open, only to quickly shut them again as the bright light blinded him. Opening his eyes at a slower pace, Ichigo let his eyes adjust to the light before looking to his left, where the voice had come from. Familiar sandals entered his vision. Eye's moving upwards, he saw the smiling face of Kisuke Urahara.

Ichigo simply stared before…

"What the hell?" The orange haired teen threw the covers off and tried to sit up but fell back down due to the unexpected weight on his waist and legs. Propping himself on his elbows, he looked down to see the pale form of Shiro clinging to his waist, fast asleep. Ichigo scowled and reached up to poke the albino in the cheek.

No reaction.

*PokePoke*

Still nothing. Ichigo's scowl deepened.

*PokePokePokePo-*Slap!*

Waking up a bit, the hollow reacted by slapping the shinigami, hard enough that the teen fell back. Ichigo brought a hand to his stinging cheek as Urahara laughed his ass off in the background. Urahara stood up and started to walk out but then turned around.

"Oh, once you two get done playing around, come down for breakfast." And with that he left.

Ichigo pushed himself up again to glower down at his hollow who was beginning to wake up. Shiro's eye's slowly opened, revealing gold on black eyes. The groggily looked up and half lidded golden orbs met brown. The albino gave soft smile before laying his head back down, snuggling into Ichigo's lower stomach, uncomfortably close to his crotch.

Ichigo blushed furiously before bitch-slapping the albino back. That woke him up and instantly Shiro shot up and unraveled Zangetsu, preparing to slice Ichigo in two.

"Ahhh! Shiro!"

At the orange head's exclamation, Shiro came to himself and saw the cowering shinigami in front of him. He lowered his sword and then propped himself against it, sticking his pinky finger into his ear and started scratching.

"Yo, King." He said casually. Ichigo stuttered before collecting himself and setting his signature scowl back in place.

"Whatever. Come on, let's go get some breakfast."

Later Ichigo, Shiro, Urahara and Chad were sitting at the round table they always had 'meetings' at, empty breakfast plates in front of them. Apparently, Shiro could eat human food. Ichigo was the first to break the silence.

"Okay Urahara, explain. I know that even if you don't know what happened, you at least have a theory."

Urahara chuckled, pulling his fan out of nowhere and holding it in front of his face. "Always to the point, Ichigo. The hollow that you fought poisoned you right?"

Ichigo nodded.

"Well," he continued, "by analyzing the poison in your blood stream and on your skin, I discovered that the liquid splits the soul in two. My guess is, is that this is a hunting tactic. By splitting the soul in two, the prey would be confused and distracted and the hollow would then eat the two halves." He paused, his grey eyes boring into the two identical teens in front of him.

"That is what would happen to a normal soul. You, however, are a vizard and you soul is already split into two halves: the shinigami side and the hollow side. The poison merely separated the two sides."

"So what does tha' mean for us? Am I still able to use Zangetsu and can King still use my mask?" Shiro spoke up, saying what he knew they were both thinking.

"Oh, you can both still use each others powers." Urahara said in his annoyingly cheerful voice, "You two are still linked. You both can go to Ichigo-san's inner world and you can still use Zangetsu Hollow-san-"

"Shiro," the albino interrupted. Urahara looked at him with mock surprise (or maybe it was real, don't know) before smiling again.

"Of course, Shiro-san, my mistake. Shiro-san can still use Zangetsu and Ichigo-san can still use your mask. All in all, you're just permanently materialized!" the shopkeeper finished joyfully waiting for their response.

"O-kay," Ichigo spoke first, still absorbing everything he was told. Including the fact that Urahara had done "tests" that included drawing blood from him and then touching him while he was unconscious. That was just a creepy thought in and of itself. "Well," he turned to his inner-now-outer hollow, "Now what? What am I going to do with you?" Before the albino could reply, Chad, who hadn't said a word the entire time, spoke up.

"He could pose as your long lost brother." The other three people in the room turned to him, two of them looking surprised, one gleeful. Ichigo opened and closed his mouth, trying to form a response (probably to argue) but nothing came out making him look like a goldfish. Chad continued.

"Your friends and family already know of Shiro. Your dad and sisters will easily accept him and the people at school wouldn't care. He's more than likely going to stay with you anyway."

Shiro had a thoughtful look on his face and Ichigo had now collected himself, his scowl firmly in place.

"Shiro may have his own body now and he may look human hut he is still a hollow! Hollows eat souls to live and they always go after family first." He glanced at the albino beside him. "No offence Shiro, but I just want to keep my family safe." The albino simply shrugged, not denying what the young shinigami said.

"Actually," Urahara said, gaining the others attention, "Shiro-san here doesn't need to eat souls." The surprised expressions on the three (two really) teens faces was expected. He continued with his explanation. "This is because of his link to Ichigo. That's the gist of it anyway, the real explanation is lengthy and complex and I highly doubt you would be able to understand it. He eats normal food just like everyone else." Shiro seemed to be pleased by this and Ichigo looked relived.

"So, he's not going to eat my family?"

The shopkeeper nodded.

The teen sighed. "Alright. So long as my family if safe I'm fine with it. He's going to need a gigai though." The two look-alikes stared at Urahara, who grinned.

"I knew you were going to say that. I already have a gigai all set and ready to go!" As if he was summoned, the door opened and Tessai walked in carrying a pale body and a tan one, much to their surprise.

"Since you were out so long, I had Tessai retrieve your body. I also had him leave a note explaining the situation and to prepare them for another family member." Urahara explained as the two teens slipped into their respective bodies.

Ichigo comfortably eased into his body, noticing that his clothes had changed (again with someone touching his body, and judging by the smirk it was Urahara. What was with this guy?). Someone *coughUraharacough* had taken the liberty of dressing him in blue jeans and a plain t-shirt. Looking at the other, he saw the hollow doing some stretches, getting used to having a corporal body. Shiro was also wearing blue jeans, only darker, and a plain shirt. When he saw the eyes, Ichigo was surprised to see gold irises instead of the red that most albinos had.

Ichigo turned to Urahara and Chad and thanked them for the help before he and Shiro left to go home and look at the sleeping arrangements from here on out.

XX

Chapter 2

Don't take life too seriously. You'll never get out of it alive.-anonymous

Much to their – mostly Ichigo's – dismay, it was quite early in the morning, the sun just barely peaking over the horizon. This also made the orange head wonder how Urahara was able to do all those tests and make a gigai in only a few hours but decided against thinking about it too much; it was Urahara after all. Ichigo and Shiro walked side by side as they headed to Ichigo's house. Despite his uncaring outward appearance, Shiro was slightly worried of meeting the family. While they knew of Shiro and Soul Society they have never met him and he was unsure of their reactions to him. Isshin might either hug him or kill him (either way he gets attacked), Yuzu would probably accept him with open arms, and Karin might not even care one way or another ('course, you never can tell with her).

Much to the hollows displeasure, the house came into sight much faster than it should have. What was the phrase? If you want something, it takes forever, but if you don't, you have it in no time or something like that. Stealing himself, he followed behind his king as they entered the clinic/home.

"I'm home!" Ichigo yelled and a second later, Ichigo's dad was in front of him about to give a round-house kick to the face. The lithe teen dodged and gave his own kick to the face.

"You're getting slow in your old age, goat face!" the aggravated teen shouted at the older Kurosaki. Isshin rubbed his face before standing up and pointing dramatically at his son.

"You are finally home, my delinquent son! And you are so strong you hurt daddy! Yet, you lost to an ordinary hollow!" then he turned and fell against the giant poster of his dead wife, weeping, "Oh my beautiful Masaki, where did I go wrong in raising my son?"

A tic formed on "the delinquent son's" forehead and Shiro just smirked at the familiar sight before him. The normalcy of everything helped ease his nerves, though a small part of him was both pleased and annoyed that he had been ignored so far.

"Shut up dad your antics are annoying this early in the morning." Karin said without even looking at the man as she continued to eat her breakfast. Swallowing, she turned around in her chair to look at Shiro.

"So, you're Shiro, my brothers inner hollow, right?"

Shiro's smirk only widened and Karin looked him over.

"Ichi-nii said that you looked a lot like him, but to actually see it is kind of odd. I thought that your sclera were supposed to be black."

"That's because he's in a gigai." Ichigo answered. He didn't need to tell her what a gigai was since she already knew. "But in spirit form, he does have black sclera. His tongue's blue too."

Yuzu spoke up then, "If you two are hungry, I have some breakfast left over."

Shiro answered her, "Na, we already ate at hat-n-clogs. Thanks anyway." Ichigo looked at him in awe. Shiro had manners and he knew how to use them? You learn something new every day. Yuzu pouted a little before perking up again while Karin took her empty plate to the kitchen. Isshin had stopped crying and turned to his son and his sons hollow with a semi-serious face. It was immediately ruined when he grinned.

"Alright Shiro, you're going to be sleeping in Ichigo's room! I already have a bed for you even! I also called the school this morning and you are enrolled as Shiro Kurosaki, Ichigo's twin brother that got separated at birth! And later, we're going shopping to get you clothes! It will be a great, manly family out-!"

Shiro finally shut him up via foot in his face. Isshin backed up, holding his face before he recovered, beaming.

"So fast and powerful! How worthy you are, my son!" He gave the albino a thumbs up.

"Che, whatever." Was all he said as he followed his king up the stairs, probably to his (their, now) room.

True to Isshin's words, there was another bed for Shiro, next to the other window. The two wondered where the extra bed had come from but didn't think too much on it. It was the same size but instead of a blue cover with a cross on it, it was red with three black stripes on the bottom right and top left.

"Well, tha covers ain't so bad," the hollow stated as he sat down on it, Ichigo doing the same on his bed. He turned to Ichigo.

"So…."

"So…."

"Now what?"

King scratched his head. "Don't know really. I guess one thing I can say is no killing the other students. Even though I agree that some of them need to die and I would like to mutilate some on a daily basis, don't kill them. Or anyone else, for that matter. It's a big no-no." A thought struck him and he turned to the albino in curiosity, "What do you know of school anyway?"

Shiro smirked, "As much as ya do King. Watchin' Zangetsu stand on his "ennui pole" is as interesting as watchin' grass grow and doing nothing' but trainin' gets old, so I would go through yer memories." He fell into a fit of deranged giggles (cackling!) at his Kings freaked out expression.

"Don't worry Kingy," he said waving his hand in a dismissive gesture once he calmed down enough to form coherent words, "It wasn't like I was watching ya take showers or masturbate or somethin'." Shiro fell over in laughter when Ichigo turned deep red in mortification.

"Sh-shut up! Freaking weirdo!" he stuttered out. The hollow was about to tease him some more when Isshin burst into the room, feet first, aiming at Ichigos head. The strawberry ducked and the older man flew through the open window, falling down to the street below. There was a crunch as he painfully made contact with asphalt. The two look alikes stuck their head out the window, one looking slightly worried, the other with the always present shit-eating grin. They heard him groan before he shot up with his stupid goofy grin as if he had only tripped. He then proceeded to run into the house. The two simultaneously turned away from the window and looked at the open door. They could hear him as he nosily made his way through the house before he appeared in the doorway.

"Nice dodge my son! I came to tell you that I have a short notice meeting out of town and I'll be gone for the rest of the day! Here!" He pulled a credit card out of nowhere (Ichigo promised himself he would not speculate as to where it had come from on the account that his pants didn't have pockets and the shirt pockets were in the front, not the back) and shoved it into the orange haired teen's hand. "Take this and go shopping with Shiro." He turned to the albino, "Buy whatever you want, the price doesn't matter! Have fun spending time together!" Without waiting for a reaction he left the room, and the two stupefied teens.

Ichigo looked at Shiro. Shiro looked at Ichigo.

"Well…let's go." King looked at himself. "After I get a shower and change into some of my own clothes. You want to borrow some of mine?"

Shiro shrugged, "Sure." He stood up and started to take his shirt off.

Ichigo couldn't help but stare. Despite the fact that they were physically identical, the difference in color made his body look completely different. Shiro noticed his King staring and his smirk widened.

"Like what ya see, King?" the hollow winked and a small blush formed on his face before he calmly responded.

"You just look different." He stood up and grabbed some clothes and headed to the bathroom, Shiro right behind.

The next thirty minutes were interesting. Ichigo had to show Shiro how to work the shower and the albino was a bit hesitant to step under the rain-like spray but he took the shower without any problems. After they got clean and dry, they got dressed which proved to bit more of a challenge to the hollow ("It's inside out." "Now it's backwards, idiot. I thought you went through my memories, shouldn't you know this?" "Well, I've never worn clothes like these, I don't know how to put them on!"). Ichigo was wearing his green pants that were ripped at the knees and his "nice vibe" shirt. Shiro was wearing the shirt that had a skull on it (Ichigo noticed it looked a lot like the one on his badge) and a pair of baggy, dark blue jeans.

Ichigo grabbed his wallet and stuck his dads' credit card inside before putting it in his pocket. He faced his hollow.

"Alright, let's go." The two walked out, waving to Ichigo's, their, sisters as they passed, and, slipping on a pair of shoes, strode out the door.

It was Sunday, and when the two were walking home from Urahara's shop, it had been early morning and most people were either just waking up or still asleep. Now, however, people were beginning to leave their homes and they would watch the two pass by, wondering about the albino they have never seen and looked exactly like Ichigo Kurosaki.

After a long walk and many stares, the brothers finally reached the mall.

"Okay," Ichigo turned to Shiro, "You want to go to the place where I get clothes?"

He thought about it for a moment before shaking his head, "Nah, let's just wonder 'round and see what we find. Let's go over there, tha' place looks interestin'." Grabbing the substitutes arm, he dragged him as he entered the store then let him go as he started to browse. Ichigo stared at him as he shuffled through the mediums.

"Does he even know what size he is?" he thought to himself. Surprisingly, Shiro turned and mentally responded.

'I told ya, I've been through your memories, so I know what size ya are.' He paused. 'Huh, I guess tha' even though we're separated we can still talk to each other like this.' The shit-eating grin widened before he went back to browsing and Ichigo groaned. He knew the other was going to use that to his full advantage and make Ichigo look like an idiot.

A few minutes later, the hollow chose three black baggy pants with a chain, a pair of form fitting black pants, one light blue one that was ripped at the knees, two white jeans, and some other, regular jeans. The orange head raised a brow, but didn't comment and after Shiro tried them on, took them to pay while the other went to the shirts.

Paying took a little longer than usual. The girl was young, new, and from another town and kept ogling and trying to hit on him. He could hear Shiro mentally laughing at him.

'Shut up.' More laughter was his only response.

Finally, he managed to pay and go, leaving a pouting girl behind. He quickly found Shiro, who was still browsing, holding three hoodie jackets, one black, one white, and one red, a white shirt with a black undershirt, a red shirt, a black one and another white one with black sleeves. While Shiro continued to look around, Ichigo glanced at his watch. 10:53.

"Huh, I guess we spent more time here than I thought." His stomach growled, reminding him that he hadn't eaten sense his early breakfast.

"Hey, Shiro!" He called to the albino who had walked further away, "when you get done let's get something to eat, I'm hungry."

"Whatever," he said distractedly before he pulled out a few more shirts with different colors and designs, and gave them all to Ichigo. He took them and walked to another cash register (he didn't want to run into the girl again) with Shiro following behind him, smirking.

"Ya know, King, yer actin' very servant like, buyin' my clothes for me, a lowly horse. How humble of ya."

"Shut up," he said, then smirked himself, "Besides, a good king would make sure that the horse is taken care of and looks nice. It would be bad on the kings image if the horse looked terrible." Shiro let out a chuckle as the cashier looked at the two in confusion, bagging the items.

Walking out of the store, bags in hand, Ichigo turned to his hollow.

"So, what do you want to eat?"

"Pizza!" Shiro immediately responded with a happy expression that made Ichigo wary. Shiro only had that look when he was about to hug him or slip a knife (Zangetsu) through his ribs. The hollow either didn't notice this or didn't care. "Before, I couldn't eat human food, but now I can and I always wanted to try pizza. Pepperoni pizza. With coke."

Ichigo couldn't help but smile at his hollows enthusiasm.

"Pizza it is then. You want to eat at the food court here or go home and order delivery?"

The albino's grin fell slightly before answering.

"The house. I don't like bein' 'round so many people. And it's hard to eat in peace with so many people starin' at ya."

Looking around, the substitute saw that there were many people staring at them, mainly Shiro. The orange head didn't notice because he was used to it thanks to this attention drawing hair. Shiro, however, had been living secluded in Ichigos head, where the only people there were a silent zanpakuto and a shinigami who had seen stranger things than him, for as long as the albino had been alive (he didn't have any memories of being Ichigo) and as such, it made sense that he didn't like crowds or the ogling that came with it.

"Besides, this place is noisy and I'll get a headache if I stay here too long."

Ichigo shrugged and they hurried to the clinic, teasing and taunting each other the whole way.

XX

Ichigo burst through the door, laughing loudly, a cackling albino behind him.

"That is so wrong!" The shinigami said when he stopped laughing.

"And yet yer laughin' at it." The hollow replied, throwing the bag onto the couch, the other teen doing the same.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Find something interesting to watch while I order."

He huffed as he flopped onto the couch. Turning on the TV (he was beginning to appreciate having gone through Kings memories) and flipped through the channels as King got someone on the phone. He was giving the address when Shiro noticed something off.

"Hey, King, where are yer sisters?"

"Hold on, medium pepperoni pizza…yes that'll be all…thank you, bye." He hung up and set the phone down into its holder thing (Shiro didn't know the name of it) walked over, and sat next to Shiro.

"Yuzu's at a friend's house and Karin is out practicing with her soccer team. We have the whole house to ourselves for a while. Anything worth watching?"

"Nah, just a vast wasteland. Ya got any movies?"

"Yeah, what genre?"

"Horror!" Was his prompt response. Ichigo rolled his eyes.

"Should have known. Let's see, we have Saw, Final Destination, When a Stranger Calls, My Bloody Valentine, and Freddy vs. Jason."

"The last one, Freddy vs. Jason."

Ichigo chuckled, "Naturally, you pick the most violent one." Popping it in the DVD player, he sat back down, pressing the 'play' button on the remote. Just when the movie was about to start the doorbell rang and Ichigo went to answer it while Shiro got the drinks.

"Okay Shiro," Ichigo started, the two of them holding a slice of pizza in their hands, "Enjoy your first taste of pizza." And Shiro took a large bite. Ichigo watched as the albinos eyes widen in surprise.

"'Dis iz good." He muffled out with a mouth full of food. The shinigami laughed (he had been doing that a lot today) as Shiro took another bite.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, it's rude, and don't eat so fast or you'll get sick."

The hollow nodded and swallowed then they turned their attention back to the movie. For the rest of the afternoon, they watched horror movies, making sick and funny commentary (Ichigo: And here, we have a bastard about to have his head cut off. Shiro: Now the dramatic music is playin' but the dumbass here is ignorin' it and walkin' towards a closet with a flickerin' light. Doesn't he know there's going to be a killer psycho in there? Ichigo and Shiro: The bitch died! Yes!) They had to stop, however, when Yuzu and Karin came home. Karin went up to her room and Yuzu got started on dinner. Shiro turned the TV off.

"Common, let's go to yer room," he said.

"Dinner will be ready soon!" Yuzu called as they went up the stairs.

"Okay!"

When they got to their room, Shiro turned serious.

"Hey, King." He focused his blank gaze on Ichigo.

"Hum?"

"This mornin', at Urahara's, ya said I was a hollow that would eat the family. Did ya really think that?"

"Yes, I did." An honest answer.

"Why?"

The teen looked a little surprised before it was covered up by his scowl.

"Well, you're me if I was turned fully into a hollow and hollows go after the ones that they cared for in life. Even though I don't show it, you know I care deeply for my family, your family. I was afraid you would attack them." There was a silence before Shiro responded.

"King, ya know that a hollows main instincts are to eat and live. But we can have more instincts than that. When you were in that pit you were tryin' to regain your powers so ya could protect the people ya cared about. So I was born with that instinct, King." Then he smirked.

"Besides, yer brotherly instincts are so deep they followed ya through hollowfication. I couldn't hurt them if I wanted to."

Ichigo let out a small smile and mock-glared at the albino.

"Well, if you told me that earlier, then I wouldn't have worried."

All of a sudden they heard a low rumbling that sounded like a one man stampede. They looked at each other and then the door before it burst open revealing an overly happy Isshin.

"My sons, how was your-omph!"

Before Isshin could complete his sentence he was punched in the face and gut by Ichigo and Shiro respectively.

"Oops, sorry dad," Ichigo started.

"Automatic reflex." Shiro finished. They pulled their fists back as the father recovered, then he beamed at the two brothers.

"Good reflexes my sons! I came to ask you how your day was!"

"Um, good, hey dad, didn't you say you enrolled Shiro in school?"

"Yep! Sure did!"

"But how? He doesn't have any records." The twins looked at the older Kurosaki, curious.

"Urahara of course!"

The two deadpanned.

'I should have known.' Ichigo thought.

'Yeah,' The other agreed.

"Ichi-nii, Shiro-nii, Karin, Dad, dinners ready, come down and help set up the table!"

Isshin stood in a superhero pose, "I'm coming, my beautiful daughter!" And he ran out the room, the brothers calmly following behind him.

Dinner was pretty much the same as always. Isshin and Ichigo would fight over the table, Karin would ignore them, Shiro would laugh, Yuzu would break them up and then Shiro or Karin would make a snide remark causing either Isshin to cry large anime tears or Shiro and Ichigo to start arguing before Karin stopped them. Just another Kurosaki dinner. Ichigo was silently pleased that Shiro fit in so well.

When dinner ended they put their dirty plates in the sink and Yuzu reminded Isshin that it was his turn to do the dishes. The man whined until the girl hit him on the head with a wooden spoon and, looking like a kicked puppy, slinked off to do the dishes. Ichigo and Shiro, when the show was over, went to their bedroom and crawled into bed.

"Try to get a good nights sleep Shiro tomorrow is your first day to school." He turned the lights off and was soon asleep.

Shiro inspected the lump that was his King. He was going to school tomorrow, huh? A wide grin spread across his face. Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.

XX

Chapter 3

God is Love. Love is Blind. Stevie Wonder is God. – my dad

Shiro woke up to the sound of Kings alarm clock. He was glad that he didn't wake up to a foot in his face or King and his idiot dad having a shouting match. The hollow pondered that goat face might attack them later or he could have actually given them a break. He heard sheets move and then the alarm stopped, meaning his King was getting up. He decided to follow. Staying in one place to long with a crazy doctor in the house was not safe.

Tossing off the covers, he got dressed and ready for school himself. After doing that the two grabbed their bags and headed downstairs for breakfast. Shiro's stomach grumbled at the smell of bacon and toast.

"Good morning Ichi-nii. Shiro-nii." Yuzu said cheerfully.

"Morning."

"Mornin.'"

The twins sat down at the table where Yuzu, Karin, and surprisingly, Isshin, already were.

"Good morning my sons! Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, I really needed-omph!"

Isshin aimed a punch at Ichigo over the table, grinning like an idiot.

"Always stay on your guard, Ichigo!"

A tic formed on the teens head. "You little-!"

They started trying to punch each other, Shiro cackling in the background. Ichigo finally landed a hit on Isshin's face, the man clutching his face as he wept.

"Hah! That's what you get old man!"

"Would you just shut up and eat your breakfast?!" Karin yelled forcefully. Ichigo and Shiro could see the fires of hell around her and the cries of the damned could be heard (or it could have just been Isshin). They nodded and ate their breakfast in silence. They were quite relieved when they left for school.

"Ichigo why didn't you tell me you had a long lost brother?" Keigo whined.

"Because I didn't know I had one until a few days ago." The berry replied but the eccentric teen had already shifted his attention and didn't hear.

"Do not worry Shiro, for I, Keigo-gah!"

Shiro chuckled darkly as he punched the dramatic teen in the gut. The brown haired boy crumbled to the ground.

"Yer dumbass friends are weak, King."

"They can't help that you're super powered. And I thought I told you not to kill any students."

"I'm not killin' them King~!" the hollow sing-songed, "I'm just beatin' them a little bit!"

"Whatever, here comes the teacher."

A woman with brown hair in a ponytail and glasses walked in.

"Okay everyone, take your seats! As you can see we have a new student today. Kurosaki-san, will you tell us about yourself?"

Shiro's eyes narrowed and his grin widened, "Sure thing." He stood up and looked at the class, most of them shivering in fear from the insane grin while Ichigo and Shiro mentally laughed at their reactions.

"Yo, I'm Shiro Kurosaki, and before any of ya dumbasses ask, yes I am Ichigo's brother and yes I'm an albino. If any of ya call me a freak albino, I know several ways ta kill ya and where to hide the body." He sat back down.

"Thank you, Kurosaki-san. Now, role, who's not here?"…

After she took role, the teacher started the lesson and Ichigo noted that Shiro was actually paying attention and taking notes every now and then.

When lunch finally can around, Ichigo and Shiro were accosted by Uryuu, Orihime, and Chad and were dragged out of the room. Reaching the roof they finally let go and turned to the twins.

"Alright Ichigo," Uryuu started, "I know this isn't you brother, it's your inner hollow isn't it? What's it doing out here charadeing as your brother?" Orihime and Uryuu attentively waited for an answer while Chad just stood there, as he already knew.

"Oi, I'm not an it, ya fairy." Shiro snapped back.

"F-fairy?" the quincy stuttered indignantly as he turned red in anger. Uryuu summoned his bow in his right hand and brought his other hand up, forming an arrow.

Before he could release the arrow, however, Chad picked him up by the arms, moving his so that he was aiming in a different direction and set him down.

"No."

Uryuu was so surprised that his hand let go of the energy stick and it soared over the town shortly followed by a far off cry of another hollow it hit. He turned to the giant, blue eyes wide.

"Chad, you're siding with him!? It's a hollow!"

An uncharacteristic fury pulsed through Ichigo. That bastard not only insulted Shiro but tried to kill him! Without thinking, he sent his reiatsu into his hand, summoning Zangetsu. In a flash, he moved to behead the other, forgetting that the nerdy looking teen was his friend and ally. He stopped the blade right at the others neck, scaring him shitless, when he realized something.

"Wait, I'm not in my spirit form. How am I using Zangetsu?"

In his confusion, the anger faded away and Ichigo realized that he was holding his sword at the quincys throat. He hastily pulled the sword away and let the tip rest on the ground, as it was much heavier for some reason.

"Oh, sorry Uryuu, I got carried away there." He gave sheepish grin before glaring, "And he's not an it, his name is Shiro, and he's not just any hollow either, he's my hollow."

Shiro's crazy grin softened slightly to a smile as a warmth spread through his chest at his Kings words while Uryuu gaped and stuttered, trying to collect himself enough to argue with the stubborn and thickheaded shinigami when Orihime intervened.

"I think we should trust him." This caused Uryuu to become too shocked to even stutter as he turned around and looked at Orihime. "Ichigo-kun already won his fight against Shiro-kun right? Ichigo-kun doesn't seem to mind Shiro-kun being out and about and he knows Shiro-kun better than anyone so I trust his judgment. Also, Chad wouldn't protect a hollow if he thought it was going to eat people." She made a mean face, though it didn't look very intimidating on her. "And besides, you're a quincy and quincys hate shinigami but you befriended three and when we were in Hueco Mundo you could have easily killed Nel-chan and her brothers but they became your friends too. I think that you should know better by now that you should not judge people biased on race."

Uryuu couldn't argue with her, as her words had too much truth in them. So, instead he just nodded.

"Alright, I'll give him a chance and listen to what you have to say, Ichigo, but," he turned to glare at the hollow who glared right back, grinning, "if he does anything that I see is wrong I won't hesitate to kill him."

Shiro chuckled psychotically, "Ya can try fairy-boy."

Uryuu's eyebrow twitched and Chad spoke up before another fight broke out, "Ichigo, how did you summon your zanpaktou? You're in your body."

"I… don't know. I just pulled on my reiatsu. I'll talk to Urahara later. Anyway, sit down so I can tell you why Shiro's here." He released his reiatsu and Zangetsu disintegrated.

Sitting down, Orihime and Uryuu listened as Ichigo described the events from the other night and Urahara's discovery, Shiro and Chad adding their own tidbits every now and then. When he finished, Ichigo waited for a response.

"That's great!" The bubbly girl beamed. "Shiro-kun isn't trapped in Ichigo-kun's inner world anymore. Not that I'm saying your inner world is bad, but the only company he had was Zangetsu-san and Ichigo-kun. Now he can interact with more people." Ichigo shouldn't have been surprised. Orihime was always the most caring and accepting one. When Uryuu spoke, his tone was a bit more grave.

"That's nice and all, but what will Soul Society do once the find out? Sure, they managed to tolerate it when the hollow was inside you, but now that it's outside, they might try to kill him." He pushed his glasses up, making the light shine off them.

Orihime's smile fell and Ichigo's scowl deepened, while Shiro's grin widened at the thought of fighting shinigami sent to kill him.

"Since I helped them so much they might be considerate enough to hear me out. The captains and nobles that know me, like Rukia, her captain or even Kenpachi, might be able to pull some strings as well.

"And besides," Ichigo smirked and the seriousness in the air dissipated, "From what Rukia told me a while ago, I'm a famous war hero and there would be plenty of people who would be outraged if I were to be executed."

Shiro chuckled, "Careful King, don't let the fame get to yer head." Ichigo shrugged. The bell rang and the group of teens picked up their lunches. Shiro tilted his head as he looked at the untouched food in the bentos.

"Huh, all that time and no one ate. What a waste." Picking up is own bento, which was empty, he followed his King and his servant friends as they walked back to the classroom.

The rest of the day passed with no more incidents other than when someone tried to approach Ichigo. Every time, Shiro would scare them off before returning to his Kings side. Ichigo could sigh, aggravated, but mostly let it go, thinking that the hollow was simply being possessive over "his King." The other students wondered about why Shiro called him King but were unable to ask. More than a few perverted theories went through the minds of the yaoi fangirls. When the hell hole called school finally let out, the two brothers headed towards the Urahara shop, Orihime, Chad and Uryuu tagging along.

"What a pleasant surprise. And how are you on this fine afternoon?" Urahara grated them cheerfully, white fan waving as they all sat at the table. "Enjoying your first days of life, Shiro-san?"

The albino just 'che'-ed and ignored him.

"Urahara," Ichigo said drawing the ex-shinigamis attention to him, "I discovered something today and I was wondering if you knew anything about it."

Lifting his right hand, the tanned skinned teen focused his reiatsu into his hand and the sword form of Zangetsu materialized. When it fully formed, his arm sagged from the weight.

"I can summon Zangetsu while in my human body. Do you know of anyone else who can do this? And you know why it's so heavy?"

The ex-shinigami grinned widely, "Didn't you notice, Ichigo? The vizard and myself are constantly in gigais and yet we can summon our zanpaktous. As for why it's so heavy, your body is like a natural seal. It doesn't seal you reiatsu completely of course. So you have to use the muscles in your living body instead of your spiritual one. Your spiritual body is stronger and may be used to your zanpaktou, but your corporal body isn't used to the weight and therefore it is naturally heavier."

After the scientist finished, an idea his Uryuu.

"You said the body is like a natural seal right?" Urahara nodded in affirmative, "So than means that despite how strong they are, Chad and Orihime are not even using full power?" Even Chad's eyes widened at that.

"That's an excellent question, Ishida-san and you're right, a portion of their power is sealed up. However, because of the Hogyoku and Ichigo, their power grew and their chains are more than likely slightly eroded and rusted. Don't worry, this isn't bad, it just means it's easier for them to use their powers in their living bodies."

Ichigo listened to Urahara explanation but at the same time was having a mental conversation with Shiro and Zangetsu.

'That's something that can be useful. What if a hollow attacks and I don't have my badge?'

'I agree with ya. It's gonna take a while, though, before ya can go against even the lowest hollow. Zangetsu's so heavy ya can't even lift him!'

'Shiro has a point Ichigo. Also, I suggest you learn how to control your reiatsu some. Before you were rushed and didn't have time, but now that you do you can do back to the basics.'

'Yeah, I've been thinking about that, Zangetsu, my bankai is compressing reiatsu right?' A mental nod, 'Isn't controlling reiatsu the same thing? Taking my surrounding reiatsu and compacting it in my body?'

'That's oversimplifying it, but yes that's the gist of it.'

'So if we learn how to control our reiatsu, our strength, speed and endurance will increase?'

They could feel the zanpaktou smile but he didn't respond, which meant yes.

'And if I can control my reiatsu, I can control how much energy I put in my Getsuga Tenshous instead of forcing Zangetsu to filter the energy I put in my attacks.' Both Shiro and Zangetsu could feel the slight guilt coming from Ichigo through their connection before Ichigo cut the emotional link.

Shiro and Ichigo couldn't tell, but Zangetsu was quite proud of his owner's decision. He was beginning to mature and soon he wouldn't need to rely on Zangetsu so much. He would be able to stand on his own two feet.

'Hey King, ya know that if ya control yer reiatsu less hollows come around, ne?'

'Yeah, I know but there are some good weeks.' He turned his attention back to the others who were finishing their conversation about Chad and Orihime.

"Hey, hat-n-clogs," Urahara turned to him, "Do you mind if Shiro and I use you basement every afternoon? We, well, I need to train with Zangetsu in my living body."

"Of course! You may need to keep Orihime-san around just in case you accidently hack off an arm or something."

The vizard sweat dropped, "Well that's a cheerful thought. Anyway," his expression darkened, "What do you think Soul Society will do once they know about this?"

A glint shone in his grey eyes but the shopkeepers smile never faded.

"Actually, I just finished telling them about what happened to you before you arrived. They keep tabs on you every now and then and they noticed the other night that your spiritual pressure changed somewhat so they asked me what happened. They were quite alarmed and I'm sure they had half a mind to hunt both of you down, but instead they questioned me thoroughly. They might be wary of him at first but they may warm up a bit. They might also want to have a meeting with you two. I wouldn't be too surprised if they came to retrieve you between now and sometime tonight."

Right when he said that, Tessai came in looking worried.

"Urahara-dono, captain Kuchiki and members of the 2nd Division are here. They requested that Ichigo and Shiro come with them."

Urahara hid his eyes with his hat as everyone else tensed (or in Shiro's case, became more excited).

"They came sooner than I thought. Shiro-san, Ichigo-san," the brothers turned to him, "Try to control yourselves and make the best impression you can. Even though I'm sure they were somewhat pacified by my explanation, they still might see Shiro as a threat." His lifted his cane and pressed the end of it into Ichigo, then Shiro, pushing the souls out of the bodies. Taking that as their cue to leave, Ichigo followed Tessi, Shiro close behind him.

It was twilight when they walked outside. Byakuya stood facing the door as stoic as ever and all around them, there were twenty or thirty shinigami dressed as ninjas. Ichigo briefly wondered what the disciplinary corps was doing here but he figured it was in case things got ugly. The nobles expressionless eyes bore into Ichigo.

"Ichigo Kurosaki, you and your-," his gaze shifted to the grinning albino behind him, "brother have been summoned for questioning. If you do not come willingly then we will use force."

"No need for that," the substitute voiced, his tone and posture demanding authority and respect, "We will go willingly."

There was no reaction for the noble but the ninjas visibly relaxed and some even quietly laughed in relief. Ichigo himself wondered how much Soi Fon or Yuroichi would have hit them for being tense but he guessed it was ok considering the fact they had most likely never faced a hollow like Shiro before and Ichigo's strength and stubbornness was well known; they probably thought that he would refuse and they would have to fight him even though they knew that they would get their asses kicked if they tried.

"Very well then." Byakuya said then turned around and held his sword in front of him. A senkaimon formed and without looking back the three stepped through. The last thought Ichigo had as the paper and wooden door of the senkaimon closed was 'Great, this is gonna be fun.'

'I agree King I can't wait.' Shiro replied.

'I was being sarcastic thank you very much.'

OMAKE

The shinigami let out a fierce battle cry as he leapt towards the monstrous hollow before him. The beast dodged but the warrior did not falter. He would not let the atrocity harm a soul in Karakura town, the town he was assigned to protect after the Kuchiki woman was taken away. The creature growled and then quickly bounded towards the shinigami. The afro man tensed as the monster jumped to strike from above, mouth wide open. He took this opportunity to leap up himself to cut the mask from the inside when, all of a sudden, a blue streak flew past like a gift from the heavens and hit the hollow square in the face. The hollow let out a roar as it disintegrated.

The afro man, surprised that his opponent had vanished, forgot to be aware of how he landed and his face met concrete. Looking up, he turned his head from side to side looking for his missing quarry only to find that, yes indeed, the thing had disappeared. He scratched his head in confusion.

This was the weirdest town ever.

XX

Chapter 4

Hey mom, you know you look like you're worshiping a light pole, right? -me

During the journey to Soul Society, Ichigo opened his connection to Shiro.

'Okay Shiro, when we get there don't fight with anyone. Not even Kenpachi, even if he baits you, got it?' He looked over and saw that the hollow wasn't paying him any attention. 'Pay attention damnit!'

'Awww, King~! Yer no fun. Can't I hit him even just a little? I mean, come on, ya get to have fun with him all the time! Besides I owe him for hurting ya.' Ichigo could feel the bloodlust coming from the hollow at that last statement. A small part of him felt touched that Shiro was angry for him but pushed it aside. Now was not the time.

'No you can't hit him at all. In fact, if you have to, just freaking look away. Don't even look at him.' Honestly this is not going to be easy. Shiro mentally snorted.

'I'm serous Shiro, no fighting. Don't do anything that would make them want to kill us.'

'What are ya afraid of King? If they decide to kill us just fight back and win like ya always do.'

'Have all of your self-preservation instincts been shot to hell? It would be the two of us against an entire society! I'm strong but I know my limits and they know my weakness is kido. Just be on your best behavior, alright? And please, do not go after Yamamoto. I know he's as old as dirt but he can still kick your ass in a matter of seconds if you get cocky.'

Shiro grumbled but agreed as they stepped out of the senkaimon and landed on a familiar hill. Without a word the captain shunpoed off, the vizard and his hollow doing the same. A short while later, they found themselves in front of large, official looking doors. Ichigo could sense the other captains inside. Pushing the door open, Byakuya strode in and took his position in the two rows of captains, Yamamoto at the end in between the rows, wooden cane in hand.

The teen glanced at the captains present. Surprisingly, they were all there, even Jushiro, whom Ichigo knew was sick most of the time. Some spots were empty and there were some new faces amongst the captains. Kurosuchi had died during the Winter War when the mad man was in Hueco Mundo fighting against the other pink haired mad man who had also died by the captains hands. Double win for Soul Society. The Soul Society was upset at the loss of such a brilliant mind but no one had truly mourned the man's death. Now Nemu, Kurosuchi's daughter and vice-captain, was promoted to captain which was fine. Apparently, she had bankai. Urahara had been offered the position back, but he declined. Also, in the 9th divisions spot stood Renji. Since he knew bankai and was a vice-captain beforehand, it was only natural that he made a captain, especially since shinigami with bankai were hard to find. Gin was also present. After the war the traitor had been taken in for questioning and it had been decided that the self-appointed double agent would be given back his position as caption but under severe restrictions. His powers were sealed until he was proven trustworthy, his pay was almost completely cut off and he could not make any major decisions without the approval of another captain. There were other restrictions on top of those but those were the main three. The 5th captain position had yet to be filled and therefore the spot where someone should have been was empty. The berry was momentarily curious who was going to be the next captain when Yamamoto deep voice rolled through the room.

"Ichigo Kurosaki and Shiro Kurosaki, step forward." The two did and stopped when they reached the captains at the end of the rows.

"Before we begin this meeting, I would like to mention a few important things about Soul Society's morals and pride. We honor ourselves in justice and fairness…"

And he went on and on with his speech, pressing subjects such as honor and pride and justice and that one should treat their enemies with kindness and to forgive others. After some time the twins began to zone out, blocking the old man's rambling from their brains, their eyes glossing over slightly, but still looking like they were paying attention, similar to what they would do in class. Looking out of the corner of his eyes, Ichigo noticed that some of the other captains weren't paying attention as well. Renji had a look similar to Shiros, as well as Kenpachi and Ukitake. Shinsui as completely asleep as Ichigo could hear soft snores coming from him. From their connection, the berry could tell that Shiro was taking a page out of Shinsui's book and was beginning to doze off as well.

'Oi, Shiro, don't you dare go to sleep.'

He got no response. He tried again.

'Shiro!'

Still nothing.

Knowing that Shiro falling asleep right here in front of all the captains was not a good idea, the teen tried a different approach that would hopefully go unnoticed, as the geezer was talking and everyone else was either paying attention to him or daydreaming.

Shiro let out a small yelp (that would later be denied from existence) as Ichigo none to gently stomped on his foot. The hollow turned his head to glare at his King.

'What the hell was that for?' He mentally growled.

'Well you weren't paying attention, though I could understand that, but you were also about to fall asleep! In the middle of an important meeting! When we're the center of attention! We don't want to fall asleep here!'

'Che, ya worry too much King.'

Unfortunately, the two didn't notice that Toshiro had seen that Shiro was nodding off and that Ichigo stomped on his foot before they started glaring at each other and seemed to be having a conversation without words if the expression were anything to go by. Knowing that nothing could stop Yamamoto when he got into his little speeches and wouldn't notice any whispered conversations, the small captain spoke up.

"You know the two of you look like idiots glaring at each other like that?"

The identical teens then shifted their glares to the teal eyed captain.

"Who are ya callin an idiot, shorty?" The hollow answered his voice almost above a whisper. Ichigo nudged him and gave him a look that said 'keep your voice down.' Of course Shiro ignored it and the tic that formed on Toshiro's forehead as well as the slight chill in the air.

"I'm not short." Was all the white haired boy said in his defense. Shiro let out a snort.

"Oh yeah? Yer even shorter than Kings midget peasant friend. I bet yer not even as tall as Kings little sisters!" By this point Shiro wasn't even trying to whisper, drawing everyone's attention to the conversation except Yamamoto's, who was still going on with his speech. "Maybe one day you'll think about hittin' a growth spurt." The pale teen snickered, not noticing that Ichigo had slowly shifted away from him and that the temperature of the room had gotten much colder.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow at the other who was clearly ignoring the warning signs. And he called Ichigo stupid.

Three more tics formed on Toshiro's head before he finally blew up.

"I'm not short everyone else is just freakishly tall! Now shut up about it!" realizing that he had just shouted, the white haired boy clamped his mouth shut, wide blue eyes glancing from side to side at the other captains who were surprised by the calm boys outburst. Even Shinsui, who had been awoken by the sudden noise.

Once they all got over the shock, everyone turned to the head captain, who had finally stopped talking.

The old man opened his squinted eyes to look upon the scene before him. Everyone was paying him the upmost attention to him. Good. He closed his eyes before he started talking again.

"Now that that has been said, we will now move on to the subject that for which I have summoned you all here." Everyone let out a sigh of relief. It seemed that the old man had not heard the outburst, he was so engrossed into his speech. "We have been informed that due to a hollow attack your soul has split. This event happened two nights ago. We have also been informed that your hollow side, who had been separated from you, does not need to eat souls and that he has not eaten any souls previously. As such, it has been decided that we will not purify Shiro Kurosaki for he has committed no crimes. You, Ichigo Kurosaki, will be the one to watch over him. However, if he hurts anyone, you will be punished and Shiro will be killed. Is that understood?"

"Yes ser." They said simultaneously. He could tell the captains were slightly creeped out by the sound of Shiro's watery, echoy voice combined with Ichigo's, making a weird sounding effect.

"Now, on to a different subject." The atmosphere in the room lightened somewhat. "Ever since the betrayal of Aizen, Kaname, and Ichimaru, three captain positions have been empty. Abarai has filled the position of 9th division captain and Ichimaru has returned to his previous position but that still leaves one position vacant." He paused, opening his eyes slightly and looked at the two twins. "It has been decided amongst the captains that you will be the caption of the 5th division."

Both Shiro and Ichigo gaped before Ichigo managed to pull himself together. Somewhat.

"But…I…how? I don't know anything about being a captain!"

"That will be taken care of. This meeting has now ended." He rapped his staff on the ground. "Dismissed."

"Now wait a minute…!" Shiro started even managing to get a few steps before being hauled back by Ichigo, receiving a scowl from the berry and scowling back.

The old man ignored the albino, "Captain Kuchiki, would you take these two back home?" The hollow and shinigami grew annoyed at being ignored, the two looking more alike than ever with the matching scowls.

"Of course." Even though his face gave nothing away, his tone was a bit displeased, if you knew what to listen for.

A few minutes and a short trip later, Shiro and Ichigo found themselves standing in front of Urahara's shop.

"What the hell?!" Ichigo exploded. "They're making me a captain! I don't know how to do that! I don't even know what a captain does!" Shiro smirked.

"Well, at least we know they aren't goin' ta kill us, so don't worry. Since we're here let's get some trainin' in."

Ichigo scowled/pouted, something Shiro found cute and hilarious, as he followed his white copy into the shop. When they entered, they were greeted by Urahara's smiling face.

"Well, well, you two are back in one piece, that must mean that the meeting went well." He said, waving his ever present fan.

"Yep, they're gonna make King a captain. They know that King doesn't know anythin', but they say they're gonna take care of it."

A mystified look crossed Urahara's face, but the two got the feeling that the shopkeeper knew exactly what was going on. "Well, I don't know what they're going to do. But I doubt you came here to reassure me that you're alive. Did you want anything?"

Ichigo answered, "Yeah, we need to use your training room and where's my body?"

"And my gigai," Shiro piped up.

"They're right where you left them. Your friends are still here too. I'm sure they will be quite relieved to see you."

As Urahara said, the three were at the table doing homework and their bodies were neatly positioned on the floor. Orihime was ecstatic by their return, Chad simply grunted but Ichigo was fluent in Chad-speak and knew the giant was glad and relieved as well, and Uryuu acted completely indifferent but the two could see that the quincy was glad to see that Ichigo, at least, was alive. They chatted for a while, the others asking what happened and how it went, before packing up and leaving, Chad telling the two that he did their homework for them, for which Ichigo was relieved. The two look alikes melded (for lack of a better word) into their respective bodies and climbed down into the basement.

Ichigo turned to the albino beside him, "So, what should we do first: reiatsu control or sparing?"

Instead of Shiro, Zangetsu answered. 'You should spar first; it will get rid of some energy, both physically and spiritually. The physical fatigue will make you less likely to fidget and let you focus better on your reiatsu. You will use a lot of reiatsu during training so you'll have less of a struggle to contain it all.'

"Sparin' first? I can dig it." Shiro grinned widely as he summoned his inverted zanpaktou, his arm sagging from the weight before he shot towards the orange head.

Surprised, Ichigo quickly summoned Zangetsu, the blade forming just in time to block its white counterpart. The force of the attack and the weight of the two swords nearly made his arms buckle. Using the weight, he rolled forward, aiming for the hollows gut.

For what seemed like hours the two spared until they couldn't lift their giant swords any longer. Since Orihime wasn't around, they had to keep from chopping each other's limps off, but both still had cuts, scratches and bruises. By the end of the sparing session, Ichigo realized that this was the first time he had seen Shiro sweaty, tired, and wounded. And by the way his own body felt, the shinigami knew that his body was going to be bitching the next day from the harsh treatment. The two panting teens ungracefully fell to the ground, trying to catch their breath. After a few minutes of inwardly watching the brothers recover, Zangetsu spoke up.

'Now they you are sufficiently drained, let's get started on control.'

Ichigo grumbled but asked, "Okay, how do we do this?"

'Meditate. Try to get a feel of your own reiatsu inside you. Once you are comfortable with that, try to feel your reiatsu around you. Try to pull at it and compact it into your body. Like any technique that must be learned, it will take time and effort before you master your control, more time than most as you have so much so be patient. Once you have it under control release it and then try to control it again. Keep doing this until I tell you to stop.'

Ichigo gave a mental nod as he got into a comfortable position, Shiro doing the same. He had tried meditation a few times before in his life simply out of curiosity but he would fidget and his concentration would break so he had never been successful. Now, however, his body was too tired to move and his mind wasn't all over the place. For several long minutes, Ichigo tried, and failed, to do as Zangetsu had instructed, and he had to calm down his frustration many times. Sure, he could sense the power he had, but he could always feel it so he knew that wasn't what he was looking for. He searched through his memories to see if there were any clues or anything that might help him. Then he remembered his cannon ball training at the Shibas and the tip Ganju had given him.

"Imagine a dark circle in your mind, as black as you can make it. Then imagine yourself reaching into it."

"Just form a big, dark circle." In his inner eye, a circle appeared, the same color as Zangetsu's cloak, as that was the blackest black he had ever seen. He reached out for it, the circle becoming bigger and bigger until he was completely enveloped by the inky blackness and he could feel his reiatsu all around him.

The amount of reiatsu he could feel was enormous. No wonder he had trouble containing it all. It was now easier for him to believe why he was always leaking reiatsu. Instead of the light blue, like the color his energy was when he was in shinkai, the reiatsu was black like his bankai getsuga tenshou. Streaks of red flickered in the black and the shinigami could feel the hollow energy emitting from them.

Once he had examined his reiatsu enough, the teen focused outwards. He could feel his reiatsu flowing around him lazily.

'Now grab it and pull it in.'

After a few attempts, he managed to get a hold of the energy and then tried to pull it in, trying to compress it like he would in bankai. It took several tries and all of his concentration to keep it inside him.

He held onto it for a few seconds and before he couldn't hold it any longer and his reiatsu burst free. Again, he tried to control his reiatsu, the process slightly faster this time and he held it a bit longer. He repeated this process so many times he lost count, not that he was keeping track in the first place, until it was almost second nature to reel it in and hold it for a minute (it didn't sound like much, but hey it was progress).

Then Zangetsu started talking, breaking Ichigo's concentration and meditation.

'You can stop now Ichigo.' The strawberry's eyes shot open as he jumped, the bright light from the underground training room momentary blinding him. He blinked a few times, getting used to the light. He noted that Shiro was doing the same.

'Now, I want you two to do basic stretches while keeping your reiatsu in control.

Ichigo stood up, wincing as his sore and stiff body complained loudly about the action. How long had he been sitting there? In seconds he had his reiatsu in control, but the moment he moved to stretch, he lost his concentration and reiatsu burst out of him again. For the hundredth time he pulled reiatsu in and again he tried to move. He lasted a few seconds this time. Ichigo let out a frustrated growl. He was hungry, tired, and knew his temper was going to snap soon.

'Just a bit more patients Ichigo. Keep trying.'

And so for the next 30 minutes to an hour, Shiro and Ichigo went through several different stretches and by the time Zangetsu told them to stop, they hold their reiatsu for a minute while moving. Granted, they were moving very slowly, but, again it was progress.

Finally, Zangetsu ended the training and the two tired teens trudged back to the clinic, Tessai healing them before they left. The moon was high in the sky and the windows around them were dark, indicating they had stayed out very late.

'Damn,' Ichigo thought, 'how long were we gone?'

'Dunno, but we're sore and tired and tomorrow's gonna be a bitch. When we get home, I call the shower first.'

'But I'll fall asleep if I wait!'

Shiro gave a tired but perverted smirk as he leered at his King, 'Then let's take a shower together~. We already did once.'

Normally, if Ichigo had more energy, he would have reacted violently, embarrassed by Shiro's perverted tone. Now, however, he was tired and did not want to go to bed feeling all grimy.

'Whatever, we have the same body anyway and considering that you used to be in my head, my privacy is already gone when it comes to you.'

Shiro was surprised by his Kings reaction, or lack of one, but dismissed it. He could tease King about it later or use it as blackmail somehow.

When they got to the house, they didn't enter through the front door as Isshin could be on the other side, waiting to ambush them, and instead climbed up the side of the house into their room. They grabbed a change of clothes and tip-toed to the bathroom. They closed the door behind them and turned on the light. Shiro began to undress as Ichigo checked to temperature of the water. When it was warm enough, he pulled his hand out and began to undress himself. The naked teens stepped into the shower, Ichigo getting under the spray first, then Shiro. This was only the albino's second shower so he was still hesitant to get under the rain-like spray and the hollow privately thought he would never get used to taking showers. He didn't have anything against showers, but he was used to the cold, emotion filled rain that fell in the king's inner world. The berry grabbed a bottle squeezing some of the contents into his palm before handing the bottle to Shiro who stared at it for a second before copying his Kings motions and scrubbing it into his head, suds forming. Ichigo giggled (a manly giggle of course).

"The shampoo looks grey against you hair."

"Whatever, move over."

Switching sides, the pale boy stood under the water, careful to keep the suds out of his eyes. Ichigo grabbed another bottle, looking at Shiro from the corner of his eye. He still found it strange that someone who looked so much like him could look so different. Had he always been that muscled? For some reason Ichigo blushed and looked away from the other before he noticed the stare and the blush. Squeezing a dot of conditioner in his hand, he handed it to the other who took it and did the same.

After rubbing the stuff in their hair and washing it off, Shiro thought they were done and was confused when King grabbed a bar of soap and a puff-ball thing, scrubbing the soap into it until the thing was sudsy and gave it to the pale teen before grabbing another puff-ball and doing the same thing.

"Turn around and scrub yourself with it."

"We didn't do this last time. Why are we doin' it this time?"

"To help clean of the sweat and grime from training."

Shrugging, too tired to disobey or question, the albino did as he was told and was surprised to feel something scrubbing his back.

"What are ya doin'?"

"Helping."

Finishing their shower and drying off, they got dressed and quietly dragged their feet to their shared room. Ichigo saw it was almost two in the morning, as he crawled underneath the covers. He was asleep before his head hit the pillows.

Shiro, on the other hand, stayed awake long enough to muse, golden eyes resting on his King. Things for him had changed drastically. He had a life now. A family. He went to school. He might even befriend his Kings peasant friends, even though King was really the only one that mattered. Before and during the war, he would have laughed harshly at the idea of becoming friends with Ichigo and then cut off the head of the fool that said so. At the end of the war, his life started looking up, but now, it was better than ever and he was sharing it with his King. With a genuine smile on his face, Shiro succumbed to sleep.

XX

Chapter 5

Can I have diet water please? – my friend

The next morning came far too early in Shiro's opinion, and Isshin's foot in his face was not helping his grumpy mood. Jumping up, he aimed a punch at the man, hitting him square in the face, his body aching and stiff. The man crouched to the ground, clutching his face. Shiro nudged him in the side.

"Oi, get lost." He said in an uncaring tone.

The man cried as he crawled out, saying something about "cruel sons." Huffing, Shiro stretched before striding to his King who was dead to the world. He roughly shook him.

"Oi King, wake up!"

Ichigo's eyebrows furrowed (deeper) and he grumbled before rolling over. The albino scowled, looking very much like Ichigo then smirked evilly as an idea came to him.

Reaching into one of the desk drawers, he pulled out Kings ipod, the earphones already hooked in. Rolling his King onto his back, he put the earphones into the teens ears and turned on the contraption, selecting the noisiest song he could find and turned the volume all the way up.

Pressing play, he heard the song as it blared into his Kings ears. Shiro laughed as the berry jerked up and covered his ears in a vain attempt to muffle the noise. Feeling the headphones, he yanked them out, glaring at the laughing hollow.

"Bastard."

"It woke ya up, didn't it?" Shiro replied, giving him an insane grin.

Ichigo groaned, both from the albino and the aching of his body. Stiffly, he crawled out of bed, the two getting dressed and ready before heading downstairs for breakfast.

"Good morning, my sons!" Isshin was already back to his usual self as the twins descended the stairs. Ichigo ducked the air born kick his father aimed at him, Shiro grabbed the ankle, and Ichigo then punched him in the gut. Shiro let the old man go as he crumpled to the floor.

"Very good…my sons…wasn't expecting…a double attack." He wheezed out.

"Ichi-ni, Shiro-nii, are going to have breakfast today?" asked the ever considerate Yuzu.

"Nah, not enough time. I'll just have some toast."

"Me too."

Grabbing some toast, Ichigo turned to his dad, who was recovering.

"I'm surprised you haven't said anything about coming home so late last night."

Isshin beamed at his son. "That's because Urahara called me last night telling me about the meeting and the training. I'm so proud of you my sons!" He gave a thumbs up.

"Whatever, come on Shiro let's go."

Finishing off their toast, the two headed out, dodging another of Isshin's attacks, and left for school. While walking, Ichigo turned to the snowy colored teen beside him.

"Hey Shiro, you know last night when you were auguring with Toshiro?"

"Yeah, what about it?" the albino replied with a yawn.

"Well, what did you mean by 'peasant friends?'" the orange head asked as he massaged his sore muscles.

Shiro gave his King a curious look before his face broke out in a huge grin.

"I think it's kinda obvious King. Yer the King, I'm the horse, Zangetsu's yer sword, obviously, and everyone else are just peasants. Even yer friends. That's why I call them yer peasant friends."

Ichigo snorted but dropped the subject having grown accustomed to the hollows strange logic. Though it did make sense, in a weird why-am-I-even-bothering kind of way.

The two continued to walk in silence, arriving at school just before the bell rang.

The day was pretty much the same as yesterday. Keigo greeted them enthusiastically, Orihime cheerfully, Chad grunted and Uryuu was indifferent. More girls tried to approach the two and many others continued their yaoi fantasies. They ate lunch on the roof, and Ichigo and Shiro got into an argument that left the two laughing and everyone else confused.

After school, the brothers, Orihime, and Tatsuki, who now knew of the whole spirit thing, headed to Uraharas training ground, Orihime to heal any lost limbs, and Tatsuki to watch the fight with tomboyish interest.

When they got there, the two spared, though not as hard as the other night as they were still sore. Almost two hours later, they stopped and the girls left as the brothers proceeded to their other training. It didn't take as long as the previous night as they already had a feel of their reiatsu and by the end they could move faster and hold their concentration and reiatsu longer, though only a little bit.

When they got home at 10:30 that night, they entered the house the same way as before. After their shower, which they took separately this time, Shiro wanted to go to sleep but Ichigo forced him to do his homework, though it was more like copying his Kings work, and they managed to get to sleep before two in the morning.

The rest of the week went along the same routine, the other students becoming restless as summer break came closer, which was only three weeks away (another reason Ichigo wondered why Isshin enrolled Shiro in school as it was almost over). People became quite accustomed to Shiro now (but the fantasies didn't stop) and Ichigo's friends were quickly warming up to Shiro, who were surprised that the hollow was doing so well in class, the brothers tying in at twenty out of the whole school.

Their training was going wonderfully as well. The two could now use Zangetsu effortlessly and they could now move at a normal pace and hold their concentration the whole time. On Friday, they decided to have an afternoon off. After school let out they headed home.

"So, King, it's a Friday and our day off, what do ya wanna do?"

"Donno, I was thinking of going home and being lazy. It's been a long time since I had a vacation of any kind."

"Awww, but King~!" Shiro whined, "I haven't done any explorin'! I want to go out today."

Ichigo sighed and looked at the pouting albino. For some reason, Ichigo had a hard time saying no to the hollow whenever he used that face. He sighed again and ran his hand through his hair.

"Alright, we'll go out, but let's go home and change out of the uniforms first."

The hollow let out a cheer and Ichigo smiled at his antics, before Shiro turned to him with a serious face.

"Hey King, it's been a week since our meetin' with the captains and we haven't heard from them at all. What do ya think they're gonna do about yer lack of knowledge?"

Ichigo scowled, "I don't know but we'll find out eventually. Don't think about it, 'kay? Believe me I have enough experience with them to know that they won't tell us until they've already cornered us. And on top of that, they do whatever they want anyway. So, after home where do you want to go?"

Shiro went along with the subject change, babbling about the different placed he wanted to go and the smile returned to Ichigo's face (Ichigo vaguely noticed that he had been smiling a lot lately too).

"We're home!" the brothers said simultaneously, something that was becoming quite common.

"Hello, my sons." Isshin replied without his usual over cheerfulness and attack, instead looking as though he was preparing to go somewhere.

"Goin' somewhere goat face?" the albino inquired.

"Yeah, I have a meeting to go too, I told you this morning remember?"

"Oh yeah, now I remember," Ichigo responded

"Yuzu is at a friend's house and Karin is out practicing so I need you two to go shopping, we're running low on some food. Yuzu made a list, it's on the fridge." The elder Kurosaki walked past the two, "Have fun you two!" and then he left.

The two looked at the door, then each other and shrugged. Ichigo padded up the stairs to his room to change, while Shiro headed towards the kitchen. Opening the refrigerator, he looked to see what there was to drink.

'Let's see, there's water, the last of the milk, damn we're out of orange juice, some juice boxes, and…what's this?'

On one of the shelves there were six cans of something that he had never seen before. Half the can was blue, the other half was silver and there was a red bull on the front with the words "red bull" above it. Picking it up, he examined it a bit before putting a hand on the cap to open it.

'Wait Shiro'the albino jerked in surprise when Zangetsu's voice suddenly rang through his head. 'I don't think you should drink that'

'Why? A drinks just a drink.'

'I just don't think you should drink it.'

'Whatever.' Ignoring the zanpaktous warning, Shiro opened the can and drank form it. It tasted strange but he was thirsty and he already opened it so he continued drinking it. Finishing it off (it was a small can) he threw it away and stomped upstairs to change. For some reason he feltoddly…energetic.

Shiro burst through the door, not even bothering to knock and walked over to the closet, ignoring the yelling orange head who was currently bare chested.

"Shiro! Knock before you enter a room! What if I was naked or something?" The teen said as he slipped on a dark green shirt.

"Quit yer yappin' King, it's my room too, I don't need ta knock." Picking a red shirt and jeans with rips, he turned to leer at his blushing/glaring King. "Besides, I've already seen ya naked or do ya not remember what happened a few nights ago?" Shiro grinned and he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. Shiro's grin broadened and he inwardly laughed as Ichigo turned several brilliant shades of red.

"S-shut up you bastard! You make it sound like we had…had…"

"Like we had sex, it's okay, King, ya can say it, yer a big boy now after all."

The pale teen snickered as the substitute shinigami gave him the famous birdie salute.

"Whatever, hurry up and get dressed so we can go." Ichigo left the room and Shiro quickly changed into his clothes, feeling more energetic than when he entered the room and unusually happy as well. After he finished he strode down the hallway and stairs, taking the steps two at a time and jumping the last three. He walked up to his King, who was leaning on the counter with a glass of water in his hand, took his arm and began to tug on it in a happy yet impatient way.

"Come on King, let's go, let's go, let's go."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow at the hollows unusual antics but shrugged it off. He could just be excited to be going exploring after they did their chores.

"Alright, alright already." Putting the empty glass by the sink, he grabbed the keys and followed the uncharacteristically happy hollow out the door, making sure to lock it, his brother hopping impatiently in one spot.

"Come on, come on, come on, let's go, go, go, go, go."

Now Ichigo was really beginning to worry about Shiro. He had never seen him act this way before. Shiro hadn't been acting this way on the way home, did something happen when he wasn't looking? Ichigo mentally probed Zangetsu, who remained silent.

Meanwhile, Zangetsu knew exactly what Red Bull was and wanted to see what would happen if Shiro had some. It only added to Zangetsu's amusement that Ichigo was to one saddled with taking care of a hyper Shiro (though he wondered where the Red Bull came from in the first place…).

Knowing that trying to get Zangetsu to talk when he didn't want to was useless, Ichigo gave up and turned his attention back to the bouncing hollow.

"…Okay, let's go." He said slowly.

"Alright!" He stopped bouncing, much to Ichigo's relief. "Race ya ta the store!" And he was off.

"Wha-hey! Wait, Shiro!" the shinigami took off after him. When he caught up, which was not an easy task mind you, he scowled at the overly happy hollow. "What the hell *pant* has gotten into you?*pant*"

Shiro grinned as they came to a stop in front of the grocery store.

"Well, when we got home I was thirsty so I decided to get something ta drink and there were some cans that were blue and silver that said 'red bull' and since they were a drink I drank one of them and ever since then I felt really happy and energetic for some reason. So, why are we here again?" Shiro babbled very quickly then gesturing to the store behind them.

For a moment, Ichigo just stared, trying to decode Shiro's answer as it was said too quickly to understand. When he did understand he inwardly groaned.

"Oh dear Kami help us, he had caffeine!"

He looked at the hyped up hollow, "Okay, new rule, no sugar or caffeine for you got it?" he paused, "Wait, you said we had Red Bull? That's odd, we don't drink that. I wonder how it got there. Whatever, I can think about this later, let's get our stuff."

The two brothers entered the store.

Ichigo was annoyed, a little amused but found the whole situation bizarre over all.

They had managed to get all the items without a problem but the whole time they were at the store Shiro did all sorts of things that he knew would get them kicked out but so amusing all the same.

When they entered, a clerk came up to them and asked if they needed any help and Shiro yelled "Why don't you people just leave me alone?!" while holding his head and collapsing into a fetal position causing the people around them to stare. Ichigo quickly picked up his brother and walked off, the albino cackling at the people's faces which only creeped them out more. When they passed by the electronics section, the albino set all the alarms to go off every three minutes. Shiro had (much to Ichigo's embarrassment) taken several condom boxes and put them in random peoples carts when they weren't looking and when the loud speaker came on Shiro got into a fetal position again and wailed "NO! NO! It's the voices again!"

Ichigo also had to watch what Shiro put in the cart. At one point the albino came up to him holding pudding.

"It's pudding!" the hollow exclaimed far too happily.

"…Yeah."

"It's chocolate!"

"…Yeah."

"It's not sugar free!"

Oh no. No way was this guy going to have any more sugar. Ever. He gave the hollow a firm look.

"Put. The pudding. Down."

So, yeah. That was the most interesting trip to the store Ichigo has ever had. Shiro didn't get the pudding and nobody truly paid them any attention; they were, after all, the crazy Kurosaki's (so they had a reputation, so what?). They still got out of there in record time and hurried to the house, mainly because Shiro was still hyper and energetic and wanted another race.

When they got to the house, they put the groceries where they were supposed to go and Ichigo went through the fridge looking for any and all Red Bull's as well as anything that had sugar and caffeine in it and threw it away. Once that was done, Ichigo turned to his brother.

"Now that that's done, where do you want to go?" 'Let him burn off his energy,' he privately thought to himself, 'that way he won't drive away what's left of my sanity.'

"Let's go around town, I want to see what DDR is! Hey, don't you have Wii too? Can we play that later?"

"Sure." Ichigo replied with a bit of enthusiasm at the thought of playing DDR. He enjoyed the game but due to studying and shinigami duties, actually going out to play it was a rare treat.

On the trip to the arcade, Ichigo made sure to keep an eye on Shiro. In many ways he was like a child and being hyped up on caffeine wasn't helping. While the hollow had gone through Ichigo's memories, there were still things that he was unfamiliar with, such as the 'rules of the road.' Also, while he had seen things in the memories and through Ichigo's eyes, actually seeing them for himself was completely different; kind of like reading about taking care of a pet and actually getting a pet and taking care of it or something like that. As such, there were times when Shiro would forget to check before attempting to cross the road, though luckily Ichigo would pull him back before he got run over, and he would sometimes start to wonder off to get a closer look at something he had seen before Ichigo would drag him back.

Eventually they made it to the arcade and Ichigo watched as Shiro's eyes widened at the various video games and bright, flashing lights. Taking hold of the albino's wrist, he led him to the area where they had the DDR machines and was glad to see that one was open. He wouldn't have to wait for one to be free. Releasing his hold, he turned to Shiro.

"Come on, I'll show you how to play."

Shiro, he found out, was quite a quick learner. They had started on low, then quickly moved up to the harder songs. Ichigo was very good at DDR and usually had no problem coming out on top when he was competing with someone else but the albino managed to beat him several times. Ichigo didn't mind, though. He was enjoying himself and so was Shiro. By the time they finally had enough, the two were sweaty and the sun had already gone down. They made their way out of the crowd they had gathered (mainly girls that were ogling at the two hot and sweaty teens) and headed home, going at a slightly slower pace than before due to all the energy they burned, but got home faster than before as Shiro didn't keep wondering off.

When they entered the house, the smell of Yuzu's cooking was hanging in the air. Two stomach's growled, reminding the teens that they had not eaten since lunch.

"Oh," Yuzu's head poked out from the kitchen, "Welcome home, did you two go out?"

"Yeah, we went to the arcade. Hey, is dad back yet or is he still at his meeting?" Ichigo responded, getting the dishes out and putting them on the table while Shiro went over to the food and tried to sample some while Yuzu's back was turned. She quickly spun around and slapped his hand and he retreated, pouting.

Karin answered him, "No, he's still out, he called earlier saying that he won't be home until late tonight." She said in a monotone as she flipped through the channels in hopes of finding something interesting to watch before deeming it a lost cause and turning off the TV to help set up.

"Good!" Shiro exclaimed, "That means more food for us." Ichigo and Karin nodded in agreement while Yuzu simply stated that that wasn't a very nice thing to say, though that was all she did to reprimand him as she placed the food on the table.

Dinner was calm. Yuzu talked about some school activity they were going to do towards the end of the year while Karin talked about soccer. After dinner, Karin and Ichigo did the dishes while Yuzu and Shiro watched a rerun of Ghost Bust. It baffled Ichigo that Shiro would like that show but he kept his thoughts to himself. Besides, if Shiro enjoyed something, who was he to deny him that small pleasure? Once the dishes were done, Ichigo and Karin sat with their siblings and watched the show.

In Soul Society

Head Captain Yamamoto let out a sigh as he sat on the porch connected to his office, drinking his tea. While enjoying the view, he mulled over some of the thoughts that had been plaguing him recently.

Earlier, he had the papers and made all the final arrangement's that needed to be made for the shinigami representative Ichigo Kurosaki and his "brother." The old man hoped that the facility they would be going to would still be there by the time they were finished.

Things were looking far more grim for the 5th division, though. More specifically, the 5th division vice-captain, Hinamori. It had been two years since Aizen's betrayal and she still hadn't gotten her act together, even after his defeat. As such, the division was in minor disorder and was slightly lacking. The division had gone too long without a captain and a proper vice-captain and was slowly deteriorating, becoming a weak point of Soul Society; however they would be able to hold on for another year.

There was a reason Yamamoto had chosen Ichigo to be captain of that particular division. He was a hard working individual, he knew, and he also had a hunch that he wouldn't totally slack off when it came to paperwork; Yamamoto had heard of Ichigo's complaints of 'stupid hollows not giving him enough time to do his homework' but despite that the teen was able to do the homework and hold his position as one of the top students in the school. He was also a natural leader, something that was hard to find. He would be an excellent captain. He was also a celebrity which was a bonus. Having a war hero as their captain would boost the morale of the downhearted division.

While thinking of the 5th division, his mind wandered back to Hinamori and he wondered if Kurosaki was going to have a reliable vice-captain or a vice-captain at all, once he became a captain. After the war, instead of improving, the girl was slowly becoming more and more depressed and if it continued any farther then he and the other captains and vice-captains were going to have to make the decision of whether or not they would have do discharge her. That would then leave Kurosaki, a young and inexperienced man with a lot of responsibility and no vice-captain to share it with. Unless, of course, the boys hollow became his vice-captain or a co-captain. The upside to that would be that Kurosaki would have someone to help him with the workload. The downside would be that they would both be greenhorns and the other shinigami may not be too pleased with having a hollow for a superior.

Yamamoto let out another sigh as he looked out over the city.

Ichigo yawned as he stretched. Looking over he let out a small smile when he saw that he was the only one awake. It was late so it was no surprise that Yuzu and Karin were asleep and earlier Shiro had a sugar rush and it was long gone now, taking his energy with it. Reaching over he gently shook the pale teens shoulder. Said teen groaned as he woke up, bleary, golden eyes opening.

"Wha' ya wake m'up fer Kin'?" he asked as he rubbed his eyes.

"Help me wake up Yuzu and Karin so we can all get to bed okay?"

Shiro nodded and stretched while Ichigo gently nudged Yuzu awake. Shiro did the same for Karin and the four sluggishly made their way up the stairs, the girls going to their room while the boys went to theirs. After changing, Shiro crawled into bed and fell asleep almost immediately, Ichigo not too far behind.

Unbeknownst to the two, Isshin was standing in the doorway watching the two sleep as he leaned against the doorframe. As an older shinigami who had seen many people die and to have his own wife taken from him, the sound of soft breathing in the room was quite comforting, especially now that the war was over. The war had come and gone and not only was his son's breathing still here but now his hollow's was as well. His family had gotten bigger.

'You're very responsible for your age Ichigo.' Isshin thought to himself. 'And in a years' time you're going to have to take more responsibility. As a former captain, I'll try to help you any way that I can. You think you can handle this responsibility?'

"You're worried about your sons aren't you Isshin?" A familiar voice spoke up from behind him, but Isshin didn't flinch, having grown used to Urahara's sudden appearances. "Don't worry, I'll try to keep an eye on him while he's in Soul Society, Yoruichi too."

Isshin let out a dry chuckle, "Somehow, that makes me worry more." Isshin could only imagine what a trip the two boys were going to have during the next year, especially with Urahara added to the mix.

OMAKE

Urahara hummed to himself has he strolled down the street, ignoring the odd looks he received for his clothes. He didn't particularly care what others thought of him, he was going to out-live them anyway.

As he walked, he couldn't help but feel a bit of giddiness well up in his chest. Earlier, he had gone to the Kurosaki Clinic and stuffed some Red Bull's in the refrigerator, hoping that Shiro would find them. He only did it for the satisfaction of knowing that he made the albino hyper and that Ichigo would be the one most likely left to deal with him.

Urahara's smile widened as he thought of a hyper Shiro and a pissed and confused Ichigo.

'I just hope he never finds out that I was the one that put them in there.'

XX

Chapter 6

God, grant me the ability to change the things I can, the patience to accept those things I cannot, and the wisdom to keep quiet about where I buried the bodies of the SOB's that pissed me off. – my dad

The next morning, Ichigo woke up pleasantly surprised that he didn't wake up with a foot in his face or Shiro bugging him. Ichigo really didn't want to get out of his nice, warm, comfy bed but he really didn't want to tempt fate. So, with a-not-so-small amount of remorse, he crawled out of the bed and stretched, some of his bones popping from the action. Looking over at the only other occupant in the room, Ichigo saw that his pale twin was still asleep, a peaceful expression on his face as soft, even breaths passed his parted lips.

Briefly wondering if whether he should wake him up or let him sleep, Ichigo remembered how Shiro had woken him up with his ipod. He gave his sleeping other a weak glare at the memory, while thinking of a way to properly get him back. When nothing came to him immediately, he gave up. He had just woken up; thinking required too much effort in the morning. Deciding to let him sleep, Ichigo's nose was suddenly assaulted by awful stench. The teen covered his nose and was about to voice his displeasure when another voice spoke up.

"Ugh, wha' the hell is tha' smell?"

Apparently, the odor was so bad that it had woken Shiro up. Shiro, like Ichigo had a hand covering his nose and was giving the deathberry an accusing glare.

"Did somethin' crawl up yer ass and die, King? It sure smells like it."

Ichigo glared back, "I have nothing to do with it. Get out of bed so we can see what it is and get rid of it."

"And then go to the store and get a lot of Febreze and air freshener." The hollow grumbled as he followed his King's orders with a small sense of foreboding. They passed Karin and Yuzu's room and were surprised that they were still sleeping.

Continuing down the stairs and into the kitchen (the source of the smell) they stood frozen at the sight before them.

The kitchen was an absolute disaster. There were two pieces of charred toast in the toaster with a pile of black charcoal next to it (which they guessed were earlier attempts at making toast) and the counters were covered in milk, flower, egg shells and yolk, pancake batter and more piles of black stuff. On the stove were three pans, one containing eggs and another with pancake batter, thought they couldn't tell which was which as they were both equally burned. The third pan had a bunch of burnt little strips that used to be bacon. They were also currently on fire.

And in the middle of the kitchen with a frilly, pink apron, stood Isshin.

At the sight of his sons Isshin beamed and opened his mouth to say something but was beat to it by Ichigo.

"DAD, WHAT THE HELL?!"

The now fully awake teen ran to one of the cabinets and pulled out a fire extinguisher and proceeded to spray the fire until there was nothing but ash and smoke. Slamming the fire extinguisher on the ground, he rounded on his dad.

"Dad, what the hell do you think you doing? You could have burned the house down like you almost did last time! And every time before that! There's a reason you're banned from the kitchen!"

Shiro, who hadn't moved from his spot, watched in bemusement as Ichigo lectured his father, who was kneeling before his King, crying anime tears. Shiro briefly wondered who, exactly, the older and more mature person was between the two.

The two began to fight, Isshin saying something about wanting to make a special breakfast. Shiro felt his temper begin to flare, his control wearing thin. Shiro hadn't had a truly decant sleep all week due to training and homework and he really wanted to sleep in this morning, so he was already ticked off. And now, he was beginning to get a headache due to the loud whining the goat face was making.

After 30 more seconds, Shiro finally snapped. He quickly strode over to the two before lifting his leg and kicked Isshin in the head as hard as he could. The older man dropped like a rock.

Ichigo stood in stunned silence as he stared at the limp form of his dad. After a few moments, he turned to Shiro.

"So, what do you want for breakfast?"

Almost an hour later, Isshin finally came too. After shaking off the pain, he wondered why he was sleeping on the couch when the last thing he remembered was that he was in the kitchen making breakfast. Then the memories came flooding back, his two sons entering the room, Ichigo lecturing him, then Shiro knocking him out.

'Ichigo must have moved me.' He thought as he slowly stood up and headed towards the kitchen.

'How long was I asleep?' he wondered to himself as he glanced around the now spotless kitchen. He spotted Shiro leaning against one of the counters, his back to Isshin.

"Ah, Shiro, my son!" he started energetically, "Have you had breakfast? No? Well don't worry my son I-"

Shiro cut him off, "I already had breakfast." He said, not even turning around. Isshin blinked at him.

"Really? What did you have?"

"A strawberry."

"A strawberry?" the elder Kurosaki asked inquisitively, with a hint of worry. 'Does he mean Ichigo?'

"Yeah, it was pretty damn big too," the teen replied, back still turned, "I almost couldn't get it all in and it had a slightly bitter taste to it. It felt weird when the juices and seeds shot down my throat, almost made me choke, but damn it was good."

Isshin just stood, staring at the boys back, his brain trying to process all that the other said.

'He…ate a strawberry…seeds…him and Ichigo…' Suddenly Isshin burst into tears and smiled so widely that his face almost split in half.

"Oh, Masakiii~!" he cried as he ran to her poster and kneeled before it, "Our dear son has become a man!" he proceeded to cry some more. Shiro finally turned to look at the man, who was questionably more insane than he was, and raised a pale eyebrow.

"Wha' th' hell are you bawling about?" he asked as he took another strawberry form the plastic container in his hand and took a bite out of it.

At that time, Ichigo came down the stairs, dressed in ripped blue jeans, a white muscle shirt and a worn jean jacket. He glanced at this weeping father before dismissing him completely and focused his attention on Shiro, the usual scowl on his face, though not as intense.

"What's up with him?" he asked, with a bit of amusement as he tilted his head towards the elder Kurosaki. Shiro just shrugged.

"Beats me, you ready to go?"

"Yep."

"Wait!" Isshin suddenly spoke up, surprising the two teens.

"Where are you going?"

"We're going to hat-n'-clogs," Ichigo said, "We're planning on using the entire day to train."

Isshin babbled something in response but Shiro didn't care and therefore didn't bother to listen, instead putting the rest of the strawberries back in the fridge. He closed the refrigerator door and headed towards the front door, Ichigo following. The two gave a backwards wave to Isshin as they headed out.

The walk to Urahara's was uneventful. They didn't feel much like talking which was fine with them.

They soon arrived at Urahara's. As usual, Jinta and Ururu were in the front sweeping. Well, more like Ururu was sweeping and Jinta was practicing his swing with the broom. Inside they were greeted by Tessai who was shelving while Urahara was nowhere to be seen.

When they were in the training room, the two started some stretching exercises, warming themselves up for their sparing. In the middle of their stretching, Zangetsu spoke up.

'While you two are sparing, I want you to control you reiatsu.'

'But we can hardly control it when we're moving at a normal pace!' Ichigo exclaimed and would have said more if Zangetsu hadn't interrupted him.

'I know that. The purpose of this exercise is to be able to control your reiatsu while focusing on something else. It will also get you used to fighting with your reiatsu in control.'

Ichigo grumbled but didn't say anything. He had a point after all. Shiro stood up and pulled his reiatsu in, Ichigo doing the same.

"Alright aibou, let's get started!" He said, summoning his inverted Zangetsu and rushed towards the substitute shinigami. Ichigo blocked the strike with his own black Zangetsu and immediately lost control, his reiatsu bursting out of him. The few moments they stood there, pushing at each other, Ichigo regained his lost control. Then Shiro pulled back and struck Zangetsu in rapid succession, each strike making him lose some control. Then Shiro swiftly swung his sword to catch the other in the side but was once again blocked but Ichigo. Quickly getting his reiatsu completely under control, he switched from offense to defense, cautiously attacking the albino. Shiro merely brushed off the attack and then swung his sword to behead the other, missing as Ichigo jumped back several feet. Ichigo ran forward and began to weakly attack the other. This continued for several hours, the two becoming faster as time passed, striking each other with more force and confidence. At noon, Zangetsu finally called for a stop, which Ichigo and Shiro took gratefully, collapsing onto the ground where they stood.

During the break, Ichigo reflected on the training. In the beginning he had been cautious and slightly distracted by the reiatsu contained within him. While controlling his reiatsu was not new to him anymore, it had been slightly different today than it had been all week. Before, whenever he did the reiatsu control exercises, he had less of it because of the sparring beforehand. During those times, his skin, heart, muscles, hell, even his hair, felt taunt and strong. Today, those feelings were much more intense. They hadn't sparred beforehand to get rid of some of the energy and so Ichigo's skin and muscles felt uncomfortably tight and the power that was contained just beneath his skin was straining, begging to be released. He felt that if he made one wrong move, all the energy would come bursting out and he would get electrocuted or something. It was thrilling.

Ichigo heard a growling noise nearby. Turning his head, Ichigo saw Shiro looking at his stomach which growled again. Then Ichigo's own stomach growled, gaining Shiro's attention.

"Come on," Ichigo said as he got up, "let's get something to eat."

Shiro perked up at that. Eating was still a bit new to him and he loved to try as many different things as possible. During the whole week that he had been in the real world he hadn't had the same thing twice. Unfortunately, despite everyone's warnings, he had learned the hard way why you shouldn't eat Orihime's food. However, the stomachache he got did not deter him from his new found love for food.

The two climbed up the ladder and out of the basement and headed towards the front where they hoped the others would be. When they got there, they discovered that the shop was surprisingly vacant. There was no Tessai shelving items and Jinta and Ururu weren't outside sweeping/playing and Urahara was still nowhere to be seen. This was bad. The two brothers had no idea where the kitchen was.

"Why don't we look in that little meetin' room?" Shiro suggested.

They looked in the meeting room. No one there.

"Okay," said Ichigo, "they're not in the front, the basement, or the meeting room. Why don't we just try to find it ourselves?"

"Alright, let's try this door." Shiro said as he opened a random door.

And the two started on their grand quest to find the kitchen, completely forgetting the fact that they could just go out and go to the nearest fast food joint.

-20 minutes later-

Ichigo slammed open another door and was once again greeted with an empty room, much to his growing aggravation. There was another slam behind him as Shiro opened another door on the hallway they were in. By the low growl and the sense of annoyance coming from the albino through their link, it was another empty room.

"How many damn rooms does this guy need anyway?" Shiro growled out as he slammed the door closed. "At this rate, we're never gonna find the kitchen!"

Two stomach's voiced their displeasure of that statement.

Ichigo let out a frustrated sigh. "Let's keep looking. There can only be so many rooms in this damn place right?"

"True, but there shouldn't have been as many rooms as we've already gone through! And this is just the first floor!" Shiro continued to seethe as he mentally cursed Urahara for distorting the space in the house.

And then they continued their search, going through more doors and hallways until they finally found stairs leading to the second floor. They climbed upward and, lo and behold, they saw more hallways and doors. By this point it had been almost an hour since they took their break, though Zangetsu wasn't pressing them to get back to training, instead silently watching the two. At least they thought, anyway. For all they knew he could have been singing to himself. Anyway, back to the searching. Shiro and Ichigo continued on their quest. Though they didn't find the kitchen (yet) they did find three bedrooms. One had baseball posters in it and a large bat (Jinta), one had some girl stuff (Ururu), and another had a huge bed and an apron on a hanger (Tessai). There was one room that they couldn't get into no matter what (there was also the problem that the door had some ingenious*sarcasm* lock on it) so they left it alone, guessing that the kitchen wouldn't be behind that door. So, the continued searching but when they opened the last door on the hallway, they stopped.

Inside was another bedroom, some papers and clothing scattered across the floor, and other random items that the brothers didn't care to identify, too busy looking at the figure sleeping on the bed.

There was Urahara, completely dead to the world and snoring loudly. His sandy blonde hair was an absolute mess, sticking out everywhere, and on the bedside table was his green and white striped had and his fan.

Seeing this, an evil idea formed in Ichigo's head, a smirk spreading across his face. In a very Isshin like manner, he pulled two markers out of nowhere (which was strange. He didn't carry around markers) and gave one to Shiro. The albino looked at it cluelessly before catching on, his lips curving into his trade mark shit-eating grin. The two uncapped the markers as they stalked towards their unsuspecting victim.

A few minutes later, Shiro and Ichigo pulled back to admire their work. On Urahara's right cheek was a picture of Chappy's face and a pink tutu and everywhere else was covered in random doodles and on his left cheek was a picture of Chappy blowing a kiss and surrounded by pink and red hearts. On Urahara's hat were more doodles of hearts and other random stuff and on his fans (he had more than one; oddly enough they found at least 20 in the top drawer of the night stand) they wrote random questions and statements.

Quietly snickering to each other they recapped the markers (Ichigo had pulled more out of nowhere) and began to tip toe out of the room, closing the door behind them quietly before running like hell. They ran all over the second floor before going back to the first floor where it became a game of chase. Laughing, they ran all through the house, the shop, the training room, and the second basement (apparently there was another basement just underneath the house. Surprisingly this one was actually like a normal
basement….besides a few steel doors that the brothers were just not
going to think about at the moment). The game came to a halt when Shiro tackled Ichigo and the two fell through a door, landing with a loud "thump."

The twins laid there for a minute, panting and trying to catch their breath, adrenalin pumping through their blood. Shiro got up first, holding out a hand for the other.

"As fun as that was, we need to find something to eat. I'm starving!" He said as he helped Ichigo up. And he wasn't kidding either. For the first time since being separated from Ichigo, the hollow felt so hungry, it was painful. It was as if there was a hole in his gut. While they brushed debris off themselves, Shiro wondered if this hunger was anything like a normal hollow felt, though he doubted it. Shiro himself never felt any hunger when he was in his Kings soul, and for that, he considered himself lucky, but be guessed that his hunger now didn't hold a candle to a normal hollows hunger as the thought of eating people wasn't crossing his mind. For the first time, the albino felt pity for the hollows. The hunger must be unbearing to drive them to eat others.

Before he could think more on the subject, Ichigo's voice brought him out of his thoughts.

"Hey Shiro, we found the kitchen!"

Shiro immediately turned his attention to Ichigo and saw they there had, indeed, found the kitchen (they didn't really find it, they fell into it and broke the door in the process, but that doesn't matter). His earlier thoughts were quickly pushed aside.

Now they only problem was making what they wanted to eat.

"Alright King, time for ya to start cookin'!" the hollow said with a big grin. Ichigo scowled.

"You can't order me around! And what makes you think I'm going to cook?"

Shiro only smiled more.

"Because~! I don't know how ta cook but ya do! Besides, I wanna see what yer food tastes like."

Ichigo let out a huff as brushed his fingers through his hair.

"Okay, but you're going to help me." He paused. "And then later, I'm going to teach you how to cook. It could be very useful later in life."

Shiro mock pouted.

"What if I don't wanna cook?"

"Too bad. You're not going to have someone to cook for you all your life so you need to know how to feed yourself." Ichigo started looking through the cabinets. "Now come over here and help me find some stuff. I need an onion, two potatoes, two carrots, pork and rice. I'm going to look for the knives and curry roux."

Shiro just stood there for a moment, before he started going through the kitchen, looking for the things his king told him to find. Because he was a part of Ichigo, Shiro knew things about him that others didn't. One was that his King knew how to cook and was actually very decent. Not as good as Yuzu, of course, but still very good. Most would have been surprised by this, but if they thought about it, it made sense. Ichigo's mother died when Yuzu was just four, so the idea of her cooking was out of the question and Isshin was not only a horrible cook but he also had to work, so even if he could cook he would have been too busy to do so. So that left nine year old Ichigo to do the work. When Yuzu got old enough and showed a keen interest in cooking, Ichigo was the one that taught her.

As Shiro put the pork on the counter next to the other items he collected, he couldn't help but smile a little bit. Not many knew that Ichigo could cook and even fewer had been taught by him, which made Shiro feel incredibly special. The albino watched as the orange head put some pots on the stove and measuring cups on the counter next to the knives.

"Okay Shiro," Ichigo turned to him, "here's what we're going to do…"

Cooking with Shiro was an interesting experience. Ichigo did most of the work, telling Shiro what to do and showing him how to do things. Ichigo smiled the entire time, noticing how enthusiastic his hollow was. He was like a child wanting to help, wanting to add this and mix that, his golden eyes shining and a genuine smile on his face.

Sometime later, Ichigo and Shiro were sitting at the table in the kitchen, two plates of curry on front of them. The two didn't say anything to each other as they wolfed it down, their hunger finally being abated. Ichigo finished first and let out a sigh in contentment as he leaned back to let the food settle in his stomach. Shiro was eating slower than Ichigo since he had only been using chopsticks for a week and was still unused to using them. While the other was eating, Ichigo opened the mind link to his hollow and zanpaktou.

'Do we have to go back to training after we're done?' he thought, almost pouting. He and the albino listened for Zangetsu's answer. There was silence for a few moments before the older man responded.

'You are done fighting for the day.' Ichigo let out a silent mental cheer, while Shiro pouted because they wouldn't be fighting anymore. 'Both of you have improved greatly today,' Zangetsu continued, 'However, you are not done with today's training. From now until seven, I want you two to walk around town and get used to trying to search for people you know. After that, you will be done with today's training.' And then his presence left, indicating that the conversation was over.

Shiro just grunted, trying to grab some rice with his chopsticks and Ichigo sighed.

When Shiro finally finished eating, the shinigami took their plates to the sink to wash them, while the albino stood and waited. The silence, however, was shattered when an all too familiar voice hit their ears.

"I do believe that you killed my door. Can't you two go anywhere without destroying anything?"

The identical teens turned towards the doorway where Urahara stood. The shopkeeper had his usual smile on his face, his green striped hat on his head and his fan in his hand. The man seemed completely oblivious to the "artwork" on his face and hat and that his fan said "Has anyone seen my tutu?"

Ichigo clenched his jaws tightly as he tried to keep a straight face while Shiro behind him started snickering, the mirth evident through their link.

The substitute turned back to washing the dishes as he came up with an explanation. "Well, um," don'tlaughdon'tlaughtdon'tlaugh, "w-we were looking *snicker* f-for the kitchen *snickerchough* 'cause we were hungry and we were running around *cough* and we ranthroughthedoor. Come on Shiro let's go!" the berry finished the last plate and, without stopping to dry his hands, grabbed Shiro (who was about to lose it) and then ran out the door and passed Urahara, who, for once, had a clueless expression on his face.

They ran through the hallways, their laughter finally escaping from them, and in a ridiculously short amount of time, they found the shop and ran out the door, their laughter fading with them.

Meanwhile, back at the kitchen, Urahara just stood there, completely baffled at the reaction and the sudden departure of the twins. Deciding to ignore it (it could have been nothing more than an inside joke between the two) he stepped over the remains of the door and into the kitchen to make himself some ramen. Tessai didn't trust him to make anything more complicated than that.

Once he finished and put the dishes in the sink for Tessai to clean later, he went to the shop to wait for Tessai and the kids, who had gone for an outing. While waiting, he went around the shop, checking the expiration dates on the merchandise, yawning several times and rubbing his eyes. He had stayed up all night working on a project. Nothing destructive like the Hogyoku, just something to pass the time.

The sound of footsteps entering the shop made the ex-shinigami look up to see a customer, a woman and her little girl, walking into the little shop. Putting on what he thought was a pleasant smile, he approached the two, his fan covering his mouth.

"Hello!" he greeted, gaining the older woman's attention, "Is there anything I can do for you?"

The woman just stared at him with a surprised expression, the child walking around looking at the various candies. She blinked a couple of times before she answered.

"Uh, n-no thank you, we're just looking around." And she walked off. Urahara just shrugged, brushing off the reaction, it wasn't the first time someone did that. A few minutes later, the two left without getting anything. And so he went back to wondering around the shop, not really looking at anything, his mind thinking up new projects to work on.

It was about thirty minutes later when Tessai and the kids arrived.

"Ah! You're finally back. And how was your outing?" Urahara asked, waving his fan.

Jinta immediately started laughing and Ururu let out a little giggle, while Tessai just stood there, staring, though you couldn't see it through his glasses (come to think of it, had he ever seen him without his glasses?).

"Hmmm. Boss, have you looked at yourself?"

"Of course not! Why would I? What, is there something on my face?"

"You could say that." Jinta said between breaths.

The blond shopkeeper walked off to the bathroom, the other three following him. When he looked at himself, his eyes widened. His hat was ruined, his fan vandalized, and on his cheeks were drawings of Chappy the Rabbit. He opened and closed his mouth, but he was speechless. Behind him, Jinta was thrown into another fit of laughter.

'When? Who?' Urahara wondered. He knew that Tessai, Ururu, and Jinta didn't do it, they had been out today and they would have never done something like this to him anyway. Yoruichi wouldn't have done it because it was too plain and basic for her, it wasn't her style, and she was currently off who-knows-where doing who-knows-what.

'Ichigo and Shiro.' Yes, it was those two, it couldn't have been anyone else. They were the only ones that were here and when he saw them in the kitchen, they weren't the least bit surprised. And they left in quite a hurry too.

The gears in Urahara's head started turning. He was going to get back at those two for vandalizing his fan and hat. But what would he do?

A wicked smile formed on his face, and a gleam shone in his eyes.

'I've got the perfect idea.'

Sadly it wasn't until later that night that he discovered his spare fans were vandalized as well and unfortunately for the twins that only added fuel to the fire for Urahara.

Shiro and Ichigo had long since stopped running from Urahara's shop and were now merely walking around town, doing as Zangetsu instructed. They already found Chad and Orihime, Chad because his reiatsu felt more like a hollows than anything else and stuck out and the had been exposed to Orihime's powers a lot making hers very familiar. They eventually found Karin and, after much concentration, Isshin. Right now, they were looking for Uryuu and Yuzu. Yuzu was difficult since her spiritual pressure was so small, she could barely see spirits, but they were familiar with her. They had no idea how to look for Uryuu because his soul had a different make up from everyone else.

Their search was slowed down by the fact that Shiro was easily distracted, going into stores and looking through windows and Ichigo had to keep a constant eye on the pale teen. But Ichigo couldn't blame him for his curiosity. The real world was still so new to him after all.

After Ichigo dragged Shiro out of another store, they continued their trek until Shiro stopped, again, spotting several small square things, each one a different color in a window. The hollow recognized the little things as the iPod thing that his King had. Shiro still had no idea how a square little machine that weighed nothing would play music. However, he did have to agree that it was convent and he wondered what kinds of music would be on it if he had one of his own. Maybe the hard metal that he had heard in Kings memory's before?

A few steps ahead of the albino, Ichigo realized that Shiro wasn't following him again. Looking back, he saw that the other had stopped in front of a window showing iPods and that his eyes were glazed over in thought as he looked at the little things. Opening up their connection, Ichigo smiled before closing the connection again.

'So, he wants one, does he?'

And idea popped in his head, and after some thinking, the shinigami called Zangetsu.

'Hey, Old man, you there?'

The zanpaktou didn't say anything but Ichigo could tell he had the older man's attention.

'Hey, um…do you think we could end the training for today? There's something I want to do.'

The older man didn't say anything for a moment slightly confused as to why Ichigo suddenly wanted to end the training. Ichigo usually didn't stop whatever he was doing until he finished it. Looking into Ichigo's and Shiro's memories, he found out why. Zangetsu allowed a small smile and replied to the fidgeting orange-head, who was wondering what was taking so long.

'Yes, Ichigo you may stop. Tomorrow, you and Shiro will do this again.'

Ichigo smile as he walked toward the albino teen, glad that Zangetsu gave him this little break.

"Oi, Shiro!" he called snapping the other out of his thoughts. "Zangetsu said we could stop today. I think now is the perfect time to introduce you to the music world."

Shiro's golden eyes looked at the strawberry curiously as said strawberry grabbed his pale wrist and dragged/lead the hollow into a nearby music store. Looking around, Shiro saw rows and rows of CD's of every type of genre and even from other countries. The albinos head started swimming.

"We're not goin' through all of these, are we?"

Ichigo smirked, "Don't worry, there are machines here that have a sample of every song in the store. That's what we're going to use."

After some searching they found the machines Ichigo was talking about and played with it for the rest of the afternoon, listening to whatever came on. Ichigo (with Zangetsu's help) kept track of the songs and artists that Shiro seemed to like more, as the albino would want to listen to other songs in that style or by that artist. It was around six thirty when Ichigo reminded the other that they had to be home by seven. They went home, dodged Isshin's attack, had dinner, kicked Isshin in the face, and went to bed. The next day they didn't go to Urahara's, Zangetsu saying that what they did the other day was sufficient enough that they could practice on actual hollows until noon. Which was fine with the boys, as it gave them an excuse to stay away from Urahara, who probably figured out by now who pranked him. After that, Zangetsu told them to start searching for friends and family again.

Again, they found Chad and Orihime first, then Isshin and Karin. They were able to find Yuzu and Uryuu this time and they also found Tatski, Keigo, and Mizuiro.

The next two weeks went by quickly. Zangetsu started making the brothers hold their reiatsu in during class to help their control while around people and doing mundane tasks. Ichigo gave Shiro a red iPod which the albino absolutely loved and, literally unable to control himself, leapt at the berry and hugged him tightly. Unfortunately there hadn't been much time for him to listen to it. Also, whenever he could, Shiro would hover over Yuzu as she cooked, much to the confusion of the rest of the family. The identical teens had managed to stay away from the Urahara Shop and they still hadn't heard anything from the Soul Society.

Friday, the last day of school, went by normal. They had a party in class, they punched Keigo, people talked about what they would do over the summer, and all that last-day-of-school stuff. After school, Ichigo and Shiro went home, argued and fought with Isshin, watched TV, had dinner, and went to bed. Completely normal.

Of course, this is the Kurosaki's we're talking about. "Normal" does not last very long.

The next morning, Ichigo slowly left the realm of sleep and into the waking world. Not wanting to be up quite yet, the teen kept his eyes closed, not awake but not asleep. He lay there for an unknown amount of time until he decided to get up himself before someone did it for him (his dad). He pushed the covers off himself, only subconsciously noticing the different material of the covers. It was when he swung his legs over the bed and his feet touched the floor that Ichigo noticed something was off. He was wearing something large and baggy and something was on his feet even though last night he was only wearing a muscle shirt and boxers.

Finally opening his eyes, Ichigo looked down at himself and his eyes widened slightly in confusion at what he was wearing. On his feet were the usual shinigami socks and sandals but instead of his shinigami uniform, he was wearing a brown outfit that you would see the people in Rukonkai wearing.

Hearing a groan behind him, the teen spun around and saw another bed, parallel to his own with a sleeping Shiro under the covers. Getting up, Ichigo rushed over to him.

"Oi Shiro! Shiro! Wake up!" the shinigami shook the other's shoulders roughly. The albino groaned again before pushing him away and started rubbing his eyes.

"Wha' d' ya wan'?"

"Get up! We're not in our room!"

Shiro's eyelids opened, revealing bleary gold on white eyes. Said eyes rested on Ichigo and he blinked a couple of times with a blank expression on his face.

"Uh, King, what did ya do to yer hair? It's white."

"Huh?" Grabbing a lock of his bangs, Ichigo pulled it in front of his face and saw that what Shiro said was true. His hair was indeed white.

"…the fuck?"

Before anything else could be said or done, a kind voice came from behind them.

"Oh, you two are finally awake I see?"

Turning to the doorway, where the voice came from, the brothers saw the sickly, 13th division caption, Jushiro Ukitake. The white haired man was smiling kindly at the duo. "How are you two this morning? Good I hope."

Ichigo didn't answer immediately, questions of his own swirling in his head. He blurted out the most prominent one.

"Where the hell are we?"

Without losing his smile, the older man replied.

"You're in the barracks of the Shinigami Academy."

Shiro's and Ichigo's jaws dropped.

XX

Chapter 7

For a long minute there was complete and utter silence in the room before Ichigo shattered it.

"Wha – why?"

"For training of course."

"Explain." Shiro demanded, his usual smile replaced with a scowl.

Ukitake closed the door behind him and walked over to take a seat on the bed.

"As you may remember Ichigo, you were voted to become captain of the 5th division. However you don't have any training. While you could stay in the living world and have Urahara train you, it is required for every shinigami to have been at the Shinigami Academy for at least one year. Even Kenpatchi had to go."

"But I have a life in the human world. And what about my family? I can't just leave them." Ichigo protested.

"That's already been taken care of. Your family and friends know you're here and everyone else thinks you got transferred to another school, which, in a way, is true. Also, during the holydays and breaks you will be allowed to go to the world of the living if you wish to do so."

While Ichigo mulled this over Shiro spoke up.

"Okay, that's all fine and good but why did you die King's hair? And what's with the clothes?"

"To blend in, of course. You can't go walking into the academy wearing modern clothes or a shinigami outfit."

"Okay that makes sence for the clothes," Ichigo said, "but it doesn't explain the hair."

"Well, you see, Ichigo," the senior captain began, "you're undercover. Now let me explain." He said, cutting off whatever question the two teens were going to ask. "You can say, Ichigo, that you're somewhat of a celebrity in Soul Society. After only three months of being a shinigami you were strong enough to rival captains. Bankai takes years to achieve but you achieve it in three days. You stopped the Sogyoku which was strong as a thousand zanpakuto with the flat side of blade without any visible effort. And more importantly, you revealed Aizens treachery and played a major part in the Winter War. You're basically a hero.

"And that's why you have to go undercover, as cheesy as it sounds. If everyone knew you were Kurosaki, the hero of the Winter War, the students would never leave you alone and it would interrupt your studies. It would be better if people didn't know who you are. While people don't know what you look like everyone knows your hair is a natural orange. If you went to the academy without dying your hair you be found out in no time at all. Any questions on that?"

The two thought for a moment before shaking their heads.

"Alright then, let's move on to you names and background. You two are twin brothers for the 79th district. It would explain why you know how to fight so well. You also are able to remember when you were alive so that would explain how you can read and write.

"Now, your names will be Ichirin Shirosaki and Jirotoshi Shirosaki. Since you remember your time alive, you would remember your names. We thought that Shirosaki was similar enough to Kurosaki that you would remember it. If you want to change your first name you can."

"I'm good with it." Ichigo said.

"Me too." Shiro said.

"Alright then, now for your classes. There are four mandatory classes: kido, hakudo, zanjutsu and hoho. You can have eight classes total and there are also extra-curricular classes you can take. You'll find out more when you are given you schedule to fill out. While you're filling it out, take into consideration that you two are taking every class together. I'm sure you understand why." The captain eyed Shiro, who merely gave s shit-eating grin.

"Where do we get this schedule?" Ichigo asked.

"Well," Ukitake started, "first you have to take a test."

"A test?"

"Yes, but nothing too difficult. It's just to gauge whether or not to admit someone and then see what classes to place them in."

"Oi, if they're gonna chose our classes for us, why do we have to fill out a schedule?" Shiro questioned.

"Well, some classes you choose you couldn't be placed in because it's too advanced and you would be put in a class that you need. For example, if someone wanted to be in advanced science but their reading skills and knowledge in science was too poor, they would be put in basic classes. Do you understand?"

"So it's basically just like school in the human world?"

"Yep."

"Alright then. Anything else you need to tell us? Things we should know? When does school start?"

"It starts in a week. Most, if not all, of the students from the previous years are already here. You two need to take your entrance test today because this is the last day. There are a girls dorm and a boys dorm, you'll learn more about that later. Your uniforms are already in your closet but you won't wear them until school starts. All the teachers know about you will cover for you if you slip up. You have this room all to yourselves and there's a bad under Ichigo's bed that has a few of your personal items from the human world. There is also something in there from Urahara and I suggest you take a look at it before you leave to take your test." Finished, Ukitaki got up, oblivious or ignoring the wary looks the two were now giving Ichigo's bed.

"That should be all I think. If you have any more questions you can ask the teacher here on campus. Have a nice day and good luck on you tests." And then he left.

Shiro stared at the door for few moments before he got off the bed and onto his hands and knees, looking underneath Ichigo's bed. Just as Ukitake had said there was sports bag under the bed. There was also something long, white and thin. Pulling the bag out, Shiro reached back into grab the white object. When he touched it he immediately knew what it was: Ichigo's zanpakuto.

Shiro belatedly realized that he and his king were in spirit form and that Zangetsu wasn't on their backs like he should be. The albino guessed that he didn't realize it earlier because he had gotten used to not having the blade on his back.

Letting go of the black Zangetsu, Shiro maneuvered himself to look under his own bed. Like he thought, there was an equally long and thin black object. His white Zangetsu.

The albino sat up and opened his mouth to tell Ichigo about the swords when said berry spoke, handing the hollow a now of some sort.

"Read this. I found it in the bag, it's from Urahara."

Taking the note, Shiro began to read.

To Ichigo and Shiro,

If you're reading this, then you're in the Shinigami Academy dorms in Soul Society. As you may or may not have noticed (I'm pretty sure that you have by now) I have dyed Ichigo's hair white to match Shiro. It could be like a family trait! (It's also a lot easier to dye one person's hair than it is to dye a person's skin). Another thing you may have noticed by now is that you are in your spirit forms. Now with Ichigo, this wasn't much of a problem, but there is the issue of Shiro's eyes and voice. So! I made a device that affects his voice. I won't go into the details, but you don't hear the echo in voice, do you? You can also alter it to make his voice sound different. It also turns is silica white and his tongue pink. I won't go into the details on that either. You wouldn't understand a word of it! However, it only works if you wear it, so don't take it off in public! I left a manual for the device, which looks like a necklace, in the bag. If you have any more questions, I'm sure you could find some way to contact me! Have fun at the academy!

-Urahara Kiske

When he finished reading, Shiro lifted a hand to his neck and felt a string of round objects. Looking down, he saw a string round beads that looked to be made out of wood. At the center of the necklace was what looked to be a white stone, twice as large as the other beads and a crescent moon on either side of the stone, the backs of the moons connected to the stone.

When Shiro had read the note, he made another belated realization. He didn't notice it before, but when they were talking to Ukitake his voice had no echo in it, just like when he was in his gigai. But again, Shiro didn't notice it because he was so used to his gigai.

The hollow scowled slightly and mentally cursed himself. He had missed two very obvious things! Used to, he would have noticed things like that easily. But living the same easy life this his King did had lulled him into a sense of security and while his strength increased, his powers of observation dulled. Just like his King. Shiro could not allow this to continue! In battle, missing such obvious details could potentially get them killed. He and his King were going to have to work on that.

"What worries me," Ichigo said, pulling Shiro out of his thoughts, "is that Urahara dyed my hair. Knowing him, it's a "special" brew that's still experimental. And I doubt he's forgotten about that prank we played on him a few weeks ago."

Shiro just shrugged unconcerned. Whatever Urahara could do to get back at them couldn't be too bad. After all, they were in another world. Right? Right.

"You know, our zanpakutous are under our beds." Shiro said.

"I know, I looked when I saw you look under both beds. Hey, here's your ipod." While Shrio was reading the note, Ichigo was taking stuff out of the bag. There was a little booklet that had a picture of Shiro's necklace on it, probably the manual, most of the books Ichigo had in his room, two laptops (Shiro wondered why they had them. He had seen Ichigo on it once or twice but they had been too busy to really use them. Would they even have internet connection here?), Ichigo's and Shiro's ipods, unscented shampoo and conditioner and their boxers.

"Let's put all this stuff away then go and take our test." Shiro suggested.

They spent the next fifteen minutes taking all the stuff and hiding it while exploring their new room. There was the bedroom which had two beds, two desks against the wall opposite the beds and to the left of the desks, closer to the door, was a closet and in between the two beds was a bedside table. To the right of the beds was a door that led to the bathroom, which was a lot like the one at home just smaller. They put the books and boxers in the closet, the ipods and manual in the drawer in the bedside table, the laptops under the beds, and the shampoo and conditioner in the bathroom.

When they finished, they left the room and entered a hallway with a bunch of doors, evenly spaced, with numbers on them. Dorm rooms. The brothers made sure to remember that theirs was 315. They wondered around aimlessly for a while before finding some stairs. They went down three flights before reaching ground floor and made their way out the building. Once outside Ichigo and Shiro saw a large building not too far away – most likely the academy – and that they sun was rising over the horizon, making the two wonder how early they had gotten up.

When they got to the main doors of the school, they saw a middle aged woman sitting in a chair reading a book. When they were just a few feet away from her, she looked up, recognition lighting in her eyes when she saw them. She stood up, putting her book in her chair and unhooking a boxy device from her waist.

"I know who you are but this is standard procedure so if you please, stand still while I scan you."

"Scan for what?" Ichigo asked as the woman held the box up to his chest.

"Well, this little thing here," she tapped the box in hands, "scans you to see how much spiritual energy you have to see if it's powerful enough for you to enter the academy. Then it ejects a slip of paper with a number on it that shows how powerful you currently are on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being civilian and 10 being captain. How high the number is determines whether or not you might wind up in advanced classes." The scanner beeped and a slip of paper came out of the top. The brothers doubted it would be a 10 as they currently had their powers reigned in. "Here you go." She gave him the paper which read 7. She repeated the process with Shiro who also got a 7. "Now when you enter just take the first right you see and wait there." She then sat down and went back to reading her book.

Ichigo and Shiro walker in and took the first right entering a short hallway with a door at the end and benches along the walls. Standing by the door was a strict looking man.

"Here to take your exam, yes?" the brothers nodded. "You may enter. Remember to be quiet and considerate of others taking their tests. When you are finished, turn your test in at the front desk and exit through the double doors. You may take as long as you like." The man opened the door and the two walked in. the room was a lot like a classroom from the living world. There was a teacher's desk at the front of the room with a woman sitting in it, facing them. Behind her to her right were the double doors. The rest of the room was filled with rows of students desks all of them with a test packet. Shiro and Ichigo were surprised to see three other people there already.

Ichigo took a seat, Shiro taking the desk next to him, and got started. Ichigio was surprised at how easy the first few pages were. Theywere elementary questions like 2 plus 2 and what are the four seasons. And everything was multiple choice. As the test went on, the questions got harder and by the end of it, the questions were high school level. All in all, Ichigo found the test very easy. So did Shiro, apparently, because he got up 30 seconds before Ichigo did. Together, they turned in their test and then proceeded through the double doors and entered what appeared to be a dojo. There were four people in there, all of them wearing what the two were starting to recognize as the teachers uniform. Two were standing and the other two were sitting at a table, stacks of papers around them.

The two standing instructors came up to the brothers, informing them that this was the practical portion of the exam, to test their reflexes and their control over their spiritual energy. Needless to say, Shiro and Ichigo passed with flying colors. Then they had to go to the desk where both were given a class schedule to fill out, a booklet of available classes and an Instructors Practical Exam Evaluation sheet which basically just notes the instructor took on how well the individual did and suggestions on what classes they should take. They were told that their written exam was being graded and to wait in the next room for their Written Exam Evaluation sheet before deciding which classes to take and that they could turn in their schedule at the front desk by tomorrow morning at the latest.

XX

And that's it people! The ending absolutely sucked but I kind of stopped caring at that point.

Now for my announcement: This story is up for ADOPTION! As some of you might know, I've lost my interest in Bleach a while ago and simply never got around to putting Undercover up for adoption. After looking through my files and old papers, I finally managed to add what I had of chapter 7.

For anyone who wants to adopt Undercover, please PM me for additional information.

Important Note - Know characters from other anime/manga. I hate OC's in stories like these – people create an original character for every teacher and student and while that's fine for some, for others – like me – it's very difficult to keep track of who's who. To make it easy for the reader's I had intended to make this a giant crossover. This does not mean that Luffy died on the Grand Line and wound up in Soul Society; an example would be that Sasuke Uchiha is from the noble house of Uchiha, or that Kenshin Himura was a soul from the rogenkai district became a shinigami and now teaches swordsmanship or something like that.