Silver: I needed to take a break from Ichigo's Family for a bit and this was some random idea that was floating around. actually, the plot was supposed to be completely different but it changed after like, the first paragraph. Anyway, I don't understand how people write one-shots that are more than 5000 words long. *Cries into Pansy's chest* Why are you so tall?!
Pansy: I'm not, you're just short, how did I get dragged into this, and stop trying to reach the cookies while you're crying.
Silver: But I want one. *munches on cookie* I don't own Bleach or any of its characters. Enjoy and if you squint really, really hard you may possibly be able to make out a faint outline of yaoi (ShiroIchiTensa) maybe
Ichigo Kurosaki was a hero, had been for a long time in the eyes of those he protected. He was expected to always be the one who protected, to be something of an untouchable figure everyone could place their hopes in. So how had he ended up in a coma in Kisuke Urahara's underground training room for no discernable reason? That seemed to be the question of the moment as Ichigo's friends gathered to hear Urahara's reasoning for this sudden development. Among the gathered were, of course, Rukia, Renji, Orihime, Uryu, and Chad. Some of the less expected were Byakuya, Kenpachi, Unohana, and Mayuri. Byakuya and Kenpachi would never admit to have actually been worried for the comatose orangette, covering for themselves with various excuses such as looking after Rukia (Byakuya) and not wanting a strong rival to be killed by anything other than him (Kenpachi). Unohana was there for the medical mystery and Mayuri was taking every opportunity available to him to study the ever present mystery of exactly what Ichigo was.
When they had arrived Urahara had avoided the subject like the plague, coming up with any excuse he could think of to keep them away from asking about Ichigo. It was impossible, however, to deflect the questions forever. In the end, it was Byakuya and his unnerving calmness that had finally cornered him with his question of, "What happened to Kurosaki?"
Urahara sighed, not wanting to break the strange news but knowing he'd have to. "I'm not sure why, but it seems he's been locked in his Inner World."
"If it's his Inner World then why doesn't he just leave?" Rukia countered, suspicious of the shop keeper's claim. It was impossible to get trapped in one's own Inner World, it being your world after all.
The blond exile just smiled sheepishly, answering with an unsatisfying, "Well I don't know." After a short pause in which he contemplated revealing more, Urahara also said, "There is a possibility he doesn't want to come out, in that case the only problem would be finding out why not. For this, and the other, slightly more troublesome case I prepared an experiment of sorts."
"An experiment?" Byakuya asked suspiciously, not entirely wanting to hear more on the subject. Urahara's experiments were almost as twisted as Mayuri's.
"Yes," the blond started, "It's something I've had for a while but never got the chance to try. Essentially it will send a small group of you in to Kurosaki-san's inner world. From there you can find him and use this," he pulled out a painful looking syringe with a green liquid inside, "to force him out. Of course that's only if he can't do it himself. If he can but doesn't want to you're going to have to find out what's wrong with him and convince him to come out."
"How does whoever goes in get out?" Rukia asked, not doubting for a second that Urahara actually had something that could send them to an inner world not their own.
"Ichigo will tell you when you find him. So who wants to go?"
Rukia, Renji, Chad, and Orihime were a given, and though he obviously had no desire to find out what a Shinigami's mind looked like, Uryu volunteered to go too. In the end, Byakuya also decided to go, both to look after Rukia and to supervise the whole group. Urahara led them to a room in the back of his shop where Ichigo's spiritual body lay seemingly asleep, there were other spaces around the room like the crazy exile knew at least some one was going to agree. He probably did. On one wall of the room a large monitor rested, so people on the outside could see the inside he'd explained. Urahara had explained that it didn't work unless someone was sent in, saving himself from having to hear the question a second later. The group who was going in laid down and took the drug that would allow them to enter Ichigo's mindscape, Byakuya finding he had mysteriously acquired the syringe that would allow them to force Ichigo out of his mindscape should he truly be trapped. Mayuri, Unohana, and Kenpachi gathered in front of the monitor with Urahara to watch the events unfold.
To say that the inner world of Ichigo Kurosaki was anything short of seriously messed up would have a slight understatement. The tall sideways sky scrapers with the blue, lightly clouded sky to their sides was disorienting enough in its own right, but adding to that the entire city the world seemed to be made of completed the strangeness of it. The black, paved street was to their backs as they looked around the windowed building side in an attempt to get a grip on their sense of direction.
"How are we supposed to find him in this?" Renji asked to no one in particular. It was rhetorical and he wasn't expecting an answer, making it all the more surprising when he got one.
"You follow me." The voice sounded vaguely of Ichigo's, though far less substantial. It could have easily been a whistle in the wind if not for the obvious lack thereof. The group was startled by the sudden and unexpected voice, Rukia and Renji looking around wildly while the others strained to hear more or waited to follow whoever struck a direction first.
When there was nothing to see or hear Byakuya suspected it may have been a trick of the mind, unintentionally confusing or misguiding those that didn't belong. However, that thought was quickly shot down when a light breeze picked up, blowing in a certain direction. It would have been brushed off, not thought of as anything important except that it was followed by a rather large explosion moments later in the direction the wind had been blowing. The light that came from the explosion was black outlined in red, instantly recognizable as a Getsuga Tensho even from such a distance.
"Kurosaki-kun might be in trouble," Orihime cried, worry evident in her voice as she stared almost in a daze at the lingering dust the technique had picked up.
That much could be agreed, for the reiatsu that radiated forth was similar to Ichigo's the only difference being the twisted Hollow like presence that was mixed in with it. The group rushed off towards the source of the reiatsu, determined to find and help Ichigo should he need it. As they shunpoed through the sideways world the distinctive silhouette of a certain orangette came into view, any more than that hidden behind the blanket of dust Getsuga Tensho had thrown up. It was obvious he was fighting with someone, though who remained unclear and several of the more perceptive members of the group (Byakuya and Chad) were left to wonder exactly how some other being had entered Ichigo's inner world without the help of a certain blond shopkeeper.
As they got closer, the situation continued to get more and more confusing. The dust cleared, revealing that while the other fighter was still unidentifiable, the being they had originally thought to be Ichigo was not actually Ichigo. He was the same in every aspect except one. This non-Ichigo was bleached bone white, from his skin to his hair and Shihakusho. The eyes were an unnerving gold set in a sea of black; the eyes of a Hollow. The Zanpakuto he wielded were the duel blades of Ichigo's Bankai only inverted in color as well, but the most noticeable difference wasn't in his appearance, but in the feel of his reiatsu. It was the same one they'd felt before, but now instead of mistaking it for Ichigo's mixed with the reiatsu of his attacker, it was now obvious that it was all this Hollow's reiatsu, it seeming to be a Hollow version of Ichigo.
The other being that could never have been mistaken for Ichigo looked several years younger, his chin length, dark brown hair flying out behind him slightly as he shunpoed towards the Hollow Ichigo, a Zanpakuto identical even in color to the orangette's duel bladed Bankai poised to strike as soon as he got close enough. The group of Ichigo's friends that witnessed this strange, unnatural meeting inside the mind of a comatose Shinigami were shocked beyond words, not at the fight that was preoccupying the two beings that shouldn't exist, but at what they were fighting over.
Beneath them on the surface of the sideways building the two were fighting over, was a patch of orange attached to the unconscious form of Ichigo. The Hollow and other being had been screaming at each other for a good portion of the fight, some of it was the expected trash talk and insults, but the majority consisted of things like, 'King's mine!' and 'I deserve Ichigo more'. After a bit of stunned listening, Byakuya finally came up with a plan.
"Quincy, Sado-san, Inoue-san, and Renji, draw those two away from Kurosaki. Rukia and I will go wake him up, learn how to leave, and then get him out before coming for you." Byakuya didn't need to wait and see if everyone was fine with their jobs, he knew they would do what needed to be done, even if Uryu grumbled a bit at being called Quincy. They broke off into their teams, Uryu summoning his bow, Chad and Orihime releasing their power and Renji releasing Zabimaru into its Shikai form.
The four flew up to meet the two fighters while Byakuya and Rukia got ready to make a mad dash for the sleeping orangette. Uryu made the first move, firing several Heilig Pfeil at each target, just enough to be annoying and get their attention. It did work drawing their attention away from each other for a split second before they both launched themselves at the group of four, their every intention focused on eradicating the annoyance that was drawing them away from their king. So caught up in their fight with each other, the two beings didn't even realize they'd fallen for the diversion.
Uryu was thoroughly surprised when the two beings silently picked opponents, the brunette going after him and Chad while the Hollow focused on Orihime and Renji. He was shocked at how in sync they were with each other considering they had literally been trying to rip the other's throat out mere moments before. He barely had time to dodge a swing from the larger blade of Zangetsu before Chad's Brazo Derecha de Gigante blocked a follow up slash from the smaller one. Uryu, recovered quickly, forming more Heilig Pfeil to fire at the relentless fighter. Chad was taking quick swings at the young brunette, trying to buy time for Uryu to recover, but it was harder than it looked. The kid was fast, using his two blades expertly and matching the strength of the Mexican's blows almost effortlessly.
Uryu fired, quickly hitting the maximum number of arrows he could handle in one shot. Even subconsciously he knew not to underestimate the boy; he would be a tough opponent, maybe one they couldn't beat. The Quincy was proved right moments later when the brunette switched his grip on the larger blade, instead holding it like a bow by the cut out by the spine of the blade. He took the smaller blade and positioned it perpendicular to the larger one, hilt to spine and drew it back in a flash of light and reiatsu. When he released, the smaller blade didn't drop out of his hand like it should have, instead a volley of the brunette's own Heilig Pfeil shot out of a newly formed bow to counter every one of Uryu's. The fight continued like this, the brunette sometimes switching back to the dual blades to fight Chad's close range attacks.
On Renji and Orihime's end, things weren't looking much better. After the Hollow realized it couldn't keep up it exchanged shunpo for sonido, continuously trying to get around Renji for swipes at a vulnerable Orihime. The red head couldn't keep up with the Hollow's superior speed, staying close to the healer and doing his best to take the damage for her. Orihime was doing her best to heal him in the heat of battle, having gotten better at it after the Winter War, but while she was keeping the majority of his wounds from becoming fatal, there were just too many to keep up with and the red head was slowly accumulating more wounds.
Byakuya and Rukia had worked quickly once the two were drawn away from the orangette, shunpoing over so Rukia could viciously kick him awake. Ichigo had been really deep under, only groaning and rolling over due to the painful impact to his side. Byakuya winced indiscreetly, secretly glad he'd never been on the receiving end of one of those kicks; Rukia respected him far too much for that.
At the sound of their rousing king, the two beings abruptly froze, dodged the oncoming attacks from their respective opponents, and rushed towards the disoriented orangette with simultaneous cries of 'King!' and 'Ichigo!'. The two Shinigami by the subject of interest literally had to dive out of the way to avoid collision with the frantic beings rushing toward Ichigo. The whole group of Ichigo's friends watched completely flabbergasted at the obvious displays of affection the two entities were showing towards Ichigo, the inverted carbon copy cradling his orange topped head in its lap while the young brunette fussed over the bruise forming over his side from Rukia's vicious wake up call.
When Ichigo was finally conscious enough to see recognizable shapes in the colors around him, he further shocked those in attendance by asking, "Shiro, Tensa, what's going on here?"
"It's nothin', King," the now named Shiro soothed quietly, running a black nailed hand through Ichigo's soft, orange tresses.
"It's not nothing," Tensa huffed irritably. "Those that don't belong are getting involved in matters that don't concern them."
Ichigo frowned in slight confusion, 'Those that don't belong'? The wounded strawberry attempted to sit up, gasping at the unexpected fire that rushed through his side when he unintentionally stretched his injured side. Looking down at it he pulled his Shihakusho away slightly to look at the wounded area.
One eyebrow quirked up in question at the nasty, dark purple bruise that had formed along his side, well that was new. He ignored Shiro and Tensa's attempts to lay him back down as he turned only slightly bleary eyes towards the group of his friends. After a little bit of squinting to make something definable of the shapes in front of him, Ichigo's unfocused amber eyes widened marginally at the sight of his friends (plus Byakuya) staring on in shock at the scene before them. The two vicious, violent beings they had been fighting with everything they had just moment before were huddled protectively and concernedly around the orangette, the brunette, now named Tensa, trying to glare daggers through their hearts while the Hollow, Shiro, was discreetly healing the large and most likely painful bruise on his king's side.
Byakuya, always the most collected recovered from his shock the quickest to ask incredulously, "What's going on here? Who are these two?" There was no need to elaborate who 'these two' were, Shiro and Tensa being the only ones not acquainted with anyone who wasn't their orange headed king.
Ichigo snapped out of his own shocked daze soon after that, only stuttering slightly in his reply, "U-um, this is Shiro Zangetsu," he gestured to his white carbon copy, "he's my inner Hollow but also the larger blade on my Bankai." He then pointed to the brunette who was still glaring and continued with, "And this is Tensa Zangetsu, the manifestation of my Quincy side and the smaller blade on my Bankai."
He let that sink in during the next silent spell, fondly placing a short pat on Tensa's head and giving Shiro's bone white hand a reassuring squeeze. It only took a few minutes before the questions came flying forth, most from Renji and Rukia but a few well-placed ones from Uryu as well. After that uproar died down, Byakuya got back to the reason all them were even there in the first place, "Kurosaki, can you leave or are you trapped here?"
Ichigo looked mildly surprised by that question, moving his amber gaze between Shiro and Tensa a few times before he finally answered to question with another seemingly irrelevant one, "How did I even get here?"
All eyes turned toward Shiro when he sighed abruptly. "Ya can leave if ya wan'. There's nothin' keepin' ya 'ere though I wouldn' suggest it."
At Ichigo's confused scowl, Tensa elaborated, "You are capable of leaving, but you'd just be pulled back in once we start fighting again."
"Fighting? What were you guys fighting about?"
The both of them averted their eyes embarrassedly, not quite sure how to tell their king they'd been fighting over him. Thankfully, though maybe unfortunately, they didn't have to. Rukia spoke up before either Tensa or Shiro could. "They were fighting over you, something about which one of them deserved you more."
Ichigo raised an eyebrow in question at that, waiting for one or both of them to explain. Tensa was flushed just barely, clearly embarrassed at having his intentions explained so bluntly. Shiro opted to simply scowl at the ground and privately come up with revenge plans against the raven haired midget. None of them would actually be put into action (he was in here and she was out there after all) but coming up with them made him feel just slightly better.
"Now tha' ya know which part a yer power tha both of us represent, ya gotta pick who yer mainly gonna draw power from." Shiro's mumbled statement combined with his accent and the echoic properties of his voice made his words almost entirely intelligible, but Ichigo got it and Chad was able to make out the gist as well (being a good listener by nature).
The orangette scowled lightly, thinking about Shiro's words for a moment before asking, "Can't I just use both of you equally?"
Tensa and Shiro exchanged a look, "I guess that could work." Tensa's answer applied to both of them.
There was a moment of awkward silence where everyone was waiting to see if there was any more that needed to be said. After the moment passed Byakuya voiced a rather important question, "Now that that's settled, how do we get out of here?"
"Urahara-san didn't tell you?"
"No, he said you would know."
"Oh, well it's easy. Byakuya, Rukia, and Renji can focus on their inner worlds and should appear there. The rest of you come here."
Ichigo stood up and contradictory to his words went to stand by his human friends after the Shinigami had left. Wrapping them in his reiatsu Ichigo focused on leaving his inner world and expelling those trapped within his reiatsu. In an instant the seven were in their own bodies again, waking up to the familiar sight of the Urahara Shoten. At the sound of a fan snapping shut, Ichigo turned his attention to the shop keeper standing in front of three captains.
"Kurosaki-san, your mind is more messed up than I originally thought." The three captains behind the geta-boshi merely nodded in agreement.
Silver: This is so weird, I need more to say at the ends of these. Pansy refuses to be in my room for more than a few minutes at a time sooo... I'm alone. review, comment, point out inconsistencies, and maybe I can fix Pansy's heat intolerance (Not likely ;P)