King Fisher Madness

CHAPTER 1

The kingfisher sat eyeing Ichigo from across the small clearing in the woods. They had been fighting for an hour now, exchanging blows, each getting wounded by the other. Ichigo was breathing heavily, but the hollow seemed to be faring okay, three of its long tentacles lay scattered around where Ichigo had hacked them off with Zangetsu. Ichigo was bleeding from the temples and had various minor cuts and slashes all over his body.

He thought back on how he had gotten himself into this situation...

FLASHBACK

Ichigo was with his family, they were walking up the hill to visit his mother's grave, and Rukia met them at the top of the hill. Karin and Yuzu were in a good mood, chasing each other around in a good-natured way. Isshine walked a little farther behind, watching contentedly as his family seemed so happy in that moment.

"Come on Yuzu!" Karin yelled at her younger sibling as she ran off to find their mothers' grave marker. "I bet I can beat you!"

"Hey! No fair, you got a head start!" Yuzu began chasing after her sister in a failing attempt to catch up.

"Looks like they are in a good mood." Rukia spoke quietly to Ichigo as the walked side by side down the rows of stone. "Is there a reason?"

"Well, I think they're just happy to speak with Mom again, I am too." Ichigo replied, shading his eyes to watch Karin and Yuzu arranging some flowers in front of a certain stone. "Why are you here? Aren't you on duty?"

"Yes, well, I thought I would make a pit stop." Rukia looked at the ground. She felt good spending time with Ichigo.

They had arrived at the grave now, and everybody in the Kurosaki family was kneeling in prayer. Suddenly Rukia felt her soul pager buzz and moved off to take a look at things. It appeared that a powerful hollow was nearby. She didn't want to disturb anybody, so she quietly swallowed Choppy and rushed off. But not before Ichigo noticed and, swallowing his own mod soul pill, followed close behind, trying to hide his spirit pressure.

"Why did you follow me?" Rukia turned around in mid-jump after using shunpo to head farther into the forest after the hollow. Ichigo had showed up in his shinigami garb soon after she left. "I was gonna take care of this hollow and leave you to your family moment!"

"I thought I would join you." Was his only reply, before he shot forward again, having a faster shunpo than Rukia.

They arrived in a clearing and faced a massive hollow. Rukia gasped as if in recognition, before quickly explaining to Ichigo about the Kingfisher. Soon after she finished explaining, Ichigo recognized the hollow to be the one that killed his mother so many years ago.

END OF FLASHBACK

Ichigo wished he hadn't sent Rukia back to watch his family while he took his revenge on the hollow that killed his mother. He wished he hadn't almost used up all of his spiritual energy leaving almost no chance for anybody to track him down. But he knew that he couldn't let this hollow beat him, he wouldn't go down without a fight.

The hollow let out a roar, taunting Ichigo with the image of his mother, hanging in front of the hollow on the hollow's 'Lure'.

Ichigo lunged forward, slicing at the lure but connecting with nothing and being pushed away hard, hitting a tree with a sickening crack. He fell back to the ground, struggling now to hold himself up, he felt at least two broken ribs, as he coughed up blood. He spat at the Kingfisher and went at him once again, a new determination in his eyes as he pulled out his hollow mask. He let out a similar screech before slamming into the side of the hollow and letting out as large a getsuga Tenshou as he could muster before his mask cracked and fell away because of his lowered reaitsu. The hollow let out a blood curdling bellow as it crashed and toppled three nearby trees, it was wounded in the side from the getsuga, yet it still remained able to stand and continue fighting. Ichigo met its gaze evenly, knowing the next attack would be the last, when he heard a sickeningly familiar voice in his head.

"Hey, king, I know you's about ta lose! Why dontcha let me out ta finish im off for ya?" Ogichi's voice felt like cold syrup in the back of Ichigo's throat.

"No, I don't want your help, I can do this. He's just as wounded as me!" Ichigo yelled in a deathlike voice, threatening Ogichi to interfere with his fight to avenge his mother's death. "Just shut up and get the Hell out of my fight!"

"Alright, che, fine King, whatever you say... But I'll be back!" with that the ugly presence left Ichigo's head, leaving him with just enough concentration to muster his strength and hit the hollow with one last blow.

But the massive hollow was already charging at him, he didn't have enough time to block before he was nearly swallowed up in it's jaws. He jerked and struggled in an attempt to escape, but his mind was quickly becoming foggy with loss of blood and air. His struggles began to lose their vigor, and he slowly went limp as the hollow spit him onto the ground in disgust.

"You are a lucky one, shinigami." The hollow said, slowly lifting one of its claws above Ichigo. "I will show mercy because of your noble cause, and I will kill you swiftly before devouring your soul." But just as the claw pierced Ichigo's neck, it stopped, as if blocked by some other force and pulled away. Ichigo could hear someone talking that sounded a lot like Ulquiorra in the last few moments before consciousness left his body.

Ulquiorra looked down at the crumpled body of the shinigami, he had managed to stop the killing blow according to Aizen's orders, but it looked as though he had already died. Ulquiorra looked away before walking to the Kingfisher and opening a Garganta that they both stepped through and vanished.

Ichigo was in his inner world somehow. It was not crumbling as his foggy mind assured him it should be. He lay on his back; not bothering to get up, an intense pain permeated his entire body. Suddenly a familiar face came into his line of sight, and he focused enough to see that it was a curious Ogichi.

"Hey king, regret your decision to keep me hidden?"

"No."

"Oh, heh. Are ya okay?" The hollow form of Ichigo put a concerned look on his face.

"Huh? Oh, uh, not really. I hurt." Ichigo was surprised that Ogichi was worried about him, but he felt too horrible at the moment to question any form of care.

"Do ya need somethin'?" Ogichi sat down, looking at the tattered garments barely attached to Ichigo's wounded body. He began to stroke Ichigo's hair, before pulling the upper half of Ichigo's body onto his lap. He held him there for a moment, stroking his strawberry hair in a loving and caring way. Ichigo just looked up at the white face above him in a foggy incoherent manner. Ogichi's clothes became stained with blood from his counterparts' wounds.

"Your friends are lookin' for ya." Ogichi tried to explain to Ichigo, but the orange haired soul reaper had fallen into a shallow sleep like state, and didn't seem to be listening. He was thinking about this sudden and unexplained change in behavior of Ogichi. Why did he suddenly seem to care so much? Was he actually concerned for him? Or was this just a facade to make him relax and relinquish control? He slowly blinked his eyes open, realizing his hollow was still holding him in that awkward manner.

"Why?" Ichigo barely choked out, causing a small line of fresh blood to run from the scab on his neck.

Ogichi looked down at Ichigo. His black and gold eyes revealed nothing as he simply stated, "Lying on the floor won't heal your wound faster, and I gotta keep your body in top shape for when I take over."

Ichigo did not miss the lessening of Ogichi's accent, even though the warbles double voice sounded the same, it seemed to be hiding something within. Ichigo looked at the pale piece of his soul, before struggling to sit up and move away from him a little bit. He noticed the hollows previously spotless white shihakushô was now covered in dark red bloodstains.

"But why go this far? I was not so close to dying that- wait, but I was! My wound was so deep." Ichigo trailed off, noticing that his previously majorly deep wound from being bit by the hollow was not there. He was now only covered in minor wounds and bruises. When he looked back up at Ogichi he noticed the hollows lower than usual spirit pressure and shot him a questioning glance.

"I knew the wound was fatal, but how could I let ya die when ya had to avenge your mother an all, I didn't take control because, ya know," He tried to regain his usual act, but a sadness remained in his pained eyes. "Ya woulda been so mad! If I'da killed tha' hollow, che, ya're such a fool sometimes. Ya know?"

Ichigo was taken aback by the hollows sudden show of emotion; he sat transfixed, not knowing what to say. He was quickly snapped out of it, though, when Ogichi stood up and began to walk away.

"Ya know your friends just found your body. Che, I wouldn't be surprised if they thought ya were dead!" Ichigo stood up surprisingly fast considering the wounds he carried and his still major lack of blood. "See ya later then, King." Ogichi only half turned as he saw Ichigo fade into nothing.

"Is he still alive?" The worried voices of all of his friends were what he heard when he woke up in the arms of a certain Kisuke Urahara.

"Of course he's still alive! See, he's comin' around now!" the laid back voice returned as they walked through a sodden forest. It must have started to rain.

"Ichigo?"

"Kurosaki?"

"Kurosaki-kun?"

Ichigo blinked the rain out of his eyes as he tried to move around to see the faces of Rukia, Ishida, Orihime, and the silent Chad. "H-hey guys." His voice scratched at his wounded throat, and he felt a little bit of blood run down his neck. "How did… you f-find me?"

"Woa, now don't go talking so much! Your pretty badly wounded right now, one of your arms is pretty badly wounded." Kisuke spoke condescendingly to Ichigo as he hefted him a little higher into the bridal hold as they reached the edge of the forest. "We sent Kon home with your family. Your lucky that Rukia stayed behind when your family left or we never would have been able to find you so soon!"

"How, how long have I been-" Ichigo broke off into a long and very painful coughing spasm, spitting up mucus and large chunks of blood. He felt woozy and had a sudden intense headache. "Ohhh…"

"Are you O.K. little man? That was quite a coughing fit!" Kisuke looked at Ichigo curiously.

"Yeah, hey, can you let me stand? I want to walk some." Ichigo wobbled a little as Urahara gently stood him up. They took a few steps before Ichigo suddenly stopped and stared straight ahead before falling over, he wasn't breathing.

Thanks for reading! This is my second fanfic ever! Please review, I won't put out the next chapter until I get at least 5 reviews, so keep em comin'!