Chapter 1
"Why?"
Rukia asked Ichigo that simple question.
"Why?" she said. "You don't have to do this!"
Ichigo looked at her. "You won't understand! You will never be able to understand, no matter how many times I explain it to you!" he shouted.
She turned away. "Fine. Be that way. We don't care about you anyway!"
Ichigo jolted awake. His breath came in rapid gasps, his heart beating heavily.
It was only a dream, but he really knew that it wasn't. That really happened.
He slid out of his bed and went over to the mirror, his hand touching the right side of his face. Yes, the mask was still there. White with four red stripes. His arrancar mask.
Ichigo had become an espada to protect his friends. He wanted to protect them from him. He knew that his power could get out of control, and that sometimes hurt them. That was over one year ago, and now that Ichigo was an espada, his power was now under control.
In fact, Ichigo was the strongest of all the espada. He didn't have a number like the others. On the back of his neck was an X. That symbolized that he was too strong to have a number, making him the strongest espada.
Ichigo looked over his appearance. His whole look changed ever since he became an espada. His hakama looked like his bankai's but it was now white and edged with black, and his zanpakuto also looked like his bankai's, and it was still black. Plus he had his arrancar mask and X rank. Ichigo also had a hollow hole, which was located on the right side of his chest, hidden under his clothes.
A knock on his door made Ichigo jump. "Come in." he said.
The door opened, revealing a tall, muscular man with spiky blue hair. His arrancar mask was on his right jaw and his hollow hole in his abdomen. It was Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, espada number 6.
"What do you want, Grimmjow?" Ichigo asked.
The bluenet shrugged. "Just wanted to make sure that you were up. Didn't want Aizen to get mad at you for being late."
Ichigo rolled his eyes. "I could smack him across the face and he wouldn't care." He huffed. "That guy never gets mad at me."
Grimmjow stood up straight. "Still, you should be doing your duties."
Ichigo sighed. "Fine. Let's go."
The two espada walked down the long white hallway.
"What are we doing today?" Ichigo asked Grimmjow.
The bluenet didn't reply right away, and Ichigo knew why.
"We have to be with him today, don't we?" Ichigo asked.
Grimmjow nodded, and Ichigo groaned.
The two came to the large meeting hall. Several other espada were already inside, but one of them stood out. He noticed Ichigo and Grimmjow as soon as they entered.
"Oi! Ichigo!" he yelled and jumped over to them.
Ichigo narrowed his eyes. "Kyo." He said.
Kyo used to be the hollow that was inside Ichigo. When Ichigo became an arrancar, he was separated from his insane half. Everyone started calling him Kyo, and the albino didn't really care.
The former hollow looked exactly like Ichigo except for the white skin and hair and weird gold on black eyes. The thing that made Kyo different was that he didn't have an arrancar mask or hollow hole, which didn't make much sense. His rank was -1, and it was on his back.
Kyo smiled wickedly, showing off his pure white teeth. "We're goin' to the real world today." He said with the odd almost watery voice he had. "Aizen wants us to capture a hollow that's been wanderin' around. And guess where it is?"
"Where?" Ichigo asked, not really caring.
"Karakura Town." Kyo replied.
Ichigo almost flinched. Did he hear right? Did Kyo really say Karakura Town? Ichigo hadn't been in his hometown ever since he left a year ago. Why was Aizen sending them there now? Was he testing Ichigo?
That bastard! Didn't he trust him by now?
"Okay." Ichigo said. "Then we should get a move on."
Snapping his fingers, the garganta appeared before the trio and they stepped through.