Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this story, and I have only read volumes 1-14 of Bleach, so I know only a decent amount of Bleach knowledge. I'm no expert or anything.
Ichigo huffed and puffed, leaning on Zangetsu as he put one hand on his stomach. He looked down and saw blood… Well, what else would be expected? Ichigo picked up Zangetsu and swing him over his shoulder, and with a flying leap Ichigo flew up in the air, rising, rising, until he suddenly reached the apex of his flight and he started to descend. The Hollow below him, a very vile Hollow to say the least, snarled up at Ichigo and leaped into the air to join him. As the Hollow rushed up, Ichigo went down, gaining speed, until suddenly the two collided and came crashing to the ground. A fine shroud of dust kicked up, concealing the two.
"Ichigo! Ichi-" she coughed as the dust started to reach her lungs. "Ichigo, are you alright!" she yelled, worried.
As the dust settled, Rukia saw Ichigo, standing on top of the Hollow who had Zangetsu embedded in it's face.
As Ichigo pulled his Zanpakuto out of the Hollow, he replied,"Yeah, yeah, of course I am. What do you take me for, an amatuer? This order was easy."
Rukia rolled her eyes and started to walk back towards school,"Come one Ichigo, I doubt that Kon can stand much more of being in your body." she said as she walked away.
"Oh crap, I completely forgot about that! Man, that creep better not have done anything again!" Ichigo said, rushing to get back to school.
When Ichigo got to school, he jumped up the school wall to the window ledge of the class that he, or Kon, should be in right now. When he landed on the ledge and looked inside, he saw a surprising sight. There was Kon, sitting there obediently. "What a relief." Ichigo whispered to himself. Yet then he took a closer look at Kon to find him drooling, "Gross," Ichigo said, then he realized the reason why. Kon was freakin eyeballing Orihime again!
"That Kon! I swear, when I get my hands on him…" Ichigo whispered. Ichigo crossed through the window, seeing how he was still in Soul Reaper form, and tapped lightly on Kon's shoulder, to not distract the class. When Kon looked up he jumped in surprise, seeing how Ichigo was glaring at him in frustration.
"Oh, Ichigo," Kon whispered, as not to draw attention,"I...I, ah, didn't see you there. Heh, heh, heh…" Kon said, his laugh trailing off as Ichigo glared harder at himself.
"Kon, get. Out. Of. My. Body." Ichigo said, with frustration in each word.
"Fine, I wanted to get out of your stupid, icky body anyways." Kon said with his arms crossed.
Then, by knocking the back of his head, Kon knocked out the Soul Pill, caught it just in time before his soul left Ichigo's body, and Ichigo's spiritual form moved in. Ichigo stretched a bit, well, as much as he could in a chair, then he put Kon in his pocket. "Heh, enjoy Kon." he said mischieviously. As the lunch bell rang Ichigo walked off to his usual spot with Mizuiro and Keigo. When suddenly Uryu approaches him, weird, they almost never talk to each other, let alone approach each other.
"Ichigo, as much as I'm sorry to say this, but, I sense a strong spiritual presence somewhere in the east. I'm afraid it's a Hollow and, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm afraid I'll need your help."
Ichigo chuckled in disbelief,"Me, you're really asking for help from me?"
"Ichigo, this pressure, it's not like other Hollows," Uryu said,"I'm afraid that even I won't be able to take it on alone."
Ichigo shook his head, however he said at the same time,"Alright, whatever. But keep in mind that I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing it for those innocent people whose souls are in danger." Ichigo said, pulling out Kon.
As Uryu began running away towards the Hollow, Ichigo popped Kon in his mouth and ran off, the sound of Kon's angry remarks at him fading away. As Ichigo rushed after Uryu, he couldn't help but wonder what could cause such a commotion. After all, they hated each other, Ichigo and Uryu. So, if Uryu had to get Ichigo just to handle a Hollow, it must be pretty serious. Hmm… what if another Menos Grande has appeared? No, that would take tons of Hollows to make… unless, Uryu released another Hollow bait. No, she learned her lesson from last time.
Finally, Ichigo and Uryu arrived on the scene. Right next to Kisuke's shop, there was a Hollow of enormous proportions, nearly two times the size of the shop. Ichigo's knees bent a little from the weight of the spirit pressure emitting from the gigantic Hollow. It's face was crude, like a hockey mask but with Indian face painting, kind of. As for it's body, it looked like a giant hunchbacked, well, giant, with claws almost as big as Ichigo was tall! As they approached the Hollow, Uryu pulled Ichigo aside.
"What's the problem, why aren't we attacking that thing." Ichigo whispered angrily.
"Ichigo, it appears that the Hollow hasn't sensed us yet." Uryu whispered. "Now, if we can just form a plan, with our strengths combined, strategy, and the art of surprise then we may just have a chance at beating this guy." Uryu said.
"Okay, I have a plan." Ichigo said, pulling out Zangetsu."We just smash the Hollow's face in!" Ichigo shouted, rushing at the Hollow.
The Hollow turned to face him, and with a growl, swung one of his giant clawed arms down at him. Without a second to spare, Ichigo moved to the side, just narrowly dodging the Hollow's arm. Then, with a giant crash, the Hollow's arm collided with the ground, embedding its arm in the concrete. Suddenly, Ichigo hopped on the Hollow's arm, rushed up to the Hollow's face, and with a giant leap Ichigo flew up in the air… and got smashed to the ground by the Hollow's other, arm. Ichigo coughed and got up, leaning on Zangetsu. He looked up from the little crater he was in and saw Uryu firing at the Hollow.
As Ichigo climbed out of the crater, he walked up to Uryu and said,"Can't let you have the fun."
"Well, looks like you already had some." Uryu replied, still firing arrows at the gigantic Hollow. "Now, try doing something useful and get the Hollow." Uryu said.
Ichigo was already back in the action, rushing at the Hollow again more determined than the last time. As the Hollow was distracted by Uryu, blocking his attacks as best as the Hollow could with one arm, Ichigo rushed at the Hollow with Zangetsu extended and sliced through the Hollow's exposed side. The Hollow shrieked in agony, however, besides that, the Hollow only seemed to get angrier.
Uryu grimaced and gave a little growl.
"Great job Ichigo, you just succeeded in making the Hollow angrier. Now he's just stronger than before!" Uryu exclaimed.
Again, Ichigo ignored him and rushed at the Hollow again. This time, however, the Hollow was ready, for this Hollow was not only strong physically, but mentally too. So when Ichigo came at the Hollow, Zangetsu in hand, the Hollow hit him once again, yet this time he flew up in the air and crashed into the houses nearby the shop. However, as Ichigo got up he noticed the Hollow writhing in pain, and he noticed that Uryu had finally landed a successful hit on the Hollow.
Without a second to waste, Ichigo got up, rushed at the Hollow, and with a giant leap in the air, stabbed the Hollow in the face.
As Ichigo pulled Zangetsu from the Hollow, Uryu walked up to him and said,"Well, looks like you finally made yourself useful."
"Hey, well thanks for that, like, one successful hit you made. Yeah, real helpful you were." Ichigo replied, as he started walking back towards school.
Yet as he walked away he heard a terrible noise behind him, that of which sounded like claws on a chalkboard, or rubbing your fork on your dinner plate. Ichigo paused to hold his ears, then turned in the direction of this terrible noise, it was coming from the dead Hollow. Or, was it dead… for as the noise continued the giant Hollow split in half. Down the middle, a nice clean cut, and then it starting, morphing. No, not morphing, it started healing itself, building the other half of their bodies', until suddenly there were two Hollows.
These Hollows looked exactly the same as the previous one, the first, however there was one significant difference. These two Hollows came out a wee bit smaller than the first, roughly three-fourths the size of the original. As Uryu stared up at the creatures, he whispered,"Oh great." Ichigo started running at the two Hollows as Uryu started firing arrows at the beasts. When Ichigo reached the Hollows he took Zangetsu by the cloth attached to the handle, as he had seen that mysterious being do during their duel within his soul, and whispered,"Please Zangetsu, lend me your strength as we fight these Hollows." So with a giant leap into the air, Ichigo swung Zangetsu round and round, and with a big swing Zangetsu decapitated both Hollows, simple as that.
However, when Ichigo landed, the Hollows collapsed bodies simply grew new heads, and as the decapitated heads lay on the ground they started growing bodies too. These Hollows just kept on coming back, was there no stopping them? Yet all that didn't matter, Ichigo would just keep on fighting till the end! Suddenly, two arrows flew through the air and went through the face of two of the four Hollows.
Ichigo turned to see Uryu, who in turn faced him and shouted,"The Hollows are getting smaller making them easier for me to kill, however they just keep coming back!"
"Yeah," Ichigo replied,"I think we've noticed that by now. Any ideas on how to stop this, this, reviving thing?"
"Well, a thought, but merely an idea. So, maybe if we can kill all of them at once, and if we can dispose of the remains at once, then there is no way that the Hollow can 'revive.'" Uryu replied.
Ichigo nodded, and turned to face the six Hollows before them, for the two killed by Uryu had simply revived again, and for once a plan formed in Ichigo's head.
"Uryu!" Ichigo shouted. "Stay right where you are and don't shoot until I say so, got it!"
"Wait, what?!" Uryu shouted back.
"Just do as I say!" Ichigo replied, shouting.
Uryu did as told and stopped firing, summoning all the spirit energy around her for one big shot, meanwhile Ichigo rushed around the group of Hollows. The Hollows were confused, for Ichigo was running at great speeds, and they attempted to swipe at him but did not prevail in the end. Actually, the Hollows started forming together, almost as is Ichigo were, herding them… Suddenly the Hollows all formed a straight line directly in front of Uryu, and Uryu saw what Ichigo's plan was. So with all the spirit energy summoned as possible from around her, Uryu pulled back the string and let go an immense arrow.
The arrow tore through the necks of all the Hollows, decapitating them all, then Ichigo, whom was at the back of the line, leaped into the air, then slammed down Zangetsu on the ground, resulting in a shockwave strong enough to turn the remains of the Hollow to spiritual mince meat. Suddenly, the ground opened up and the earth swallowed the few remaining parts of the Hollow, it seemed that the Hollow had done some bad things in his lifetime. Ichigo, breathing heavily, picked up Zangetsu, whispered a quick little thank you, and started walking back to school. As he left, Ichigo glanced over at Uryu, nodded, and walked away, for he was to tired to argue or even speak.
True, it had been a small battle, but with all that spiritual pressure off his back he felt like curling up and taking a nice relaxing nap. When Ichigo arrived at school and got his body back, it was already about time to leave, guess that battle may have taken a little longer than he thought, or maybe it was the fact that he took a nap on the way back? Either way, Mizuiro was cool with however did ask a little bit about where he'd been, Keigo however was a different story.
When I walked up to him, he grabbed me by the shirt and shouted,"Where have you been man! Today has been so dark and dreary since you've been gone, I almost couldn't take it. But you're back, you're back! Everything is now within balance again in this crazy thing we call life" Keigo said.
"Yeah, I'm happy to see you too Keigo." Ichigo responded plainly.
"Where were you!" Keigo shouted, with fire in his eyes.
"Oh, just decided to go out for lunch today, however I guess I didn't check the time." Ichigo replied, yet again without emotion.
Their conversation played out until the bell rang, signalling the end of the school day, where Ichigo finally made his escape and went outside. With a sigh, of relief, Ichigo started walking the way home, normally he'd walk home with Mizuiro and Keigo, but today Ichigo felt like being by himself.
However, his plans were hindered as Orihime walked by him, books in hand, and asked,"Hey Ichigo, whatcha up to?"
Ichigo sighed, and responded,"Oh, you know, just walking home." he responded.
Orihime nodded, she was surprisingly silent during school today, and on the way home was no different.
So after about five minutes of silence, Ichigo faced her and asked,"Something wrong, you've been awfully quiet today."
Orihime sighed,"Well, it's just that… I'm concerned about you Ichigo."
Ichigo gave Orihime a confused look,"Why'd you be concerned about me?"
"Well, it's just that, you know how you're always out hunting Hollows all the time?"
"Yeah, of course."
"Well, the teachers are starting to get suspicious, and actually I overheard some of the teachers talking about you in the teacher's lounge. And, and...:" Orihime said, obviously struggling to find the correct words.
"And…" Ichigo asked, egging her on.
"And, if you're gone more than one more time during the school day, they're going to suspend you… like, for the rest of the year." Orihime said.
Ichigo stopped walking, I mean sure, this was school we were talking about, no big deal, but a good education is important, not to mention that there he can see his friend's every day. Plus, there were still a lot more day of school left, as in about one whole quarter, and though that might be good for the Soul Reaper part of him, what about the truly human side of him.
Ichigo just stood there and shook his head,If I go to answer an order then I'll get suspended, and if I don't answer the order, then innocent souls will die." Ichigo looked Orihime right in the eyes. "What do I do now?"
Orihime had tears in her eyes, wow, Ichigo didn't know that Orihime would care about him so deeply. "I don't know." she said, sniffling here and there every so often.
Ichigo felt like embracing her, or comforting her in some way, but he didn't want it to be awkward, besides Ichigo had never felt like doing that before so he already felt awkward so putting those feeling into action would just be weirder. However, Ichigo did walk Orihime home, waved goodbye at her from the driveway, and then went home to the clinic. Yet as he went to his room, Ichigo couldn't stop thinking about what he'd actually thought about earlier. When he was talking to Orihime, he had thought how their are two sides to him, the Soul Reaper part and the human part, and as he struggled to sleep that night, he wondered how he could satisfy both… Without his whole world tearing apart.