It was summer until nine. It was winter from fifteen. We wait. We serve.
"Shiro-Zangetsu"
"Zangetsu-Ossan."
"Zanpakuto."
This is from the Reset Then Restart AU but it can be read without reading it, this is Shiro's perspective of the events that happened. This one is far less depressing than the one about Byakuya. I am going to tell it in two parts, the first is from cannon events (Up until the fight with Aizen above Karakura town.). The second is the RTR extended winter war.
He was sleepy still, brief flickers of light from his attempts to wake up. What had he been doing last? Quincy... Shinigami? Small child. His thoughts drifted from one thing to the next. He knew not how long had he been laying here since regaining awareness, just thinking. Day, Months, perhaps years.
It didn't matter though as he was comfortable. In his stillness he noticed he was growing, clothes changing to fit his size. Warmth hit him from above in a comfortable way, like a mother's embrace. The heat warming up whatever rested on the left side of his head. He continued his rest on a hard surface.
The small being woke up some more.
What was his name? White the man had called him. But that didn't feel right, that man had no right to give him his name.
"Zangetsu."
That was right.
A shadow fell across him. So he opened his eyes. There stood a tall figure in a black cloak, constantly moving even without any wind to move it in the first place, his brown hair did the same. Yellow sunglasses protected the mans eyes from the bright sun.
"W...Who you?" The speech was clumsy in his mouth. Had he ever spoken before? He tried to stand up from his position only to crumple back down. His legs unused to holding a person, his body unused to standing. His balance was of. Too short?
The cloak man chuckled then spoke,"I am Yhwach, it seems like you are having some trouble there. Some assistance maybe?" Yhwach held out his hand tightly to help him stand, Zangetsu accepted. He got back on his feet slowly and would have fallen over many times if not for the old man.
"Y.. Yh..a..ch.. Ah it's too hard! Your Ossan 'cause ya' look old!"
He was like a child, at the moment his body weak. He could feel his own power and mind still sleeping. For now he was a child.
"If you say so. How about you look around this world, it is our home after all."
"This worl' is ours?"
"No but it is where we live."
"Then who's is i'?"
"Kurosaki Ichigo's and we are part of him. We go where he goes and he is what we fight for."
"Then 'e is King."
"You could put it like that. Now come on."
They spent hours and hours walking around the world. It only had a few buildings but Zangetsu wanted to have every detail in his mind. His favourite building was not the prettiest but it was still the best. It was what he dubbed the building of memories. Their Zangetsu could see everything King had done when he wasn't actively watching.
Even if his King did not know of his existence he was still the most important. The next on the list was Yuzu, Karin and their mom. (For even hollows and zanpakuto's could have family). If he was a part of King then they were his family to.
Zangetsu loved being outside. There was flowers of all colours and trees everywhere the buildings were not, the sky was always cloudless and the sun always shone brightly.
Not a year had passed when the most frightening thing that he had witness with his less than a year of awareness life happened. He sat in the inner worlds version of Kurosaki Clinic when all of a sudden the world became ice cold and the sun went dark. Outside was pitch black and then it started to rain. If it could even be called rain it was more like a constant stream of water blanketing the world. Then it got worse. The rain turned to hail and the entire world trembled. Everytime it did the small world creaked as if it would break.
"Ossan!" He practically jumped into the mans lap and cried and screamed every time the world shook because even if it did not touch him inside of the building the ice hurt and it was cold. All he wanted was for it to end.
"Shhh... It will be over soon Zangetsu."
He heard but did not listen. All he did was cling onto the long cloak and waited for the eternity of dark and cold and ice to end.
Eventually the world stopped shaking and the hail returned to being rain and fierce wind. The sun did not return.
When he had climbed his way out of the building the gravity was sideways and the life was gone. Pushing through the rain he made it to the building of memories and began to look through the latest memories to try to find out what had happened. He certainly found it. She was dead. Their beautiful mother that smiled like the sun was dead, killed by a hollow. A monster just like him.
He cried alone in that room because he hadn't even thought to bring the old man with him considering that he had told Zangetsu to stay in the Clinic building until this ended. He still cried because her death hurt and that hollow would die.
A few days later a boy with bright orange hair appeared in the world. Zangetsu was scared, what would King think of him? He was a monster after all. So he hid in the old man cloak and gripped his hand as tightly as he could.
"Zangetsu you can come out, he will not do anything to you."
"Who are you? And who are you talking to?"
He peaked out from the fold of black cloth just a little bit to answer him,"Hi. I'm Zangetsu." He gave a small smile to the orange haired boy.
"Sorry I can't hear your name. Can I call you Shiro?"
"Tha' is fine." Then hid back into the cloak once more.
"Shiro are you shy?"
"NO!" Zangetsu could feel the blush that was present on his face burning. He was not shy! Absolutely not!
"Ok..." The boys small happiness then deflated again and he gazed at the floor. He looked far to dead for Zangetsu's liking.
"It was'n' ya fault ya know."
"But I!"
"No. Don' wanna hear it. Stop blamin' ya self or i'm gonna throw ya of the building." Being an arse seemed to work as the rain slowed down a great degree. What Zangetsu hadn't expected was the sudden hug attack as his king knocked him onto the ground.
"Thank you." The sound was muffled from Ichigo having his face in his chest but he understood him.
"Anythin' ta get rid of te rain king."
Ichigo quickly fell asleep laying half on top of hollow zanpakuto. Zangetsu found that he didn't really mind it. It did get rid of the rain after all. Even if it was just a little bit some sunlight passed through the clouds.
The rest of the time in Ichigo's inner world passed without any visits but that was fine as it meant that Ichigo was well.
BUT IT WAS SO DULL IN HERE!
As Ichigo grew older skyscrapers started to appear within the inner world that now always had clouds and was never as warm as it used to be. The plants were forever gone and and all the buildings were so plain!
An eleven year old Zangetsu could be seen rolling about on one of the buildings sides.
"Ossan I'M BORED!"
"..."
"Ossan."
"..."
"BORED!"
"..."
"Sunglasses?"
"..."
"Flagpole?"
"Hn..."
"Was tha' a sound I jus' heard?"
"..."
"Oh fa fuck sake!" He continued to roll about on the side of the skyscraper then bumped right into the pole Ossan was always stood on. "Gimme!" He jumped up kicked ossan in the chest and stole the pole.
He ran.
"HN..."
"Tha' is a rather loud hn I jus' heard!" Zangetsu cackled.
"HNNNNNNNNNNN..."
At the ridiculous sound Zangetsu looked over at Yhwach and promptly ran of the side of the building dropping the pole in the process.
A happy "Hn..." this time.
"Fuck ya to!" There was a thud that was Zangetsu eventually hitting a skyscraper. "Hnnn... tha' hurt! Oooh wha' is this? Oi Ossan I know ya miserable bu' I jus' found chocolate cake in one of te buildings! Furniture Ossan! Finally somethin' else ta look a'!"
"What was that?"
"Cake!"
That day Zangetsu learned that old man yhwach loved chocolate cake.
One day a burst of forern reiatsu made itself known in their world.
"Te fuck?"
"Zangetsu remember that conversation we had? About Ichigo and shinigami."
"Yea...?"
"Well hide. Go look at what Ichigo is doing or something."
"I see. I' is time now then?"
"Yes."
"Very well." For now Yhwach was Zangetsu and he was nobody, he was just the hollow.
The hollow waited a month and then some more unable to tell what was going on outside. Other than that one time with Shrieker, he could smell the taint of hell on that hollow. He had peaked out of his space to look and listened to what was being said. Then he had mentioned how he had promised the young boy his mother.
He was pissed.
Reaching out for some control the inner hollow punched through its mask and pulled out its tongue.
Then Ossan shoved him back into his black box.
But she had noticed. She was now curious.
Light appeared in one of the corners of his black box, there was a women with hair and eyes that seemed to be made of ice.
"And who might you be?"
"Who am I? Who are ya? Ya don' belong 'ere."
A smile,"Well your supposed human took me from my master but as this is not my soul I guess I should tell you. I am Sode No Shirayuki."
"Wish I coul' give ya a name back bu' for now I don' 'ave one."
"No need for a hollow to have a name though is there."
"Ya an interestin' one. I like ya. Fine I guess you coul' stay in this worl' for now. Not like I don' like ta snow ya brought."
And then there were three members of that soul.
Screaming, then the snow melted and she disappeared.
The hollow and the old man hid in the very depths of the soul.
"Hollow? Is something bothering you?"
"Nope. Nothin' at all. Look after 'im for me will ya?"
"Always."
Because even is his King hated him with all of his being the hollow would still fight for him. Even when the very air around him wished his presence gone. He would stay. After all his king was still breathing so the hollow would protect him.
No matter how much it hurt to exist.
The Kuchiki would have killed Ichigo, so the hollow took over. He fought and fought until the Kuchiki was no longer such a threat. He fought to stay in control and to protect this body.
The hollow screamed and howled at the pain of being rejected and thrown away.
But it was fine, until he had to become Zangetsu once more he could endure.
The hollow didn't blame the vizards for how they thought, they had lost everything to their hollows. So Ichigo pushed him down and took his power.
But not all. Because the hollow was a bit more than just that.
So once again he waited in the darkness. He was very good at waiting.
Ichigo was dead. Not just body dead. He was dead. His very soul had been killed. Shot through the chest with a cero dead.
He hated Ulquiorra.
The hollow have all of his power to King. Every last drop of it. Of the hollow, not the zanpakuto. He gave everything but sanity. No one was in the drivers seat.
What controlled the soul was instinct.
Ulquiorra would die because he could never topple a King. He was not good enough.
Then he was tired. He went to sleep. The hollow trusted his King.