Chapter 1: Prologue
"Hello" – Normal Speaking
'Hello' – Normal Talking
"Hello" – Demonic/Zanpakutō Speaking
'Hello' – Demonic/Zanpakutō/Quincy Zangetsu Thinking
"Hello" – Quincy Zangetsu Speaking
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Highschool DxD. They belong to their respective owners.
Outside Karakura Town, Soul Society
Ichigo looked silently upon the sealed form of Aizen. As he closed his eyes with a weary sigh, he thought, 'It's over.'
-CRACK-
Ichigo quickly looked up with a look that was thinking of the worst possible thing. As he gazed upon the Aizen's sealed form, he noticed the crack that was giving off a bright glow that seemed full of power.
All of a sudden, a chunk of the deal broke off and out came a small purple orb that flew right towards him. In an instant it traveled from Aiden and stopped right in front of Ichigo's chest. Ichigo looked upon the orb that started this whole mess of a war, all while wondering what the thing was doing.
Hearing foot step walking toward him, he saw Kisuke Urahara walk up to his left and looked calculatedly upon the Hōgyoku.
"What do you think it's doing Urahara?" asked Ichigo, turning his attention back toward the floating orb.
"I'm not quite sure, Ichigo, it seems to want something," answered Kisuke inquisitively.
"What could it possibly want from me?" Ichigo shot back.
"Maybe because you defeated Aizen, it's former master, it now sees you as it's master."
"You make it sound like it's a sentient thing, one that serves others." Ichigo exclaimed with surprise.
"That is a distinct possibility Ichigo, the Hōgyoku has continually changed since it's creation, it would be possible that after so many changes into itself and also being involved in changes of others, such as the Visored and Arrancar, it could have at least formed a thought process, albeit a simple one ," explained the scientist.
"Well why is it just floating there and not doings anything?" asked Ichigo, with his trademark scowl.
"Of that I'm not sure, for now I will just take it and…" started Kisuke as he pulled out a small wooden box from his pocket, when he noticed the orbs glow begin to intensify.
As it kept growing in intensity, Ichigo began to feel a surge of reiryoku that grew in parallel with the intensity of the orb's light. As the light reached nearly blinding levels, the two soul dealers were forced to shut their eyes. As they did so they could hear the sounds of crack forming, coming from the Hōgyoku itself. The light then quickly dimmed out and the two could now see what was once a clean orb, has become a floating mass of finely crushed powder.
Before either could speak, the powder blew toward Ichigo chest, where upon contact, the dust seemed to disintegrate. As it was doing so, Ichigo could fell his power grow exponentially, when he then realized what had happened, he was now back to where he was after he finished obtaining the Saigo no Getsuga Tenshō.
Kisuke has watched all of this in the couple of minutes that this occurred. When the Hōgyoku free in light, he instantly noticed the sudden power increase that kept growing in Ichigo. He became shocked when he heard the cracking sounds that came from the glowing orb as he thought that the thing was indestructible. He was further surprised by the powdered mass that took the place of the Hōgyoku. Finally after the dust seemed to vanish into Ichigo he realized that he could not sense any bit of Ichigo's reiryoku, meaning only one thing, Ichigo has returned to his transcended state.
Ichigo looked down upon he hands, as if he was physically holding the power in his grasp. He felt elation as he realized that he was not losing any of his power after using the Saigo no Getsuga Tenshō.
Quickly looking to Urahara, Ichigo asked, "What the he'll just happened Urahara? I thought that after using Mugetsu, I was supposed to lose most of my power as the rest slowly disappeared over a short period of time."
Kisuke stared at Ichigo for a minute before answering, "It seems Ichigo, that as it's new master, he granted you your desire to keep your powers. It did so by being you back to your transcended power at the cost of it being destroyed."
Ichigo's thoughts chewed upon that but of information for several moments. Kisuke just confirmed what he thought; he had all of his power back.
As Ichigo was given a sign of relief as he smiled, "That's great news for me then I was already prepared to…" Ichigo stopped as he started to feel a slight pain in the back of his head.
"Prepared for what?" asked Kisuke as he turned to face the young man. "You okay Ichigo?" he continues, noticing the pained look on Ichigo's face.
"…Huh, oh, uh yeah, I'm fine, just a headache. Anyway, I was saying that I was prepared to accept that I was losing my Shinigami powers." Ichigo stated as the pain seemed to subside.
"If you're sure, and yes, I'm sure you were if you were willing to use that ability, knowing that it would be the catalyst of you slowly losing your powers," replied a doubtful Kisuke.
"I'm sure, Urahara. Can we go now, I want to go see every –ARGH!" Ichigo suddenly yelled out in agony as he fell down to his knees clutching his head tightly. Kisuke quickly got down beside him, "Ichigo, what is it? What's wrong?"
His question worry went unheard as Ichigo couldn't focus on anything except the pain he was feeling. It soon became too unbearable and falls to the ground, lying flat on front. As he loses consciousness, hears a dark voice, "Hey Kingy, we need to have a good talk." and Ichigo saw black.
Ichigo's Mindscape
Ichigo was lying flat down on his front, when he suddenly jerked awake. He took a few moments before he finally stood up and decided to look at his surroundings. He soon quickly realized where he was, yet… it was different.
The sideways skyscrapers were still all the same. What was different was the purple hue the sky had taken. As he walked over to side of the building and looked down, he noticed that there was a strange look to it. It seemed distorted. Everything was twisted around in multiple places.
"Hey Kingy," Called a familiar dark layered voice from behind.
Ichigo quickly turned around to face his dreaded hollowed look alike that was touching down onto the building. Ichigo easily noticed the changes that the hollow had gone through. He remembered that he was still in his Bankai state, so that out the hollow in the demonic-like form of a full hollow. What did change was the fact that the hollow had two very large draconic wings sprouting from his back. The other thing was that instead of black line that covered the body, they had become a mixture of dark purple and red.
Ignoring the changes for the moment he decided to speak with his inner hollow.
"What do you want Hollow?" Ichigo called out as his face formed into a scowl.
The hollow looks at Ichigo for a minute before he changed back into his normal state, which means his Zanpakutō reverted back to it's Shikai state. "What's wrong King, can't drop by and say hello to your Horse?" questioned the hollow sarcastically with a big grin.
Ichigo scowl deepened l, "Cut the crap, what the hell do you want? And where is the Old Man at?"
The Hollow continued to give a smirk, "Can't you take a joke. And the Old Man may show up soon, but that ain't a guarantee." His tone then turned more serious, "But we really need to talk."
Ichigo noticed the serious undertone and warily spoke, "About what exactly?"
"I'm sure you've noticed the changes in here as soon as you came. The sky has some purple and the twisted reflection that is below." Ichigo nodded. "I'm sure you can guess that the orb is responsible for the purple in this place. The reflection on the other hand we'll discuss later." The hollow started.
"Do you know what the Hōgyoku did to me exactly? Responded Ichigo peeking up at finding more about what happened.
"Well, what that shopkeeper said so far was accurate. What he doesn't know however, is that the Hōgyoku didn't destroy itself to return you power, instead it literally infused itself all throughout your soul. It's now a part of you as much as I am a part of you." He answered.
"Is that a good thing?" asked Ichigo wanting to know what all this could mean for his abilities.
"In a way it could be as you will forever be in your transcended state. So much so that even in you Shikai form is above the comprehension of most of Soul Society. Only that Head Captain would be able to get any sense of your reiryoku. Your stamina has also increased tenfold, meaning that you can last longer and are much faster in battle. However with the Hōgyoku now being a part of you it will lead to some complications and problems."
"What?" Ichigo asked with a deep feeling of dread at the pit of his stomach.
"Well for one, you won't be able to go back into your human body or even one of those gigai that that scientist makes. With the amount of spiritual pressure you have, it would break apart your body or a gigai. Besides, with such high spiritual pressure, if you came across any normal human, you would possibly knock them out if they come into contact with you. Long periods of exposure could maybe even kill them, and that's all only in you shikai state. Bankai will kill many on just on contact. Only those with spiritual pressure of a seated officer in Soul Society can avoid that fate."
Ichigo looked at his counterpart with shock and dismay, "You mean that… I won't be able to go back an continue living a somewhat normal human life with my friends and family?" The Hollow nodded. "Then what am I supposed to do then, live in Soul Society?"
Hollow looked at Ichigo with an incredulous look. "That is would be a good option, if it wasn't for other things that occurred because of this."
"Like what?" Ichigo asked as the feeling of dread went up.
"Well for one, when the Hōgyoku infused into your soul, it changed things within it as well, specifically, with me."
"What do you mean?"
"You did see the changes when you first got here. It gave me more power. This actually leads me to tell you something. The truth is Ichigo; the Old Man wasn't your Zanpakutō… I was." He said with a maniacal grin plastered on his face.
Ichigo became shocked at that, but a moment later looked at the Hollow and yelled with anger. "What do you mean he wasn't my Zanpakutō, of course he was, he was the one who trained me all of those years, so you can't be my Zanpakutō! You would always try to take control of my body and threaten to hurt those that I cared for. How can you possibly be my Zanpakutō spirit!?"
Hollow's grin never faltered, "I am your Zanpakutō. If you want proof, why don't you ask the Old Man yourself?" And Hollow's finger pointed to something behind him.
Ichigo quickly turned around and saw the Old Man standing next to a flagpole on the side of the building. However, his attire was different. Instead of the dark cloak and clothing, it seemed to do a 180 and was now mostly white, and looked a lot like the Quincy outfit that Uryu wears. The only difference from that were the purple that were spread throughout the clothing, but he still did have his yellow tinted sunglasses.
"Hello Ichigo." He greeted
"Old Man, what is Hollow talking about?" Ichigo quickly asked.
"What he said is true, I am not your real Zanpakutō, he is your real Zangetsu." The spirit announced slowly and carefully.
Ichigo took a minute to absorb what he said. After doing so he started with only a couple of the many questions that were buzzing around in his head. "Then why have you been the one that claimed to be my Zanpakutō spirit? And if you aren't the representation of that, what do you represent?"
The Old Man took a moment to think before responding, "I represent your dormant Quincy Powers. I claimed to be Zangetsu, because I thought that in doing so, it would be the best way of protecting. I was actually hoping you would never discover your abilities at all so that you wouldn't put yourself and dangerous situations. However, once you met that Shinigami, Rukia, I knew that there would be no turning back once you became a Shinigami yourself." This only led to more questions.
Ichigo thought, 'Dormant Quincy powers?' "What the hell do you mean by dormant Quincy powers?" Ichigo asked, confusion written on his face.
"This really should be something that you should ask your father but we have other things that need to be discussed and I know you're too stubborn to hold off on knowing about this. As you've come to recently learn, your father is a Shinigami, correct."
Ichigo nodded, "Yeah, but what does that have to do with that"
"Well your mother had to have met your father somehow in the first place, which would have only been possible if your mother had been aware of the spiritual world herself. This can only mean that either she was someone like you group of friends, or she was Quincy. As I am here, I would go with the latter option. Anyway, for whatever reason your parents fell in love and got married and had you. Ever since you were born, both your Zanpakutō spirit and I have been with you. That is as much as I could tell you being limited by your memory and by what I am. Your father would be able to tell you more about the backstory of how they met." The Old Man explained.
Ichigo absorbed the information. "Then why does Zangetsu have the appearance and abilities of a hollow?" He finally asked.
"Of that I am not sure. What I can tell you is that Zangetsu has been like that since you were born. It may have something to do with what happened before you were born. Again only your father would know." He returned.
Ichigo would have to make sure he had a talk with his father later. "So what else is there that we need to discuss then."
During the talk between the Old Man and Ichigo, Zangetsu had walked over to the Old Man and stood beside him. "Well first of all, we need to tell you exactly what the Hōgyoku did to you." Zangetsu responded.
The Old Man quickly jumped into the conversation, "Yes, that would be the best place to start. As you do know, the Hōgyoku did restore your power back to where it was after you learned the Saigo no Getsuga Tenshō. However it also changed other parts of your soul specifically your Quincy and Hollow powers. For your Quincy powers, if fully awakened them to where you are able to do thing that other Quincy are able to do. However, since your Shinigami powers are the most dominant, it did something different. Because you have such dense reiryoku, you are unable to properly form a how out of reishi, and also fire reishi bows at the same time. It simply is not possible for you as any attempt to do so will cause the arrow and/or the arrow to blow up in your face. So what happens instead is that if you will it too, your sword can temporarily change form into physical bow made of metal and then you can fire the reishi arrows as that will be the only thing that you have to pour reishi into. This gives you another form of long range attack, one that can pierce into it rather than cut. However the difference is that unlike other Quincy, it will not destroy them entirely and will have the same effect as it would with curing them with your Zanpakutō. You will have tit rain these new abilities just like any other ability you have learned thus far," explained the Old Man.
Ichigo carefully took all that in and nodded, "And what about my Hollow abilities?"
Zangetsu, deciding to come in at this point, "Well King, because both your Hollow and Shinigami powers are connected to me, the Hōgyoku saw for to make the physical you a combination of both, an arrancar."
Ichigo could not believe what he just heard, "An arrancar, how the he'll did it decide that instead of just keeping me a Visored."
"We are not completely sure, but it may have to do with the fact that Zangetsu has the personality and likeness of a Hollow. And since Arrancar are more Hollow than Shinigami, it made you one as well," explained his Quincy spirit.
"HA! Your becoming more like me! Isn't that just great Kingy." Exclaimed Zangetsu maniacally.
Ichigo looked at him with an angry scowl, "Shut up you bastard. I am not going to become more like you." Ichigo took a moment and went back to the discussion, "What exactly does this mean for me?"
"It means you will have the abilities of Arrancar, such as Cero, Sonído, opening a Garganta, and all the other good stuff they can do." Zangetsu said with a grin.
"I pretty much figured that, I meant about the hollow hole and the mask fragment that is on every Arrancar." Ichigo huffed out.
"Of that, we don't know. There is the possibility of both happening. I however have some doubts about the hollow hole. I say this because Zangetsu no longer has a hole at all, whether he is in his Shikai or Bankai states. For the mask fragment we'll just have to see if one suddenly appears while you're here."
"Is there anything else that I should know about my powers?" asked Ichigo. Knowing his luck there was always a good chance of this happening.
"No, everything else in regards to you Shinigami powers has stayed the same," stated the Quincy.
Ichigo took a sigh of relief at that. It was enough with the fact that he was now more Hollow-like and also had Quincy powers. "Well then, other my powers, what else is there to be of concern?" Ichigo asked.
"Yes. You will be undergoing physical changes to things like your hair and eyes. In fact you have begun to undergo them now as we speak," spoke the Quincy.
Ichigo took a second before he looked down into his reflection on the building window. His hair length stayed about the same, after the Dangai training, but instead of his usual orange hair, he now had several white and black streaks going through out it. His eyes remained the same for the most part, however, as he looked closer, there seemed to be a bit of yellow mixed in with the brown. He looked down a little towards his neck and noticed a couple of black lines poking up above his Shihakushō. Pulling his clothing off from his upper body, he could see the black tribal tattoos similar to the ones that were on Zangetsu in his fully hollowfied state. He glanced at his chest and made a sigh of relief as he didn't see any form of a hollow hole on it. After looking for any other changes and finding none, he put fixed his clothing back to where it should be.
"So why did my body have to go through there changes?" Asked Ichigo.
"It might have something to do with what you are exactly. You're not just a Hollow OR just a Shinigami, OR just Quincy. Instead you have become a naturally made hybrid of the three. So much so that they are each a part of your soul and each must be accepted in order to reach your full potential. It is quite possible that you are able to combine your abilities in various ways to make more stronger attacks," explained the Quincy.
Ichigo nodded, "So what do I do now then. If I'm unable to live in the Human world with my power being a danger to most of the people that I would come across, where would I live?
"I'm not sure. You will have to figure it out on your own time soon. It is about time for you to wake up Ichigo. When you do, I would recommend talking to the Sōtaichō to figure something out. Do try to avoid a confrontation with him as he is the biggest threat to you at the moment."
At Ichigo's nod he son faded away, back to the world of the living.
The two spirits stood the for several moments before Zangetsu spoke up, "Don't ya think we should of told him about that other thing."
The Quincy turned to him, "Ichigo already has enough to deal with. We can tell him about her the next time he comes here. For now we will drop this subject. We have other things to worry about. We will leave her be for now, she has her own thought to go through." And with a turn he vanished.
Zangetsu stood there alone in silence as a grin formed in his face, "Looks like things are going to be changing. Good luck partner, I'm sure you're going to need it.
End Chapter 1
So, what did you guys think. Good, bad, you tell me. Constructive criticism wanted and encouraged. Haters are insignificant to me and will be ignored. Follow and Favorite of you wish.
Now, I need some help, I need a name for Old Man. I can't keep calling him Old Man or Quincy Spirit. I would like something in Romaji and similar to Zangetsu, which means Slaying Moon. It would be amazing if someone can find a way to do Piercing Moon, in honor of the arrow that Quincy use for the attacks they use. It will be much appreciated.
As for the harem, I will not be saying who all will be in it. There is a total of 12 being in the harem: 4 are from Bleach and 8 from DxD. The 9nly ones that will be revealed are the three that you see in the story information area: Tier Harribel, Rias Gremory, and Akeno Himejima. The girls who will definitely not be in the harem are Rukia, Orihime, and Tatsuki. As for Issei, he will get a small harem of three girls from the DxD universe.
If you have any suggestions of what should happen in this story, I would deeply appreciate it.
Hope to see you next chapter.
Death's Scorn out.