AN~ Below is a story of mine that i have been fiddling with for a few months now, i want to see what people think of my prologue opening before i post more of it so review and please enjoy! :)
Prologue
Ichigo sailed through the air like a bullet from a gun, his velocity only slowing slightly as his body ricocheted off of a couple buildings before coming to a sudden stop against a broken piece of wall. The world seemed to spin as Ichigo attempted to get up on one knee. His limbs shaking from exhaustion, Ichigo stabbed Zangetsu into the ground, and summoning his last dredges of strength, began to stagger to his feet. He wouldn't lose this fight; no…he COULDN'T lose this fight, not if he wanted to risk losing everything and everyone he cared about. Ichigo blinked his eyes to clear his vision; the cut above his right eye was bleeding and kept blurring his sight. As a shadow loomed over him Ichigo looked up into that dark face, meeting the glare from those eyes with his own.
"Is this seriously all that you can give me Ichigo Kurosaki? I must say for all your talk about having something to fight for and protecting those you love I'm terribly unimpressed. You are weak, and therefore don't deserve to live in my new world order!" Ichigo sneered up at his enemy with loathing "And for all your talk of being all powerful, having the power to cut off your opponents' energy doesn't make you powerful, it makes you the weakest of all actua…" His sentence was cut short and Ichigo choked and doubled over as a sudden gut wrenching punch hit him, knocking the air from his lungs. He painfully sucked in a breath or two as he stared at the ground, his vision once again blurring. "You would do well to remember that it is I who holds your life in my hands, I can end you quickly…or I may decide to see just how much pain I can cause before you pass away!" Another fierce hit, this time a kick, lifted Ichigo several feet off the ground before gravity pulled him back down. Ichigo coughed and tasted copper as the ground turned crimson beneath him. "Stay on the ground like the dog you are substitute soul reaper and accept your fate, if you beg for your life I may end you quickly. You have a few minutes to decide how you die." With that the figure retreated back a few steps and leaned back against the wall smiling down at his prey.
Ichigo continued to stare down at the ground; angry tears began to build up in the corner of his eyes. He blinked them away and watched their slow descent before splattering against the concrete; he had given it his all but he had been thwarted over and over. Ichigo had met the threat head on, but his opponent had the ability to negate spiritual power, before Ichigo could even finish saying and unleash Tensa Zangetsu and go into bankai, he had instantly felt weakened and the gathering of his spiritual energy had stopped. Fighting in Shikai had forced Ichigo to be on the defensive…and it was a losing defensive. A sudden thought struck him, and even though the very thought struck fear in him; Ichigo knew that losing everything was worse. With that in mind Ichigo delved into his inner world, and as he entered the twisted sideways world of buildings he began his search for the one being who could if at all possibly aid him.
Ichigo came to a sudden stop as he beheld who he was looking for. His hollow form wickedly grinned over at him as he sat upon a building spinning his own Zangetsu around. "I know why you're here Ichigo, and there's nothing you can do to get me to agree to help you!" Ichigo glared down at the one being he had secretly always feared, Hichigo was everything that he was not, pure instinct, the thrill for blood, and his inner animosity. "How would you not want to help me? If I die then you die as well you idiot!" Ichigo yelled at his counterpart. "Well the answer to that is simple, I'M prepared to die but are you?" Hichigo fired back without a second thought. "I-I…no…I'm not ready! And that's why I'm asking for your help." This statement only seemed to make Hichigo grin wider as the stare down continued.
"Why should I aid you Ichigo? Once those Visored idiots taught you to not only transform at will but to actually have some control over your hollow powers you took away all my fun! Watching you get your ass kicked is rather satisfying in a way; I would almost say it's karma for shutting me out" Hichigo looked at Ichigo almost as if he were daring him to make a retort. "Let's face facts here you orange haired prick, you loathe and fear me. I'm the one side of yourself that you have little to no control over, and you're just afraid that your inner hollow will wind up killing someone you love, is that about right?!" Ichigo felt his eyes widen as Hichigo's words echoed perfectly with what he knew to be true. "You know that's true…" This seemed to excite Hichigo and not necessarily in a good way, "Then why is it you have never come to truly face me?! We have a rocky truce at best where I agreed to work with Zangetsu and lend you some of my power, and yet even though you continually use your mask, you never once thanked me or worked at mastering what I have to offer you! Not that I need your thanks, if I truly wanted to I could fight my way back to the surface and have fun in the way I used to!" Ichigo felt a cold shiver run down his back at the thought as he pictured Hichigo taking over and doing what he deemed to be "fun".
"Then why in the HELL are you being such a hypocrite?! First you say you're ready to die but then go on to tell me all you want to do is to fight and have your way? I can stand here and argue with you all you want but the fact remains that without your help I'm going to die, and then so will you! For your entire tough act I think you're just as scared to die as I am" Ichigo felt his cheeks grow hot as his temper flared, if Hichigo wanted him to beg for his help, it sure wasn't going to happen. Suddenly Hichigo became serious and stood up staring eye to eye with him. "Well well well, looks like someone is finally ready to man up. Maybe you're right Ichigo, maybe I'm really not ready to die, but then the real question you need to ask yourself is just what are you willing to do, and how far are you willing to go to protect the ones you love?!" Hichigo looked deadly serious, as if Ichigo's answer would determine their future, Ichigo gulped as he realized that it really did determine the future. "Come on now Ichigo; it's a simple answer really, are you willing to put your trust into your animal instincts?" With that Hichigo held out his hand towards him, Ichigo knew that if he took his hand he would be making a deal with his inner devil and he couldn't take it back. As he reached forward to accept Hichigo's offer Ichigo said, "If I do this, then you promise not to lose control? Because the moment you try to hurt someone I WILL take back over and I will make sure you NEVER see the light of day again." Hichigo's maniacal grin returned as he replied, "I would like to see you try." With that their hands met and a blinding flash grew between them.
Ichigo's body twitched, the great figure against the wall noticed instantly a shift in Ichigo's spiritual power, and grinned. He had been hoping Ichigo would fight to the end; he wanted to utterly crush him! Strolling over to him he said, "Well it seems like you don't want a quick death after all, then so be it you worm, but nothing has changed because you are still pathetic and weak!" As he swung his sword down at Ichigo's bare neck he felt a sudden burst of spiritual power and Ichigo's hand snaked up and stopped his sword mid swing. "Now, whoever said I was Ichigo you fool." He raised an eyebrow as he heard Ichigo's voice start to warp, and gain an echo like quality. "Ha, so you think you have a chance just because you mustered up some spiritual power? Have you already forgotten that I can silence that?!" The Devourer focused on Ichigo and tapped into his power, planning on weakening him, when he heard a chuckle. "That tickles; do you really think I'm as simple minded and weak as Ichigo?" Ichigo's head rose up as the whites of his eyes were being edged in with black and his irises were turning gold. "Your eyes…thought that was only when you put that stupid hollow mask on?" Ichigo's face seemed to twist as a grin spread across his cheeks, "Bingo big guy, you're going to have to try harder if you want to silence me!" With a sudden shove from his arm, Ichigo sent him flying into a wall. As he picked himself up from the rubble he once again tried to silence Ichigo's spiritual pressure but Ichigo continued to stand as if mocking him, furious he asked, "Such power...BUT HOW?! You should be curled up in a ball right now from my control!" Maniacal laughter was the response at first, "Like I said before, whoever said I was Ichigo? I have a different sort of power that Ichigo only wishes he had access to; you better make this fun for me, because right now you're doing nothing but give me a dull headache!" For the first time ever he felt a pang of fear as he realized the truth in these words, even with all his intent focused on the figure before him, nothing seemed to be happening. His eyes widened as Ichigo raised his sword, "Now then, Devourer of Souls was it? Let's see just how much you can back that statement up with actions rather than words…ban-KAI!"