"Yeah?"
"I… I don't know what to say," Rukia answered honestly. "You're so sweet and caring… and I feel like I've known you for so long, now. We've been through so much together… but at the same time, I value your friendship so highly. I don't want to ruin it… do you know what I'm saying?"
"Essentially, you're so hung up on what ifs and negative outcomes that you're too scared to just say 'damn the consequences' and go for it," Ichigo said quietly.
"That's not what I mean at all," Rukia stomped her foot in earnest.
How was she supposed to get across what she was saying when Ichigo only ever heard what he wanted to hear? How could he be so naïve? Of course Rukia loved him! They'd been close friends for years! She only ever wanted what was best for the headstrong substitute soul reaper, and she'd have given her own life to keep him safe!
"Ichigo… you mean more to me than just about anyone under the sun," Rukia said quietly, her voice shaking. "Still, you are I are too different. I'll always be your friend, no matter what, but the type of companionship you're looking for isn't in the cards for us right now."
A wry smile pulled at Ichigo's lips, and in that instant, Rukia felt her heart break a little. Ichigo wasn't stupid. Somewhere in his heart, he'd known that this would happen. He staggered to the bed and took a seat on it, staring at the floor between his feet. He was coming down from an incredible adrenaline rush, and his entire body was raked with shivers. When it came to fighting, he had no problem getting in the flow of things. Somehow, coming to grips with the fact that his feelings for Rukia were one sided was more difficult than any fight he'd ever been in.
"Ichigo…"
Rukia took a seat next to him, and after a moment's hesitation she took hold of Ichigo's hand, pulling it into her lap and covering it with both of her own. The young man turned his sad eyes to Rukia, taking in every one of her features.
"Ichigo, I will always love you… but you know this is for the best. All we ever do is fight, anyway. That's hardly something to hang a hat on, let alone a relationship."
"I… yeah, I guess you're right."
Ichigo stood, pulling his hand from Rukia's as he made for the door.
"I-Ichigo? Where are you going?"
"To get some fresh air," he said quietly, "I need to think… don't wait up for me."
Before he could step out of his room, Rukia had appeared behind him and thrown her arms around his midsection, hugging him tightly. She didn't need to sense his spiritual pressure to know he was hurting. Ichigo stood there, torn between hating the hug and loving it more than anything. The way she held onto him, as if he were the only thing keeping her tethered to the earth, made his stomach do cartwheels.
"Please don't hate me, Ichigo."
Her arms fell away. The orange haired young man said nothing as he rounded the corner, leaving Rukia alone in his room.
The sky outside was already dark, but Ichigo didn't really care. He could handle himself against pretty much anything that roamed these streets, physical or spiritual. As he walked, Rukia's words replayed in his head, ringing like bells so that they echoed and repeated indefinitely.
'I'll always love you…. Please don't hate me, Ichigo'
"Heh… what a crock of shit."
The substitute soul reaper stuffed his hands into his pockets, headed for the canal that flowed through Karakura Town. Something about it always made him feel better, but tonight as he gazed out over the water, not even the moon seemed to rejuvenate his spirit.
'I'm such an idiot,' Ichigo realized, 'what the hell was I thinking?'
Nothing and no one answered him. The wind blew a little harder, bringing with it an intense chill that only served to remind Ichigo of Rukia. The high schooler sighed in disgust and pulled up the hood of his coat, beginning a long, slow trek along the water's edge.
As he walked, he thought of Rukia, and the way she looked, and how hard it had been to meet her eyes. They were so intense and amazing, it was like he would fall into them if he looked at them for too long.
That's when it happened.
At the same time as a gargantuan spiritual pressure erupted from somewhere in Karakura Town, a voice spoke inside Ichigo's head.
'Testing, testing, one, two, three! Can you hear me, Ichigo?'
It had been some time since Ichigo heard that drawling hiss, but there was no mistaking it. It was his own voice after all… the voice of his inner hollow.
'I'll take the constipated look on your face to mean that you can hear me! Excellent! You know, it's been far too long, Ichigo! You never call, you never write! Honestly, I'm hurt!'
Ichigo frowned as a bead of sweat rolled down his temple. There was no way that his inner hollow would be able to suddenly manifest, it was taken by Ywach, along with his Quincy powers!
'You're right, Ichigo! I was stolen away from you, but when you killed Ywach, I was released, and flung back into Hueco Mundo! It's only natural that I return to you… my old friend!'
The incredible spiritual pressure returned, and this time, Ichigo knew exactly where it was. He looked to the skies in the direction of the high school. Ordinarily, it should've been impossible to see something from so far away, but Ichigo could see it.
It was a pale figure, with a single horn protruding from his head and a jet black katana. His mask was only half formed, so Ichigo could still see his own features grinning back at him, replete with snow white skin, jet black eyes and golden irises.
"I'm over here… ICHIGO!" the hollow called out, raising his sword into the sky as black energy shot from the blade, piercing the heavens and shaking the earth.
Ichigo's cell phone began to ring. He flipped it open and put it to his ear, only to recoil from the loud voice on the other end of the line.
"Ichigo? It's Rukia! Where are you? Are you alright?!"
He was stunned for a moment. Between his broken heart and the appearance of this hollow, he knew he was in for a rough night.
"I'm at the canal. I'm fine. I'm going to investigate that spiritual pressure."
"NO! Ichigo, do not engage the enemy… I don't know what this is, but it's powerful! I'm calling the Seireitei for intel!"
Ichigo grinned. "No need. It's just an old friend dropping by. Don't worry about it, I can handle this."
"Ichigo-"
Rukia's voice was cut off as he closed the phone with a snap. Orihime and Chad would no doubt be calling him at any moment, as would Uryu. As nice as it would be to have some backup, it was probably best that he handle this on his own. Not only that, but he didn't want to have Rukia show up and make things even more complicated. He made his way to the bridge, taking long, quick steps to avoid undue attention. Once there, he activated his combat pass, hoping that people would mistake his physical form for a sleeping homeless person or drug addict instead of a dead body.
"Alright then…"
With his shinigami robes, and Zangetsu in his hand, Ichigo kicked off from the pavement, rocketing into the skies faster than the naked eye could follow.
Orihime had been washing the dishes when she sensed the overwhelming spiritual pressure. She gasped, and dropped the plate she was holding onto the floor, causing it to shatter. As she scrambled to get the shards of glass cleaned up, her phone rang, and she accidently cut her thumb. With no hesitation whatsoever, the ditzy woman put her bloodied thumb into her mouth and flipped open her phone.
"'Ello?" she asked thickly. "Oh, hai Rukia! No, I haben't twied calling Ishigo…"
"Orihime, are you eating right now? It's eleven at night, you know, you'll ruin your figure!"
"Erm, no, I cuth my thongue and now ith bleeding."
"So you're… sucking your thumb?"
"Thaliva ith nathure's dithinfecthant."
Rukia frowned. She was worried about Ichigo, but how Orihime managed to live on her own while being such a klutz was beyond her.
"Well, could you give Ichigo a call for me, please? He might answer if it's you…"
Orihime popped her thumb out of her mouth, frowning as she heard the bitterness in Rukia's tone.
"Hold on… why wouldn't he answer for you? Did you two get into an argument?"
"Er… something like that," Rukia said, gripping the blankets on Ichigo's bed as she tried to keep her composure.
"I see. I'll try calling him once I deal with this."
"Thanks Orihime, you're the best."
The redhead grinned, holding up her bloody, wrinkled thumb. "That's what they tell me!"
As soon as Orihime hung up, she swept the floor to be sure all the glass was gone, and then washed her thumb at the sink. It was hard to be one hundred percent certain at this range, but that hollow spiritual pressure felt… odd. Familiar, even. It brought to mind terrifying black spirit energy, black eyes with glowing amber irises, and a horrible skull shaped mask.
'Could it be that Ichigo's fight with Rukia caused him to manifest his hollow again?' Orihime thought sadly.
Tears filled her eyes, but she blinked them away. She wasn't sure what had happened, all she knew was that Ichigo's hollow power only ever emerged when he was feeling threatened, or was about to be overcome.
"I have to try and help him," Orihime mumbled, putting a Band-Aid on her thumb.
Chad and Uryu ran like men possessed, headlong through the streets of Karakura Town. They had sensed an enormous spiritual pressure right over the high school. If that wasn't a clear challenge from whatever hollow had crawled out of its hidey hole, Uryu and Chad didn't know what was.
"It's not moving," Uryu observed, pushing his glasses further up his nose.
"That means it's waiting for us," Chad grunted. While he could run with the best of them, long distances seemed to wear him out more than most. It wasn't surprising, given his size and weight, but he found it best to keep conversation short and to the point, especially when he had a stitch in his side.
"Think it's a trap?" Uryu asked, panting hard.
"Does it really matter?"
The Quincy smirked. "Heh, no, I suppose it doesn't. Still…"
"What is it?"
"Does that spiritual pressure seem… familiar to you?"
Chad focused, trying to glean some insight as to who might be at the school.
"It does," he admitted, "though I'm not sure why."
"In that case, let's pick up the pace," Uryu said loudly, taking the lead as they raced towards the large black outline of the school building on the horizon.
Ichigo landed on the air over the high school, his sword slung over his shoulders, the blade bare and ready to taste blood. Meanwhile, nostalgia shot through him as he surveyed the hollow in front of him.
His mask was exactly as Ichigo remembered it, with large, dark maroon lines that ran from the forehead to the jaw. The slanted eye holes and skeletal grin gave it a malignant appearance. From the temple of the mask, a single horn jutted forward, the better to skewer ones enemies upon.
The hollow was dressed in Ichigo's old bankai shihakusho, which was now white instead of black.
"Hey there, Ichigo," the hollow said quietly, "long time, no see. How have you been? Where are all your friends?"
"Cut the bullshit," Ichigo growled, "why are you here?"
The hollow tilted its head back, grinning at Ichigo. "Isn't it obvious? I came here to put you out of your misery!"
"That doesn't seem quite right," Ichigo frowned, "you of all people should know that you have no chance of beating me. I've awakened my true powers as a soul reaper, and you were only strong because of my Quincy powers! You have no chance of defeating me, so I'll ask you again, why have you come here?!"
"Ooooh, someone's touchy today! You see Ichigo, even though I was unceremoniously ripped from my cozy little prison in your head, we are still connected. While I was in Hueco Mundo, I wasn't just sitting around waiting for rescue. I was… well, I suppose you could say I was adapting to my environment."
"What are you blabbering about?"
"Still can't connect the dots? Well, I'll make it easy for you. Honestly, how you've survived this last year without me is beyond my comprehension. You never were a bright one."
"You're telling me," Ichigo muttered to himself, still thinking about Rukia.
"At any rate, hollows only gain power by consuming other hollows. And I am, at my very core, a hollow. I spent every second of every day preying upon the denizens of Hueco Mundo, feasting on their weakness as I grew stronger. With the Arrancars in disarray, it was easy to hunt down some bigger game."
"Ok," Ichigo crossed his arms, tempted to take a seat and nod off until the explanation was over.
"And then all I had to do was wait for the right moment to strike… Now, I don't know what just happened to you, and I don't really care. But at 10:28 pm, I felt your little heart snap in two like a fucking twig," the hollow giggled, "and now I've come here to devour you, and your power. You should be thanking me. I'm come to save you from your pain, Ichigo!"
The hollow vanished and reappeared behind Ichigo, slashing with all his might as he made to cleave the shinigami in two. Ichigo rocked the blade on his shoulder backward, parrying the blow as he spun on his heel, but by the time he brought the sword around, the hollow had vanished.
"Ya missed me!"
Ichigo looked up, only to find that the hollow was already falling upon him, his blade ready to slash him out of the sky.
"Ichigo!" cried a voice.
The high schooler froze, unable to move as Rukia dove in front of him. He watched with horror as the blade of the Tensa Zangetsu ran her though, as easily as a hot knife slid through butter.
"Ah, if it isn't Rukia!" Ichigo's hollow proclaimed, gleefully smiling at the woman as she coughed up blood, unable to move or speak. "You were gonna be my grand finale, after I'd eaten Ichigo and taken his powers. I was gonna use his human body to try and get close to those dolts, Chad and Uryu… maybe run train on Orihime… but then, I was gonna find you in the Soul Society, and tear you up into itty bitty pieces. Oh, well. You know what they say about the best laid plans…"
The hollow placed a foot against Rukia, and slowly, carefully slid her off of the blade. He relished in every agonized expression she made, until finally, she fell.
Ichigo unfroze, chasing after her. He caught her just before she hit the roof of the school, setting her down against it gently.
"J-just hold on," Ichigo said, his voice quaking as he reached for a phone that wasn't in his pocket. No, it was back on his physical body… there was no way he'd be able to save Rukia unless he got a hold of Orihime.
"I-chi…go… run!" Rukia choked
Too late, the substitute shinigame saw a pair of yellow irises and a mad grin reflected in Rukia's watery eyes. A sword pierced him from behind, erupting from his sternum in a fountain of blood.
"This is where you die, Ichigo. I'll eat your suffering like dessert, and your friends and family are next. Still, at least you get to say goodbye to Rukia… but you'd better hurry. Neither of you look like you'll last much longer.
Rukia's chest heaved as she struggled to breath. She stared at Ichigo, noting how his eyes were still so sad. Far from looking to be in pain, though, he grit his teeth and stared right back at Rukia. She was reminded of a tale about a man that had died twice. First, when he had given his heart to a lover, only to have it broken, and then again, when he'd died physically. Of the two, Rukia knew which she considered to be worse, and from the look on Ichigo's face, she surmised that he knew which was worse from experience.
"Hang on… Rukia," he muttered.
The pain in Ichigo's heart seemed to seep through his body like a poison, spreading from the blade that had pierced it. Within seconds, his eyes were like that of a dead man's: completely lifeless, and devoid of any consciousness. He raised a hand and brought it to his chest, gripping the blade of the Tensa Zangetsu.
"What do you think you're-" the hollow began to ask.
SNAP!
With a silent howl, Ichigo snapped the blade of the black sword with his bare hands. The hollow growled in his throat and fired a gran ray cero from his horn, right into Ichigo's back. The substitute soul reaper flash stepped, and reappeared well behind the hollow, Rukia's body in his arms.
"You sly son of a bitch… you stole some of my power, didn't you?" the hollow cackled.
Ichigo set Rukia down behind a large air conditioning unit and took up a battle stance. He held one clawed hand over his face, and his irises began to glow golden as the corners of his eyes turned black, like ink slowly spreading over paper.
"Shut the hell up," Ichigo snarled, "you can't steal what already belongs to you."
Author's Notes:
Press 'F' for my man, Ichigo. RIP in pieces.
Oh, and didn't I say that this was gonna get real dicey, real fast? I swear I did.
At any rate, here we have the return of one of my favorite Bleach characters... hollow Ichigo! Personally, I liked Ichigo's powers pre timeskip, and I'm thinking I'm gonna have to bring them back. Don't get me wrong, his normal shinigami powers are cool, but... meh.
Oh, and Rukia actually does the thing. You know, where she gives her life for his. KIDDING! Geez, she's not dead. This is supposed to be a romance story, or did you already forget? Oh, and for anyone wondering, I'm thinking that Ichigo's hollow is totally a Vasto Lorde now. It spent an entire years wreaking havoc in Hueco Mundo... that thing can probably eat a lot of gillians. Now, how about some battle music to set the mood?
*MUSIC*
I Can Hold A Grudge Like Nobody's Business- Adam Jensen
Pray- Hollywood Undead
Imagine That- Kevin Gates
Too Many Dead- Josh A & Jake Hill
Bad Moon- Hollywood Undead
Bells- The Unlikely Candidates
Welcome To Babylon- Woodsordeath ft. Ritual & Maxxxkii
Savage- Lund
As always, thanks for reading...BANKAI!
