Ichigo was fighting again. The hollow stopped what he was doing and closed his eyes, hoping to be able to catch more of what was going on outside.
Zangetsu's world was, unsurprisingly, rather boring. Sure, the random blocks floating in a red nothingness was a little disconcerting at first... and the various things that would jump out of nowhere to attack him and teach him about his sword kept him awake and aware... But once he got past that, the place was downright dull.
He did know that being in here was helping him grow stronger. The random enemies weren't the only things teaching him about Zangetsu. Just being here was enough to let random facts sink into his consciousness.
And not just about Zangetsu, either. The hollow found it rather strange that names like Yoruichi and Ganju made sense to him after a while.
But it was still boring enough that whenever things from outside leaked through whatever link the hollow had with his other half, he always stopped everything else to pay attention. Ichigo's life was full of color and action—far more interesting than this.
It had started quite a while back as mixes of emotions in the air at random times; excitement, fear, triumph, defeat... The hollow guessed based off of this that the emotions only leaked through when Ichigo was fighting.
Eventually, an image or two would occasionally flash through his peripheral vision along with the feelings; stillshots of the battle through Ichigo's eyes, made clearer when the hollow's own eyes were closed. It was through these that the hollow discovered that Ichigo's opponent for these battles was always Urahara-san. Obviously, Ichigo was still training.
As time passed, the hollow wasn't sure exactly how long—it was impossible to tell in here, some of Ichigo's other senses sometimes came to him along with the images.
The feel of Zangetsu gripped tightly in his hands. The smell of dust and sweat. The taste of blood if Ichigo got knocked a little too hard. The ringing of blades clashing. Snippets of shouted conversation.
One overheard exclamation in particular had amused the hollow greatly: "I was under a little bit of pressure at the time! I don't remember how I fired it!"
Then one day, Ichigo's opponent was, instead of Urahara, a giant of a man dressed in a Shinigami uniform, wielding two big axes. The battle was over quickly, with Ichigo as the clear victor, but it was enough for the hollow to guess that they'd traveled to Soul Society...
Soul Society, to rescue Rukia. Somehow, in here, training non-stop to gain strength for a chance to see the outside world again, Rukia seemed somehow... insignificant.
As he'd thought about that, he almost completely missed what happened next. Whatever it was, it happened too quickly for the hollow to see more than a glimpse, and then Ichigo was fighting again. This time, his opponent was a man with short, silver hair and a strange smile. And then, that battle was also over, far too quickly.
Ichigo transitioned out of battle mode, and what little had been coming through their link vanished completely. The hollow was left frustrated and confused, alone in Zangetsu's world with the word "Captain" echoing through his head.
Eventually, the hollow understood that Ichimaru Gin was a captain of the Shinigami, and that Yoruichi had warned them not to try fighting the captains.
Then, the next of Ichigo's battles was the most interesting he'd seen up to that point. For the first time, he was able to watch the fight through moving pictures instead of still images.
It was terrible quality. The pictures were fuzzy, and it jumped around sporadically, with constant periods of blackness. The sounds, smells, and feelings that went with the battle were rarely in sync with the images, either.
But it was better than nothing.
Of course, Ichigo's opponent made things even more interesting. That Madarame Ikkaku guy had looked like he'd be fun to fight with. Ichigo definitely seemed to have been enjoying the battle, though for some reason that the hollow couldn't understand, he kept pushing that thought away.
Almost immediately after that battle, Ichigo had spent a short time leading a whole bunch of Shinigami running around in circles for no reason... That had been amusing to watch, and he had been sorry when his 'vision' went dark again...
But now, Ichigo was fighting again, and the hollow's view of it seemed to have improved a little once again. Not much, but a little.
Ichigo's opponent was none other than Abarai Renji, the red-headed vice captain who had been with Kuchiki Byakuya when they'd come to the real world and beaten him into the ground...
... Beaten him...? Or beaten Ichigo? The thought made the hollow pause, going over the memory slowly with a sudden frown.
The hollow's memories of events that had occurred before he'd become a hollow seemed almost strange to him now, he noted. They were his memories, because despite what he told Zangetsu and despite being a hollow now, he was still Ichigo...
But at the same time, he saw things differently now, as a hollow, than he'd ever thought about them before. The memories of his previous actions and reasonings seemed almost foreign to him. They were Ichigo's memories, much more than they were his own.
The hollow pushed the thought to the back of his mind to contemplate later. Right now, Ichigo was fighting again, and that was far more interesting.
Renji had already released his sword as the hollow tried to assess the battle. Ichigo's main problem with this guy was going to be getting in close enough to deal damage without getting hit. He already knew from experience that he did not want Renji's sword to even touch him; the thing was designed for maximum pain per hit.
The next big problem would be the strength that Renji had gained since the last time they'd fought. Something about a spirit energy limiter he'd had in the real world, plus the fact that Renji had more room here to swing his sword than the cramped street had given him before...
Renji's first attack had shoved Ichigo straight through the wall of one of the surrounding buildings. Now, he was mostly trying to dodge Renji's continued attacks, all with swaying feet and doubling vision. Which had mildly irritated the hollow. As if his 'view' of the battle wasn't already bad enough.
Ichigo was actually doing a pretty good job of getting out of the way, jumping up onto the rooftops of the surrounding buildings and executing some pretty impressive rolls considering how much effort it'd been taking just to stand a while ago.
"Quit being so stubborn!" Renji yelled at him in frustration. The hollow was pleased to note that his voice was actually in sync with the picture he was receiving for once. "You really want to save Rukia that badly?"
Breathing hard, Ichigo glared up at him. "Idiot," he called. "I don't just want to save her. I'm going to save her!"
That just made Renji madder. "Not a chance!" Angrily, he sent his sword, Zabimaru, flying out at Ichigo again.
Ichigo pulled Zangetsu up to defend, but Zabimaru was hitting heavily enough to bounce. One after another, the hooked sections of the blade ricocheted off the flat of his sword and cut shallowly into his right shoulder as they flew past.
Pain shot through the hollow's arm suddenly and he instinctively jerked away, his eyes flying open in surprise. Had one of Zangetsu's random enemies snuck up on him while he hadn't been paying attention?
Glancing around quickly, he noted that there was no one in sight and he took the opportunity to look down at himself to assess the damage.
There was nothing. Not even his clothing was torn. In fact, there was... no pain, either.
Confused, the hollow absently rubbed his shoulder. What was...?
Ichigo.
Of course. Ichigo had just gotten hit there, and the hollow had momentarily felt his pain. It was an obvious sensation that he hadn't even noticed was missing from these flashes until it was there again. He wondered briefly why he hadn't felt pain from Ichigo before...
Flinching away so suddenly had broken his connection with his other half, and now the hollow saw nothing but Zangetsu's strange world.
For a moment, he hesitated. Seeing the outside world now held a price; If Ichigo got hurt...
He could have kicked himself for the cowardly thought. He was a hollow. He could take a little pain. Scoffing lightly at himself, he closed his eyes, searching for the battle again.
It took a moment, but slowly, images began seeping through the connection, followed by sound; the end of the conversation that the hollow had missed the middle of: "You think I don't know that?! That's why I gotta save her!"
Ichigo had already shrugged off the shallow wound; it had hardly even registered to him as he'd argued with Renji.
The hollow tried to convince himself that he could have shrugged it off too if he hadn't been caught off guard by it, but the words sounded hollow, even to himself. ... And then he laughed at the horrible pun.
Ichigo, meanwhile, was thinking of far more useful things; he'd figured out a pattern to Renji's attacks and was forming a counterstrategy.
He ran suddenly at Renji, Zangetsu held ready. With an angry yell, Renji swung Zabimaru forward. Ichigo jumped to one side and the blade sections flew by him. "Once..." He continued running straight at his opponent.
Zabimaru flashed by again, this time barely missing Ichigo's other side. "Twice..."
The hollow understood; there was a maximum number of times that Renji could lash out with Zabimaru before it had to return briefly to a sword form.
"Three times!" Ichigo blocked the last one directly with Zangetsu. As Renji's sword began clinking back together, Ichigo dashed the remaining distance between them.
Leaping into the air, he yelled, "It's over, Renji!"
For a moment, Renji looked surprised at Ichigo's sudden attack. And then his expression hardened. The hollow realized just a split second too late what was about to happen.
Renji dodged.
Now, Ichigo was the one in a vulnerable position, one that he couldn't pull out of. Renji had Zabimaru raised to attack. Time seemed to slow...
"No!" The hollow panicked, knowing that whatever pain Ichigo felt, he would feel too. And this time, he couldn't just pull away to avoid the pain, either. If Renji put his full force into that swing, this battle would be over. Ichigo would definitely die.
There was no thought; only instinct.
He had to do something to help. He was still far too weak to take control. He wouldn't have been able to do anything more than Ichigo was already doing even if he was strong enough. What Ichigo needed was a heavy shield, and he needed it right now.
Technically, none of the hollow powers that he could actually use at the moment were very shield-like, but if he put enough power into the mask itself, maybe...
Time sped up again. Zabimaru slammed down onto Ichigo's shoulder, sending blood flying upward from the deep wound it was making despite the mask's sudden presence.
Renji grinned. "I told you; you don't have a one in a million chance of beating me."
Ichigo was frozen from the shock of it. "He... dodged?" he thought numbly, mentally reeling from the blow.
The hollow was in shock too, but not from Renji's move, or even from the immense pain of the sword still lodged in Ichigo's shoulder. He was in shock... because suddenly, he could see.
He'd thought that he could see before, but now he could see, really see! It was like changing from moonlight to true daylight.
Before, he'd had sight. He'd had sound. He'd had touch. He'd had feelings, smells, taste, and occasional snippets of Ichigo's thoughts. But now, because of the mask, he had all of them together, clearer. As if someone had taken a jigsaw puzzle and suddenly put all the pieces together in a coherent shape for him.
Ichigo was still in control, obviously. The hollow hadn't suddenly become that powerful for no reason...
But where before he'd been merely watching his stronger side, now it felt almost as if he himself was standing there.
His feet were in contact with the cracked surface of the paved road. His hands were gripped tightly around the hilt of his sword. He could hear Hanatarou and Ganju behind him, crying out in disbelief. He could see Renji just off to his left side, a triumphant smirk still on his face. He could feel...
And then, Renji very nicely reminded him exactly why being hyper-aware of his surroundings right now could be a bad thing. He yanked down on Zabimaru, cutting further into Ichigo's shoulder and sliding the hooked blade down across his chest.
Pain. The mask cracked down the middle as the blade tore through Ichigo's flesh. The hollow felt pain from both sides; Ichigo's and his own, doubled together. Alone within Zangetsu's world, he couldn't stop himself from screaming.
Ichigo dropped to his knees, his face still set in an expression of stunned shock. His whole torso and left arm felt like they were on fire from the pain, and his head was throbbing. "How...?"
"You look like you can't figure out how I dodged your attack." For once, Renji didn't sound like he was bragging; just stating fact. "Going for the gap between attacks is a good idea. Your timing was perfect, too. So why didn't it work?"
When Ichigo didn't answer, Renji continued solemnly. "There's only one answer... It's because you're slower than I am."
The words hit Ichigo hard. "Slow...? But how...?" The pain was so great that he could barely even think straight.
Renji nodded. "The unbridgeable gap between my power and yours is just that, plain and simple. You understand now? You can't rescue Rukia." Renji almost sounded... disappointed by this.
Unhurriedly, he raised Zabimaru above his head like an executioner, ready to bring it crashing down on Ichigo's head.
Ichigo stared blankly up at him, unable to do much more through the fog of the pain. "Move..." he thought at himself urgently. Despite this, his body wasn't responding to his efforts. "Move!"
The hollow couldn't do anything either. He was still too weak to take over, too weak to help. Too weak.
Zabimaru began to swing down. Ganju and Hanatarou both yelled his name. This was it, it was almost over.
Ichigo was finally able to force himself to move, and he barely avoided the hooked blade. It smashed into the ground beside him, sending dust and debris flying everywhere. Ichigo winced as several pieces of concrete made contact with his face and his wounds.
When the dust cleared enough for Renji to see that he'd missed, he scowled at Ichigo. "Stubborn right to the very end, aren't you?"
Ganju and Hanatarou were yelling something at him, but Ichigo wasn't paying attention to them, or even to Renji. Instead, he was suddenly remembering one of his training sessions with Urahara.
The hollow was fascinated, for multiple reasons. The first being that it was amazing how in sync the hollow mask's existence made him with his other half. As Ichigo thought back on the experience, the hollow could see it too, quite clearly.
The other reason was that he hadn't actually seen this before. This memory was from a point after the hollow had been created, but now he was seeing it as if he'd never missed it.
Urahara had obviously been trying to get Ichigo to be able to fire off his Getsuga Tenshou attack again. The hollow even got to hear the entirety of a conversation that he'd only heard part of before, which was interesting.
The part of the training session that Ichigo was remembering, though, was something that Urahara had told him right at the end.
"I'm disappointed in you, Ichigo." Urahara was frowning at him now. "Your sword tells me nothing but fear."
Ichigo glanced down at Zangetsu, not sure what Urahara was talking about. The sword speaks of fear...?
"I can see from the way you use your sword what you are thinking as you move," Urahara clarified. "When you dodge my attacks, you're 'afraid of getting cut'. When you're attacking, you're 'afraid of cutting me'. When you're protecting someone, you're 'afraid of them dying'. Your sword speaks to me only of meaningless fear."
Ichigo scowled, feeling an irrational burst of anger. Old man Zangetsu had said the same thing... but casting off fear was easier said than done!
Urahara was watching him carefully. "Never give in to fear during a fight. Fear will never help you." Slowly, he lifted his sword, Benihime, up into the air and held it above his head. The air around him became charged with spirit energy, sending the dust flying around him dramatically. "Do you see what is reflected in my sword? Do you see my intent to cut you?"
As if to emphasize his words, his sword began to glow red. Ichigo stared at him in wonder as he continued to speak. "Change your mindset, Ichigo. When you're dodging, you think, 'I won't let you cut me'. When you're protecting someone, you think, 'I won't let you die'. And when you attack, you think... 'I will cut you!'"
Ichigo's expression hardened and he lifted Zangetsu above his head, pushing spirit energy into the blade in a mimic of what Urahara was doing. Okay. He could think that way, too.
Urahara grinned at him. "Now you've got it... The resolve that you need."
They stood that way for a moment, each of them standing with their swords in the air, literally glowing with the amount of spirit energy they were using. And then, they both moved.
Ichigo focused, his resolve firm, and he swung Zangetsu down, at the same time Urahara swung Benihime. Bursts of energy from the two swords clashed like a tempest, carving large canyons into the ground below.
The hollow smirked. So Ichigo had been able to use Getsuga Tenshou himself after all...
And now he planned on using it again. Focusing hard, Ichigo forced his fear away and looked up at Renji again. "Sorry to have kept you waiting, Renji. This... is my full strength." He raised Zangetsu high above his head.
Renji looked surprised at Ichigo's steadily rising spirit energy. With a yell, he whipped Zabimaru out towards Ichigo again.
He was too late. Ichigo released the energy attack, swinging Zangetsu down sharply. The attack made contact with Renji's extended sword and cut right through it, continuing on to slam into his chest. Renji sailed through the air and hit a pile of rubble several feet back.
Exhausted and in pain, Ichigo watched Renji warily, but the other didn't seem like he was going to keep attacking any time soon. He had a large gash across his chest that was as bad, if not worse, than the one Ichigo had, and his sword was broken almost at the hilt. His hair had come out of its ponytail and was now hanging in his face, obscuring his expression.
There was a pause as everyone absorbed what had just happened, and then Renji broke the silence, looking up to the sky and yelling in anguish. He knew he couldn't go on fighting. He was done.
Ichigo swayed on his feet for a moment, trying to decide whether or not he could just let himself drop now. Renji wasn't going to attack any more, and Ganju and Hanatarou were still hanging around somewhere...
Renji spoke up again unexpectedly, so quietly that Ichigo almost didn't hear him. He blinked at him, forcing himself to pay attention to the other's words.
Briefly, Renji told Ichigo how he had met and grown up with Rukia in Rukongai, and what had happened when the Kuchiki family had decided to adopt her. He explained his desire to prove his worth to Kuchiki Byakuya, and eventually deserve to be friends with her again.
As he spoke, his words grew stronger, and he slowly got to his feet, staggering towards him. Ichigo was mildly worried about that at first, but that faded as he realized that Renji had left the broken remains of his sword at the base of the pile of rubble. He wasn't going to attack, just talk.
When he was close enough, he grabbed the front of Ichigo's uniform, partly to seem threatening and partly to keep himself from falling before he could finish speaking. As he did this, his hand brushed up against the concealed hollow mask, but the hollow doubted that he had actually noticed.
"I've never won against Kuchiki-taichou," Renji informed Ichigo angrily. "I've trained every day since Rukia left, but he's always been beyond my reach. He's just too strong. I want to save Rukia, but fighting to get her back is nothing but an impossible dream to me."
The hollow laughed dryly to himself. The whole time, Renji could have been helping Ichigo rescue Rukia. They could have worked together and had a chance at winning, but now both of them were too torn up to do much of anything. If anyone else were to show up right now...
"Renji, you're an idiot," the hollow hissed softly, even though nobody would be able to hear him from in here. "'If you can't even beat me, then you'll never beat Byakuya'... That's such a stupid mindset!"
"Kurosaki... I'm probably shameless for asking this, but... Please. You have to save Rukia!" Renji shouted helplessly at him.
Ichigo blinked down at him, a tired look on his face. "Yeah," he agreed after a moment.
"Idiot," the hollow repeated in disgust.
For a long moment, the two of them stood there, breathing heavily and attempting to stay conscious. Eventually, though, Renji's fingers loosened and he crumpled onto the ground.
Ichigo watched him silently as his vision doubled and blurred. He let his eyes fall shut, and then he also toppled forward.
Ganju yelled his name, and running footsteps indicated that he and Hanatarou were running towards him. "Oi! Ichigo! Are you all right?" Ganju asked worriedly, shaking him lightly.
The hollow had to laugh at the irony of the situation. Ichigo was unconscious; that much was obvious. And his 'view' of the scene outside should have faded along with Ichigo's...
However, the hollow mask was still there, hidden beneath Ichigo's clothes, and so the hollow's link to the outside world was just as clear as if Ichigo were still there. With the exception of sight, obviously. Ichigo's eyes were closed, so the hollow saw nothing. But his other senses were all functioning just fine.
Which, of course, meant that while Ichigo now felt nothing, the hollow felt everything, including the pain.
He couldn't pull away from it, either. If he stopped concentrating on the mask, it would disappear, and that would break his connection to outside. While he hated the pain, he hated the isolation even more. He needed the mask to stay there.
"Someone's coming!" he heard Hanatarou say worriedly. "Three people... no, four... maybe even five!"
Ganju picked Ichigo up and slung him forcefully over one shoulder, sending fire racing through all of his wounds. "If too many people show up, there'll be trouble," he said needlessly.
If the hollow could have rolled his eyes, he would have. That wasn't the most obvious statement in the world. Stupid Renji...
"Let's get out of here." Ganju began to run, not even trying to be gentle with what he was carrying. The hollow shuddered at the pain that was everywhere now.
It had been ignorable before. There had been other things to concentrate on, like dodging, attacking, or even just listening to Renji talk. Now, though, there was nothing but the sound of heavy breathing, loud footsteps, and the feel of the pain, made worse with each step Ganju took.
There weren't enough words for pain, the hollow decided. There were plenty of words to describe pain; agonizing, excruciating, racking, torturous, and so on... But there was still only the one word for pain. That almost didn't seem fair...
Slowly, the hollow forced himself to open his eyes, back in Zangetsu's world. He was trying his hardest to keep up that connection with the mask, but he had to try something to lessen the pain.
He was a little surprised to find himself on his hands and knees, his fingers digging trenches into the ground and Zangetsu lying several feet away from him. He didn't remember having actually moved during all that, but he supposed that it shouldn't be that much of a surprise; he'd been a little distracted, after all.
Still focusing on the mask in the back of his mind, the hollow got to his feet, picking up Zangetsu as he did so.
The pain wasn't what made moving difficult. He, himself, was uninjured, so moving around didn't make the pain flare up any more than it already was. That made the pain easy to ignore, and it was already receding, filtering away to the edges of his awareness.
No, it was simply difficult to concentrate on moving and seeing the world around him while keeping that image of the hollow mask firmly in his mind. His movements were slow and deliberate.
He laughed a little. He'd be fine, just as long as Zangetsu didn't pick that moment to send another of his random opponents at him.
Movement caught his eye and his laughter cut off suddenly. No, he didn't...
A lone figure in the distance was jumping from block to block towards him. A sheathed sword was held loosely in one hand.
The hollow grinned shakily, lifting Zangetsu in preparation for battle. Just great... This should be interesting, trying to fight while he was being distracted by so many things.
Zangetsu's random opponents were usually people that Ichigo had fought before; people who had somehow gained his respect during the battle. These ranged from old school bullies to random hollows, and even occasionally Urahara.
This opponent was no exception; Madarame Ikkaku landed easily on the large block where he now stood and began to walk towards him, his sheathed sword resting across both shoulders.
"Yo, Ichigo!" Ikkaku called cheerfully with a smirk. "Havin' problems, are ya?"
The hollow ignored the question. "Don't call me that. I'm not Ichigo."
Most of Zangetsu's opponents did this, and it always bothered him. He wasn't sure exactly what these opponents were, but he suspected that old man Zangetsu was in control of the things they did and said.
So while the zanpakutou wouldn't directly call him Ichigo, these guys still continued to do it. He suspected that Zangetsu was trying to get a point across without actually going against what the hollow had asked.
The name particularly bothered him now, when he was still so closely linked with his other self. He wasn't Ichigo anymore, even if his zanpakutou still seemed to think he was...
Ikkaku merely shrugged at him and examined him critically. "You're not ready to fight, Ichigo," he observed.
The hollow's hands tightened on Zangetsu's hilt and he smirked. "Ready? What are you talking about?"
Ikkaku grinned, still not making a move to unsheathe his sword. "Your mind's not here yet," he accused. "Still focused on outside insteada here and now. Ain't what's happenin' here interestin' enough for ya?"
The hollow opened his mouth to protest but, as if to prove Ikkaku right, Ganju suddenly flipped Ichigo off of his shoulder, laying him down roughly on a hard, uncomfortable surface. The hollow winced as the pain flared up again.
"That guy's not fightin' anymore," Ikkaku observed with a smirk. "Let it go. You should focus on your trainin'."
Gritting his teeth, the hollow swung Zangetsu at him angrily. "I am focused. I can fight!"
Ikkaku moved to one side to dodge the blow, and then stepped around him, hitting him sharply on the back of the head with his still-sheathed sword. "You're thinkin' too much, Ichigo!" he laughed. "You coulda blocked that just now, but you didn't! Why?"
The hollow frowned at him, turning and raising Zangetsu again slowly. He was right; it was difficult to concentrate on quick movements with most of his attention still on the mask. If he wanted to continue training, he'd have to push his awareness of outside to the back of his mind and ignore the things that were happening to Ichigo. But he refused to give up the mask!
As if to taunt him, Hanatarou's words came to him from outside. The boy was obviously talking to Ganju, but he heard him just the same, and the words were distracting. "Don't worry. I'll heal him. I just need one night, and I can completely heal him."
Shaking his head, he forced himself to focus back on his opponent.
Ikkaku smirked at him and finally unsheathed his sword, deliberately moving slowly so that the hollow could see his movement. The hollow narrowed his eyes, getting his point. If he didn't start taking this seriously, he was going to get cut.
"Don't act so tense!" Ikkaku called to him with a grin. He fell easily into a battle stance with his sword in one hand and the sheath in the other. "Have some fun! And forget outside! We're fightin' here and now!"
Ikkaku leapt suddenly at him, his sword now glinting dangerously. The hollow quickly brought Zangetsu up to defend, and several blows were exchanged.
The hollow was hard-pressed both to keep his opponent from hitting him and to get any hits in himself. The other's strange method of using the sheath to defend while he used his sword to attack was very effective.
Eventually Ikkaku backed off a little and the hollow's thoughts flew back to the mask. He panicked a little as he realized that his perceptions of outside weren't there anymore. Had he lost the mask? Had it...
No, never mind; it was still there. He could still hear Hanatarou talking softly to Ganju. It was quieter than it was before, but now that he thought about it, he realized that his 'view' of outside had probably dimmed because Hanatarou had taken the mask off of Ichigo and set it out of the way. Now, Hanatarou was-
Ikkaku attacked again, catching the hollow sharply on the arm before he could bring Zangetsu up again. "You're thinkin' too much, Ichigo!" he called again.
Caught off guard, the hollow frantically swung at him and Ikkaku jumped back out of the way with a laugh.
"I'm not letting go of it!" the hollow insisted, ignoring the shallow cut on his arm and readying Zangetsu again. He grinned. "This is not a problem. It's just my handicap, so that I don't beat you too fast!"
Ikkaku laughed again. "That's one way to see it," he said easily. "Guess I shouldn' take ya lightly, then. Time to get serious. Extend! Houzukimaru!"
He snapped the edges of his sword and sheath together, releasing the sword into his tri-sectional spear and quickly moving to an attack stance. "Don't be makin' this too easy for me! Let's go!"
The hollow smirked and attacked, running at Ikkaku and swinging Zangetsu hard.
He couldn't help but to grin as they fought. It wasn't as though he didn't want to fight, after all; it was just hard to while keeping his attention on the mask. And if Zangetsu's portrayal of this guy's fighting ability (or however that worked) was accurate, then his earlier assumption that he'd be fun to fight against had been right.
It didn't take long before the hollow was totally into the fight, dodging this way and that, and keeping Ikkaku on his guard as well. It was an intricate, dangerous dance that the hollow reveled in...
Ikkaku smirked as he dodged the next blow. "See, now we're havin' some fun, Ichigo! You've finally stopped thinkin' so much!" He flipped his spear around and jabbed it at the hollow again before continuing. "How's outside lookin' now?"
Surprise spread across the hollow's face as he backed off suddenly, putting some distance between the two of them again. How had he forgotten so fast? He'd gotten caught up in the battle and he'd forgotten about the mask!
Cursing his stupidity, he shut his eyes again, searching for the outside world, hardly daring to hope that it'd still be in his reach...
It was still there. The mask was still in existence, still lying where Hanatarou had placed it earlier, several feet away from where he was hard at work trying to heal Ichigo's wounds.
Ikkaku began to walk towards him again, drawing his attention back to the inner world. He had a confident smirk on his face as he slung his spear across his shoulders and casually held it there with both wrists. "See? What'd I tell ya? You're thinkin' too much..."
The hollow slowly realized what he was getting at. "It won't disappear unless I will it to, or if it gets destroyed," he concluded. "I don't have to keep paying attention to it."
Ikkaku laughed. "Now you're catchin' on."
"And, of course, you couldn't have just told me this," the hollow grit out sarcastically, smirking to try to hide the fact that he was shaking from the sudden panic he'd felt. "Jerk."
Ikkaku grinned at him. "Of course. What woulda been the fun in just tellin' ya?" With that said, he turned and began to walk away. Apparently, this 'session' of training was over...
For a moment, the hollow hesitated. Then, he stopped him with a call of, "Hey!"
The other stopped and glanced back at him, one eyebrow raised. "Yeah?"
"Something's been bothering me about all this," the hollow admitted thoughtfully. "And I'm not sure exactly what you are, but maybe you can tell me something about Zangetsu-san..."
Ikkaku shrugged. "Depends on what you wanna know."
The hollow pieced his words together carefully. Asking Zangetsu's 'puppet' questions about Zangetsu was, as far as he knew, exactly the same as asking Zangetsu himself. It was difficult to tell which questions would offend him, and it would be even more difficult to tell if Ikkaku was telling the truth...
Finally, he spoke. "Zangetsu-san is a zanpakutou. A sword wielded by a Shinigami... so I can see why he would want Ichigo to be as strong as he can possibly be... But why would a Shinigami's zanpakutou have any reason to make a hollow become strong?"
Ikkaku frowned. "What're you talkin' about?"
"I mean me, obviously," the hollow clarified. "Why does he bother helping me, even with something like this that I would have figured out sooner or later anyway?"
Ikkaku thought about this for a moment, and then he sighed, looking up at the floating blocks above them thoughtfully. "You're still Ichigo," he said eventually. "Or a part of him, anyway. No matter how strong your Shinigami self becomes, if there were a part of himself deep inside that kept bein' weak, he'd never reach his full potential."
The hollow shook his head. He'd already thought of that. "Seems like a risky move to me. What'll happen if I become stronger than Ichigo? A zanpakutou has no need to serve a hollow."
Ikkaku just smirked. "It's a fine line we tread," he agreed. Slowly, he turned and began to walk away again. "But, in the end, you are still Ichigo. And Zangetsu respects you as his master just as much as he does your other half. You'll understand eventually."
With that, the other was gone, leaving the hollow behind to contemplate his words and watch Hanatarou tend to Ichigo...
The hollow was distracted from his training again by someone picking up the hollow mask and turning it over slowly. Ichigo was still out, and it was sort of odd not being able to see or physically feel the mask and yet still know when someone was holding it.
Ichigo had actually woken up briefly several hours ago. He'd been a little delirious at the time and he had tried to get up and walk off, muttering something about finding Chad and Ishida or something silly like that. Ganju had put a quick halt to that attempt with a hard punch to the head.
Hanatarou hadn't been too happy with that, and neither had the hollow, to be honest, but he didn't complain further after Ganju threatened to hit him too. Hanatarou had gone back to bandaging Ichigo up, and eventually, Ganju had wandered off around the corner again.
Now, apparently, Hanatarou was finished with whatever he'd been doing to heal Ichigo and had turned his attention to examining the mask.
The hollow couldn't help but wonder what Hanatarou thought about it. It was, after all, a hollow mask, and that wasn't something that one usually found shielding a Shinigami... He wouldn't be surprised if the small Shinigami had some misgivings about it.
Ichigo stirred a little and the hollow smirked. Well, he'd find out pretty soon; Hanatarou was too polite not to return the mask to Ichigo, and he'd probably want to ask him a few questions about it.
With a groan, Ichigo attempted to push himself into a sitting position, his various wounds protesting loudly against the motion.
As soon as Hanatarou was aware of Ichigo's movements, he abruptly dropped the mask and went to his side, helping him sit up. "Ichigo-san, you're awake?"
Ichigo scowled and brought one hand up to rub his face where Ganju had hit him earlier. "Gah... Ganju, you jerk..."
Hanatarou laughed nervously. "You remember that, huh?"
"Like I'd forget... Ow..." It didn't really hurt, but Ichigo was good at holding petty grudges like this.
With a hesitant smile, Hanatarou continued. "Still, I'm glad Ganju-san stopped you... Otherwise, you'd be bleeding again..."
Ichigo sighed. "Yeah. Sorry. I shouldn't have tried to get up."
"That's all right," Hanatarou reassured him. "You should probably lie down for a while longer, actually. You're not fully healed yet, and it's still dark outside anyway..."
Ichigo nodded. "Yeah, okay..."
For a moment, he sat in silence, not quite wanting to lie back down yet. Thoughts of what he still needed to do as soon as he was healed enough began running through his head. The hollow listened interestedly.
"From what Renji said, I'm probably going to run into, at the very least, more vice-captains before I can get to Rukia, if not captains. Yoruichi said to avoid captain level opponents, but I'll just have to deal with that. After all, Kuchiki Byakuya's a captain, and I'm going to have to defeat him if I want to get Rukia out of here. Renji will probably be willing to help now, if he's not already dead."
Ichigo found that to be a disquieting thought. With a frown, he turned back to Hanatarou. "Hey, what about Renji? How's he doing?"
The question caught Hanatarou off guard. "Eh? Oh, well, I don't really know exactly... All I can say is he's probably not dead. There were people arriving as we left, and if standard procedure was followed, he'll be receiving treatment from a special fourth division squad..."
Ichigo nodded silently. "So Renji will make it. And I can probably count on him to help if he can."
A long moment passed as the two of them thought about this, and then Ichigo sighed, shifting so that he could lie down again.
As he did so, he spotted a flash of white out of the corner of his eye and he paused, glancing over. The hollow went still as he realized that he'd noticed the mask...
Reaching out, Ichigo picked it up lightly, looking it over with a frown. At his touch, the hollow's 'vision' cleared again.
Unlike with Hanatarou, the hollow didn't have to wonder what thoughts were going through Ichigo's head. He had full access to feelings of confusion at the mask's existence and a mild disquiet over its appearance.
The hollow watched hesitantly. So far, no hostility; just curiosity...
"What is this?" Ichigo asked Hanatarou, turning the mask over in his hands.
Hanatarou was visibly surprised by the question. "What? I... Actually, I was kind of hoping you'd tell me that, Ichigo-san... I found it while I was healing you."
"Found it," Ichigo repeated, glancing up at Hanatarou with a confused frown. "Where? On me?"
Hanatarou nodded, gesturing towards the bandaged wound on Ichigo's left shoulder. "Yes. It was there, and apparently it took the worst of the hit..."
Ichigo ran his fingers over the cracks in the top of the mask, realizing suddenly that they were from Renji's sword. "It was shielding me?"
The hollow blinked as, at the words, Ichigo's thoughts abruptly changed to gratitude and a vague concern for whoever had put it there.
"I guess I've got someone looking out for me..." Ichigo mused.
The hollow couldn't help but feel smugly pleased at Ichigo's words. Got that one right.
Hanatarou looked less than convinced of that. "Ichigo-san, I think you should get rid of that thing."
Ichigo stared at him in surprise, not so much from his words but because of the force with which the normally quiet, hesitant boy had spoken them. "What? Why? It saved me, didn't it? I should hang on to it... for a good luck charm if nothing else."
Hanatarou gently tugged the mask out of Ichigo's grasp and frowned down at it. "It's just... Maybe it's nothing, but... It just looks so much like a hollow's mask. It's kind of creepy, and it gives me a bad feeling..."
Ichigo frowned as well, reaching to take the mask back. "But how can it be bad if it was protecting me?"
Hanatarou pulled away from Ichigo, not letting him take it. "This thing's evil, Ichigo-san!" he insisted.
"You don't know that!" Ichigo protested. "I want to keep it!"
"No! I don't care! I won't let you!" Hanatarou shook his head, turned, and threw the mask as hard as he could at the water.
Ichigo and the hollow both cried out in dismay. Ichigo lunged to try to catch it, but it was too late. The mask disappeared below the surface of the murky water with a light splash, sinking quickly to the bottom.
"Hanatarou! Why would you-"
The hollow scowled as the sound faded away from his perceptions. Ichigo no longer had possession of the mask, so the link wasn't as firm as before. When the images began to fade too, he let out a scream of frustration, angrily dissolving the mask and unsheathing Zangetsu again.
"It wasn't yours!" he yelled at nobody, swinging his sword several times through the empty air to accent his words. "You had no right! He wanted to keep it!"
That brought him up short and he paused, breathing heavily. A grin spread slowly across his face. "He wanted to keep it," he repeated in slight wonder. "He knew what it was, but he wanted to keep it..."
Well, that probably wasn't strictly true. Ichigo knew that it looked like a hollow mask, but he hadn't been able to tell if he thought it actually was one.
Even so, who cared if Hanatarou had thrown it away? Ichigo hadn't seemed bothered by the mask. His only thoughts had been how lucky he was that someone was watching out for him.
The hollow laughed. He'd been a bit worried about his other self's probable reluctance towards working with a hollow, even a hollow version of himself, but this just about proved that Ichigo would be willing to put up with him as long as he helped.
At that thought, the hollow smiled. He was trying his best. He was becoming stronger. Some day, the two of them would make the perfect team. Partners. They'd rescue Rukia and take down anyone who stood in their way of anything!
More of Zangetsu's random opponents appeared then, and the hollow was more than ready for them. The training continued.