Ichigo was lying on the ice blue couch with white silk sheets wrapped around him. The forty inch plasma screen sitting in the cherry wood entertainment center showed a blue haired male sitting next to a blonde female. Ichigo had never been a major fan of the news but his host, Toshiro, was. The male had an out-of-date pinstripe suit and deep blue tie, while the girl had on a white blouse and her hair done in a French braid. He never had the attention span to concentrate on the news and even though he was forced to sit and watch it, he only heard every other word. There was some gibberish about federal reform, some bullshit about a new demon laws debate, a strike to not let certain demons in a certain restaurant that turned violent—yet again, and some ancient and powerful warrior demons coming back from the underworld to visit the land of the humans. Ichicgo blinked shaking his head sitting up, "Play that again Toshiro!" Toshiro was about to yell at Ichigo but saw that there was a serious look on his face.
"Okay," he said wearily while rewinding. The blonde woman looked like she was intent on listening into her earpiece for a minute before getting a shocked look on her face and nodding.
"I have just received breaking news," she said with a slight stutter. The man looked over at her confused.
"What is it Reia?"
"Well Joshiro, It seems as if a liaison to a kingdom of demons has come to visit earth. We are switching over to a live feed of him, or at least we assume is a he, and his guards." The video switched from the news room to downtown square. Ichigo remembered going there when he was younger and his mother was still alive. There was a fountain with the sculpture of a sea demon that had often visited the human realm, humans called them mermaids, which was very sexist according to Ichigo's mother; she had always believed they should be called merpeople because a male was obviously not a maid or maiden. It was surrounded by an old cobble stone courtyard that was bordered by trees setting a peaceful environment admits all the chaos of city. Now that he saw it though it looked nothing like that, the fountain had been broken into millions of pieces, the cobblestones had been uprooted from the ground, and the trees had been lit on fire. From the rubble a few demons emerged like Ichigo had never seen before. They had yellow eyes with catlike slits for pupils. They were mostly a pale color of human skin from a pale tan to full white. Their hair was the only bright thing on them ranging from a bright green all the way to a dark purple. Just when he thought it was weird enough, a certain male demon stepped out from the hole and Ichigo stopped breathing. It was the person from his dream. Shirosaki. The screen paused and Toshiro looked to Ichigo than to his pale counterpart.
"Who the hell is that Kurusaki?" Toshiro asked.
"I…I don't know," he said taking a shaky breath, "he looks exactly like me." Toshiro nodded and looked the man over again. Grimmjow would not be happy with this new development. Something just screamed at Toshiro that this was not going to be a good day.
"HITSUGAYA-KUN! I SET THE STOVE ON FIRE AGAIN!" Just as Toshiro heard Rangiku yell in a slightly panicked voice the smoke detector went off. Toshiro sighed heavily.
"RANGIKU WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING IN THERE?" he shouted towards the kitchen. When both of them were distracted however, a small sliver of water made its way to the plug for the TV and the TV shorted out right as his pale double began to talk. Ichigo cursed at the water. Before he could get up and kill Rangiku rudely interrupting the news when he was watching it for once for once, the short caused the wood in the entertainment center to catch fire. Soon the sprinklers went off in the living room and Ichigo threw the blanket over his head, the cold water making his wound throb. He groaned in pain as the room grew colder and his blanket was heavy with water. He didn't believe water could be this cold until he moved his sheet and found it to be almost solid and when he did in fact move it the sheet, he found it to be frozen solid. Toshiro had his wings above Ichigo and all the water that hit his wings instantly frozen solid.
"Sorry I didn't move faster. If I had you wouldn't be so wet," Toshiro said softly with a hint of remorse in his voice. Ichigo had known Toshiro long enough to know that wasn't normal, but before he had any time to wonder why he was acting the way he was a sharp pain shot up his spine. He arched biting back a scream. It felt as if someone was dragging a knife up and down his spinal cord. He screamed and Toshiro grew panicked. "Rangiku! Go get Retsu!" he said running into the bathroom looking for anything of use.
"YES SIR!" Rangiku yelled without even bothering to ask why. She knew if he was screaming something was very, very wrong. When she ran out the door she heard Ichigo scream and she knew that time was of the essence.
Ichigo was on the verge of blacking out from the pain but he didn't let it show. He had been through worse and he was fighting to hold on with all he had but he was on the losing side of the fight. It was bizarre. He knew he had faced worse pain than this and didn't pass out. Why was this pain making him loose himself into the blackness? The last thing he saw was Toshiro looking leading a woman with black hair braided around her shoulders and resting on her chest into the room.
When he opened his eyes again he was sitting in a room with black and white marble floor. The walls were painted a deep blue with art hanging on the walls. The furniture was sparse and included a blue Victorian style chair with a small metal and glass side table, a wooden desk and matching chair, a queen sized bed with a royal blue quilt, and a wooden dresser with mirror and a few memorabilia on it. He wanted to examine everything more closely, but he could no longer control his body. He looked down and began reading a book slowly and cursed in his head for he could not speak either. He disliked reading but he couldn't stop. After he had forcibly turned the third page he heard screaming. He jumped up out of his seat and ran to a small window next to the desk. Outside he heard people screaming and it looked like there was a fire spreading not far in the distance. The air was so thick with smoke he and ash he coughed. He was concerned for the people who seemed to be at the bottom of the castle, he didn't question the fact he was in a castle due to the fact he believed it to be a dream. However, he soon heard that those screams weren't of fear but of anger. He grew panicked wondering why the people were so angry when someone burst through his door. He turned around in shock seeing a brunette wolf demon dressed in white duster coat with black outlines. The man uncharacteristically seemed worked up, how Ichigo knew this was uncharacteristic was beyond him.
"Hurry up young lord! Lilynette can only hold them off for so long. Your sisters have already been taken to safety all that's left is you."
"What is going on Starrk?" Ichigo heard a small voice ask.
"We were worried this something like this might happen so just trust me. We have something planned."
"If you believe that I must go than I shall," Ichigo heard the voice again but this time he realized he was the one talking. He ran to Starrk before turning around and running to the dresser and grabbed a few things off the top. He looked in the mirror and Ichigo screamed in his head. This defiantly was not him. Looking back at him in the mirror he saw a little female cat demon of about 8 or 9 years of age with red hair in a pixie cut. Her eyes were piercing green like his but the lips were softer and jawline not as prominent. She was wearing a white three quarter sleeve half jacket, showing her stomach which was firm but not sculpted. She had on a dress bottom that was slit all the way up her leg to her hips and underneath she was wearing tight half shorts so she can hide her underwear and still move freely. Ichigo was reminded of a young Tatsukie because she had a fighters body. She grabbed a few things that Ichigo felt a sense of familiarity with for reasons he did not know. It was simple things: a ring, a letter and a pendant. She stuffed it in a pocket under her jacket before turning around and running back to Starrk.
"Hurry young lord," Starrk said to her. Ichigo became confused. He, even with his limited knowledge of titles, knew that lord was used only for males. Ichigo had no time to think however, as the girl and, by default, he were pulled by Starrk out of the room. Starrk turned the corner and figured out that they had taken too long when Lilynette came crashing into the wall besides him. She was knocked out with a small trail of blood dripping down from her mouth to her chin before it dripped onto the floor. Starrk glared at the direction she came from. What appeared to be a blacksmith ape demon with a mallet the size of Lilynette stood there with small cuts all over him. It seemed Lilynette gave him a run for his money before he finally hit her. Starrk heard shouting coming from down the hall and believed them to be the blacksmith's reinforcements. He did not believe he could protect the young lord and Lilynette while fight off the intruders at the same time. Suddenly the door next to him opened. The girl gave a panicked glance to her side and saw a green haired woman standing in the doorway. She smiled at her and nodded to Starrk. Starrk handed the girl over and smiled down at her. "It'll be okay. Nelliel'll get you to safety, Young Lord Ichigo," he said before running to protect Lilynette. Ichigo's mind froze. This "girl" was him, but he knew for a fact he was a guy. He played the incident with the mirror over in his head and thought that maybe that was a boy in the mirror. However if that was a boy, he was very feminine looking and dressed what Ichigo imagined a girl to dress in this weird dream. That's all it was to him a dream and before it finished he was swept from it by a cold wind. The cold blast of air knocked him off his feet and he was falling again. The blackness slowly engulfed him letting him drift off into a dreamless sleep.