Chapter 2: Diary of an angsty teen.

Writing this right after I posted chapter 1 so I ain't got shit to say.

Okay maybe I do...

Just that for now, Ichigo will be a bit OOC, just for the first chapters, when it gets to the further arcs he'll be more like normal, although he'll still be more calm-headed and he'll think more before he dives into a fight.

Also, the reason why Ichigo is 18 instead of 15 right now is that since Masaki had Ichigo right as she met Isshin and not 5 or something years later, Ichigo's older, pretty obvious, but I'd thought I'd point it out, this won't only apply to his age, it also means that he's older than the high-school gang, so sorry to those who like them, but they won't be in the story, for now at least. Needless to say it also applies to anything else.

Okay so much for not having shit to day... but anyway,

Without further ado,

LEGO!

"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Demon/Hollow talking"

'Demon/Hollow thinking'

"Spirit Talking"

'Spirit thinking'

Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach.

Chapter 2: Diary of an angsty teen.

18 years later...

'Well, that's High School done and over, time to head to college now... yay.' Ichigo thought, somewhat sarcastically and somewhat seriously as he closed the door to his apartment behind him, ever since the death of his mother 9 years ago, Ichigo hadn't found anybody, or anything else, to care for in life, he didn't have any family he knew about, he didn't have any hobbies he could come up with, aside from beating up bullies who tried to hurt him or dishonour mementos left for spirits, and he never found anybody he could have a real bond with, a friend who was always there for him, who he actually enjoyed being around, be it male or female, he always either didn't like the person, or he would like the person at first glance, then learn more about them and proceed to dislike them, it was a never a case of the other person disliking Ichigo, not because he was so likeable, but simply because Ichigo didn't try to become friends with anybody who even slightly seemed like they didn't like him, he didn't care enough-or at least that was what he told himself- about other people, didn't think the struggle for such a relationship was worth it, and so he didn't try, he told himself that it was fine because he didn't need bonds with other people, he told himself they would be nice, but they weren't necessary, although in truth he longed for a bond like a that, but he never seemed to open himself up enough for them to happen, call it fear of rejection, call it him being lazy, he just wouldn't try to build a relationship with somebody else if the other person didn't seem like they were interested in him at all. Again, you might think him lazy, but he would qualify himself more as a person who used his energy very specifically, if he didn't care about what he was doing, like school-although he still got above average grades-, you couldn't get him to actually give his all into it, there was no point, almost all the shit he learned there had no purpose in the real world, if he could actually find something he really enjoyed and wanted to put his time in he would be working at it non-stop, alas, he hadn't, and was still looking for it, so people just called him lazy, which he didn't mind. You might think he would have childhood friends that he would be friends with, but after his mother's death he had closed up for a while, and when he had opened up again, all of his old friends had seemingly just disappeared, so Ichigo had told himself that if other people weren't willing to keep up a relationship with him, then why should he? Screw them. He told himself.

That was one of the reasons why he was excited for going to college, it happened every time really, every time a major change would come around, that could change his life for the better, he would always be enthusiastic about it, thinking that maybe this time he would meet somebody who he could actually have a bond with, but, after so long of things like that happening, and things never changing, he had become more jaded than anything, so it was rare to get any excitement out of him, simply because he didn't believe it was warranted, he knew-or told himself he knew- that it was never as good as it seemed, that something would fuck up, and often, it would.

Although there was always that small part of him, a part of him he hated, that told him, 'This time it'll actually go well, Ichigo! You'll meet somebody who you can actually care for and life will be fun again! You'll have something to live for.' he loathed that part of himself, that told everything would be better, that reminded he really had nothing to live for, in truth, he was like a lost puppy, albeit a cynical one, and would jump at any opportunity to make his life better, after making sure the person he was taking the opportunity from was trustworthy, even if that might cost him his life, he didn't care, he didn't have anything to live for, so he didn't have anything to lose.

To put it in lesser words, he was indifferent, not because he couldn't care about anything, but simply because he thought-and was often right- that nothing would come, aside from hurt, from caring about things, or people, so he was numb, just a shell waiting to be cracked, to go back to the cheery boy he was once, but it would take a lot for that shell to crack, it would a very special, in any way, person, to crack that shell, and he hoped he would find it soon, even if he would never admit it, to himself at least.

Snapping out of his thoughts of teenage angst, which he never would admit was teenage angst, simply because he would never admit he was a teenager who was affected by all the things teenagers were affected by, although his problems were actually problems, so it might not actually qualify as angst, 'They're problems I could fix if I even put even a sliver of effort into them, so I'll classify them as angst.' the small part of himself, that had admitted that Ichigo was pretty pathetic, told him, anyways. Snapping out of his thoughts he dropped his bag on the counter of the used to be clinic, that thought brought many unwanted thoughts into his mind, thoughts of his mother.

You see, many years ago, up until the point when he was 12, Ichigo was just a normal kid, cheerful, full of life, he had friends such as any kid would, a loving mother, although no father, he had never learned who he was, didn't bother asking, but he was a normal kid. But then, on that fateful night 6 years ago, it had all came crumbling down. It started out as a normal day, they-Ichigo and his mother, Masaki- had been walking home from Ichigo's karate practice, it was a rainy night, but Ichigo didn't mind, he had his mom by his side, that was enough to make any day sunny, Ichigo had spotted a person, sitting on the border of the small river that cut into Karakura Town, he thought the person looked like they needed help, so, being the protector he was, back then at least, he ran towards the person, barely hearing his mother's cries for him to come back, the next seconds after that had been a blur for Ichigo, all that he knew was that the moment he had touched the person sitting, time seemingly stopped, and when it started again, his mother's dead and bloody body was sprawled over him. He didn't know how to react, what to do, how was a 12 year old boy supposed to react to his mother's dead body lying on him? To this day he still didn't know what happened, he just knew that if he hadn't ran after person, if he had listened to his mother, she would still be here, ready to celebrate him going to college, so he blamed himself for her death ever since then, a burden that was still weighing heavy on him now. He was left an orphan after his mother's death, needless to say, he was lost, he had no clue what he was supposed to do now, thankfully, that period of helplessness only lasted until Masaki's funeral, which he had attended, and during which he had been approached by a dignified looking man, who had said he was going to be his caretaker until he was 15, when he could live on his own, when Ichigo had asked who the man was, he had simply said that he was a servant of a certain Ryuuken Ishida, who for some reason had decided to give Ichigo a personal caretaker and a pay-check each month, not a big one, but one big enough for Ichigo to live comfortably and go to college, that was the only conversation he had ever had with the butler, who obviously didn't see why he had to look after a brat, and Ichigo hadn't tried to socialise with him. He had still never met Ryuuken, not that he particularly wanted to, if the man didn't feel the need to talk to Ichigo, but still did all the things he did for him, then Ichigo must be somehow related to him, Ichigo had thought for a while that maybe the man was his father, but later decided to stop thinking about it, if the man was his father, he was grateful for the money, but that was all, he definitely didn't see Ryuuken as a father figure, in fact, he already knew exactly what type of person Ryuuken was, and he didn't want a person like that to be his father.

That small amount of time, in between when Masaki had died, and when the butler had came to him, Ichigo had felt something he had now vowed to never feel again,

Helplessness.

He had felt a lot of emotions going rampant during that small amount of time, despair, sadness, anger, loss, longing, but none of those even came close to the degree of helplessness he had felt, he was, well and truly, a lost puppy then. Sometimes Ichigo wondered what would have happened if this Ryuuken person had never existed, that was perhaps the only time he had felt an emotion other than a bad one for a person since his mother's death. He had felt gratitude. He had felt that warmth in his chest, that somebody-even as cold as Ryuuken- cared for him, and he loved it.

But he hated it.

The moment he realised that that warmth in his chest was there, that somebody cared for him, was also the moment he realised that the only person in the world that even slightly cared about him, that would probably ever care about him, was probably some stuck up, cold, business man, who's only reason for showing kindness was probably because he was somehow indebted to Masaki, not because he actually cared about Ichigo.

That was also the moment he realised another thing.

That all people were probably exactly the same as Ryuuken in that way. Nobody ever did anything simply because it was the right thing to do, there was always an ulterior motive, nobody was kind, caring, warm, they were all cold, heartless bastards that would throw somebody under the bus if it meant they could finally stop riding on that bus and upgrade to a Rolls Royce. You might say Ichigo was a cynic.

The reason why Ichigo thought like that was probably because he had never experienced the nicer side of humanity, he had only seen the bad sides, although not personally, aside from thugs he'd beat up.

Aside from his mother, Ichigo had never felt the warmth another person could give, and Ichigo thought his mother was an exeption, she was special, a kind-hearted angel that Ichigo hadn't deserved.

And of course, Ichigo was the same as his mother, but he told himself he was an exeption as well, that the only reason he wasn't like everybody else was simply because he had nothing to live for, and so he told himself that since couldn't better his own life, he might as well better others and be of some sort of use, it's not like his life mattered more than whoever's life he was helping, no, to Ichigo, his life mattered less.

From all this, one might think Ichigo was depressed or suicidal, or both really, but in truth, Ichigo was numb, he had long since dulled out his emotional pain sensors, it was too long since he had had any use for them anyways, and so he was often left to just wonder what would happen after he died, if heaven and hell were actually a thing, although, he already knew an afterlife did exist, simply because all the spirits he had ever met had disappeared, to what Ichigo had assumed was the afterlife.

"Oi, Kingy! Stop with your depressing ass thoughts! It's a fucking shower over here!" he heard what was apparently an aspect of his power, whatever that was, tell him from his mind, he sighed as he readied himself for another conversation with the spirits in his soul, or whatever the fuck it was, he had long ago simply come to the conclusion he was just a special type of schizophrenic.

"Yeah Ichigo, as much as it fits you, teenage angst really is annoying to deal with." he heard his heard his other-because yes he had 2- spirit say in his mind.

"Yeah fuck you guys as well." Ichigo grumbled, "What are you guys even here for anyway, you tell me you're a part of my soul or whatever the fuck it is, and that you're my powers, but I ain't got no type of powers."

"We already told you, Kingy. I have no clue how you're supposed to unlock my powers, hell, I don't even know what I am, I know my name, which I can't tell you, but I'm part of your soul, I only have your memories to base mine off of, the only thing I have that you don't is instincts, and those ain't helping much for this." His spirit, whom Ichigo had started off calling crazy, but had settled with calling Shiro, since according to his other spirit, Shiro looked like a whited out Ichigo, said.

"Yes, Ichigo. I know as much as you do about your powers, only thing I know is that to be able to start using my powers you're gonna need a teacher that is actually qualified, that is to say, not me, I'm the same as Shiro in that I only have the same memories as you. The only part of your powers you can use is simply the raw energy that you have, and the only thing you can master is control of said energy, you'll need an actual teacher to learn anything more intricate, trust me, we're as curious as you are about all this." His second spirit, Ossan, simply because according to Shiro, he looked like an old man, said.

"You think a training trip to the mountains will somehow awaken our powers, we can probably make a cool compilation of it." Ichigo replied, his spirits were perhaps the only people Ichigo actually considered friends, which was somewhat sad when he thought about it, so he actually acted like himself around them, if it wasn't for them he probably would have just became depressed long ago.

"Yoooo, that'd be so cool! I mean shit, your life already sounds like something straight out of an anime, so a trip to the mountains would fit." Shiro exclaimed excitedly, making Ossan sigh.

"You two watch anime too much..." he said, trying to sound annoyed, but his tone still held some sort of fondness to it.

Talking with his spirits always made Ichigo smile, these two were perhaps the only people(?) that had cracked his shell, although it didn't show, they were parts of his soul, not actual people, he couldn't connect with normal people like he could with Shiro or Ossan, at least that was what he told himself.

He had met these two, and discovered he had some weird powers, a little after he turned 14, he had been beating up a small crowd of thugs that had disrupted a resting place of a spirit, when he had bit off a little more than he could chew, and ended up getting what was probably the only, and last, beating he would ever get by nameless thugs, he had thankfully fallen on thugs that didn't have the nerve to kill, although he didn't know he had actually been saved by somebody when he was unconscious, and had awakened in a hospital bed, woken up by his two spirits, bickering in his mind about who would introduce himself to him first. Shortly after he had gotten out of the hospital he had been explained by his two spirits that he wouldn't be able to awaken his powers just by training, but that he could get a grasp of the energy his powers used, and learn to control said energy, which they had all agreed would make learning his actual powers a lot easier, when he had started off trying to control his energy, he had been miserable, but now he could confidently say he had mastered the art(?) of controlling his bodily energies, "Kinky." "Shut up." but you could always get better, was his mentality, and so to this day he still meditated often to control his powers better, and to relax.

A couple hours into the night... (Tiny itsy bitsy spoilers for Naruto past like, ep 250 lol)

"Madara is sooo op..." Ichigo whispered to himself, as he munched on popcorn, taking a swig of his soda after. Hey, he might not have any hobbies, or people to care for, but it didn't mean he didn't have things he liked.

"Yeah, I mean seriously, is Madara just a god or are the Allied Shinobi Forces just that shit, like, how low are their standards?" Shiro agreed as both he and Ossan munched on their snacks in Ichigo's inner world, which he wasn't able to access yet.

"Oooooh, you must be bullshitting me, a fucking meteorite? The hell?" Ossan commented.

"Damn old man Onoki, I didn't know he could do that." Ichigo said, "OOOOH FOR FUCKS SAKE COME ON! A second fucking meteorite? This is some bullshit, they're making this dumbass way to powerful, now it's just not gonna make any sense when Naruto, and probably Sasuke, because for some reason he's a main character(Don't kill me, if you like Sasuke, good for you.), will defeat him, whatever, I guess I'll just enjoy the badassness of this... Damn again, old man Onoki, two meteorites? I didn't know you could do that."

"You feel that Ichigo? It's coming nearer." Ossan asked, making Ichigo sigh and pause his show, closing his laptop and setting it on his bedside table.

"Yeah, I know, there's two presences, both seem really strong for what we've ever seen, although one seems, dark, evil, almost hollow, while the other feels like what a normal person's soul would, only more powerful. I was hoping to just ignore them, but they seem to be approaching, well, the nice soul seems to be approaching the bad one, and we happen to be in the middle of it." Ichigo replied, setting himself up on his bed to look out the window, just in time to see a giant, small apartment sized monster fall down in the middle of the street, the monster held itself on 4 feet, big and green, "Shrek" "Shut up." it had a white mask, with red, eyes, in the middle of it's body was a hole, it seemed to sniff around, as if it had smelled something, Ichigo stared at it with wide eyes.

"What the hell is that? It's emitting that evil energy." Ichigo wondered, just as the second presence he had felt dropped down, facing the monster, from where he was he could make out a small figure, seemed female, with black hair, the figure was dressed in some sort of black robe, it stood calmly in front of the monster, as if all that was going on was normal, and pulled out a sword from what Ichigo assumed was a sheath he couldn't see, and set herself in a stance that showed she knew how to use her sword, "That chick over there is emitting the other energy, what the hell is going on here?" Ichigo asked, without much of a point.

"Ichigo, pay close attention to these two's energies, doesn't it seem familiar?" he heard Ossan say, Ichigo didn't know what he was talking about, but complied nonetheless, he focused for a couple seconds, before his eyes widened.

"Both those energies feel familiar to Shiro's." Ichigo whispered.

"Hey wait! What does this have to do with me?" Shiro asked.

"Shiro, feel it for yourself, those two's energies feel familiar in type to yours."

"You're right, what the hell is going on here? I sure as hell am not that monster, and that midget over there looks like a normal soul, aside from the weird clothing, sword, and absence of chain."

"Wait a second, let me think." Ichigo stated, his tone serious, as he slid back down and closed his eyes, trying to figure out what could be going on.

'Okay, let's think about this clearly. Both those... things, are obviously the same as all the other souls I see in that they can't be seen by normal people, so I can assume that they are both souls of sorts, now, what could they be? Let's start off with a normal soul, they always are wearing the same clothes they wore when they died, and remember their lives, they normally died very recently, the longest a soul ever died while still being here was about 2 weeks, so the souls I've always seen are just people's souls that have left their body after they died, and are stuck on earth, until they enter the afterlife. But what about those chains they always have? The chain is always situated in the middle of the souls chest, and seems to be coming from nowhere, an endless pit of darkness, every soul that I've met with a short chain has been in extreme pain, and most of the time they have regrets about their previous life, have fallen in despair... wait. Those chains are always coming from the middle of the souls chest, and there is a hole in the middle of that monsters chest, the monster itself seems to be just a mindless beast, could it be that... could it be that if a soul is bound to their old life by regrets, and have fallen into despair, their chain disappears faster, and once the chain erodes completely, they become that... thing? It's a stretch, but it seems plausible. But what about that other soul, she just feels like a normal soul, albeit with more energy, although it feels more controlled, calm, maybe she's a soul that didn't fall into despair, and just went to the normal afterlife? All this seems plausible, but there are still a lot of holes and problems, I guess that if that soul can defeat the monster I'll be able to ask her.' Ichigo concluded, amazing his two spirits again by how smart he actually was.

"You know Ichigo, if you actually tried to do anything in life, you'd probably be able to do it, you have excellent physical and intellectual ability, it still amazes me." Ossan said, chuckling.

"Yeah, Ossan's right, but you mind running that by me one more time?" Shiro asked sheepishly, knowing that if Ichigo could see him, he would be giving him a deadpan look.

"God, you're stupid. Basically, from my conclusion, there are three types of souls, the first are the ones that just died, the first type of soul is a sort of archetype to the other two, if the first soul falls into despair, it becomes that monster thing, if it just goes to a normal afterlife, it becomes like that midget chick. You got that?" Ichigo responded.

"Yep, thanks, but why is it that I have both of those things energy?" Shiro asked.

"No fucking clue, all this already doesn't make much sense, I don't feel like trying to decipher it, I hope that chick can give us answers." Ichigo answered as he poked his head over the window again, to watch the scene of the petite girl slashing her sword through the monsters arm, severing it, "She can use a sword well..." "Shut up." the monster jumped back, and, Ichigo, thinking the coast was now clear, decided to make his appearance.

"Yoo, that was dope!" Ichigo said as he jumped out his bedroom window, landing a lot better than he should have on the grass, the girl, for some reason, ignored him, pissing Ichigo off, he walked over to her, with her still ignoring him, and very gracefully, and literally, kicked her ass, making her fall down with an "eeep", "That's what you get for ignoring people." Ichigo said smugly, his foot still on the girl's ass, holding her down, the girl turned around, her wide eyes staring into Ichigo's.

"Y-you can see me?" she stuttered out, making Ichigo grin at her as he lifted his foot off her ass, letting her stand up.

"Yeah, I can see souls, which you and that monster obviously were, mind explaining me all this? I already got the brute idea of it, but my theory's a bit rough around the edges." The girl stood, albeit a bit shakily, still shocked.

"Y-yeah, I just need to deal with this hollow first." she said, Ichigo nodded, before spotting something moving in the back, his eyes widened suddenly as the monster came back, surprising the two, who didn't have the time to react, Ichigo saw that the girl would receive a fatal wound if she didn't move, which she wouldn't have the time too, so he jumped, knocking her out the way of a lethal strike at the last moment, although it obviously wasn't enough as he heard her yelp in pain, they rolled on the ground for a bit, before they crashed into a wall, Ichigo taking the brunt of the wall.

"You okay?" Ichigo asked as he set her, carefully, on the wall, so she was sitting up, she was obviously forcing herself not to yelp in pain at the wound she had received.

"I'll be fine, although now I'm in no condition to kill this hollow now, so I-no we- won't be fine for long." she said, struggling to keep herself awake, Ichigo nodded, seemingly not perturbed by the fact she had just told him he might die.

"Is there any way for us to get out this situation?" Ichigo questioned, paying close attention to the now named hollow that was slowly approaching them.

"There..." she sighed, "There is, but I don't feel comfortable involving a human in this." she said, earning a glare from Ichigo.

"None of that." he said sternly, "If it weren't for me you would have defeated that hollow just fine, I owe it to you now." he told her, surprising her with the determination in his voice.

"Okay, the only thing I can think of is me giving you my powers."

"I see, if that's all I have to do, then do it."

"I have to stab my sword through your heart to do this." she said, bringing her sword up hesitantly.

"What did I just say! Do the damn thing." Ichigo told her as he took the sword in his hand, bringing it up to his heart, he smirked at her, "Kurosaki Ichigo. You?"

She allowed a small smirk to grace her face as well, "Kuchiki Rukia." as she stabbed the sword in his heart.

The explosion was massive.

'What is going on?! There's no way my powers would cause such an explosion! He hasn't even taken half of my powers, these are his own!' she thought, shocked.

'I think I've finally managed to awaken my powers. Ne, Shiro, Ossan?' he told his spirits playfully, hearing Shiro jumping for joy in his mind.

"Fuck Yeahhhh! Finally you'll be able to use my powers! We don't even need the midget's powers! I can't wait to tell you my name!" Shiro yelled happily in his mind, with Ossan chuckling at the display.

"Yep, seems like you'll finally be able to use our powers, although it seems you still haven't unlocked the entirety of my powers, but you can use Shiro's, that midget really has to explain this to us." Ossan agreed.

The explosion settled down, revealing Ichigo, holding a sword similar to what Rukia's sword looked like, it was a normal looking katana, with a pure black hilt, he now wore the same robes Rukia had worn seconds ago, 'I bet I look so badass right now.' Ichigo mused, in an amused tone, only to be greeted by silence, 'Guys? You there?' Ichigo said, suddenly worried, if those two had somehow disappeared, he probably would actually go into depression, they stayed silent for a second, scaring the life out of Ichigo, who had totally forgotten about the hollow.

"Sorry Ichigo, you unlocking your powers revealed some... things to us, we will tell you about it later." Ossan said, obviously choosing his words carefully, making Ichigo suspicious.

'Whatever, you guys owe me a talk later.' Ichigo grumbled.

"Ichigo! Pay attention!" he heard Rukia yell, snapping him out of his thoughts as he saw the giant hollow's claw heading straight towards him, he barely had time to dodge as he jumped back.

"Sorry about that." he said as he brought his sword up, and almost instinctively, although he had no actual idea what he was doing, disappeared in a blur, appearing in front of the hollow.

'Shunpo?! How could he possibly know that!?' Rukia thought, bewildered, "Aim for the mask!" she managed to yell out as Ichigo prepared his attack.

"Thanks!" he replied, striking down with as much force as he could down on the hollow's mask, slicing it in half and making it disappear in a shower of particles, "Uh, that was easy..." he muttered as he turned back towards Rukia, who was looking at him with mouth agape, he smirked as he walked back towards her, "You know anyway I can get you healed?" he asked.

"Well, there's healing kido, but there's no way you'd know of it..." she said.

"Let me guess, your healing kido requires me to just send some of that energy I just awakened to you in controlled amounts, right?" he guessed, making Rukia look at him with a small amount of surprise.

"You're very perceptive." She complimented.

"If your healing kido just needs good control then I think I can use it." he said.

"What do you mean? Acquiring good reiryoku control takes years."

"Yeah I'll tell you about that later, as long as you tell me about what just happened, although I've already figured out a bit of it." he told her, "Turn around." he set his hands on her back, where her injury was, and for the first time in his life, was able to use his masterful control to send some of his energy-reiryoku- to his hands and transfer it to her body, his only thought at the moment was that he had to heal Rukia, which apparently was the right thought to have as only minutes later, the wound had closed, leaving a small-for the injury she had- scar on her back, that would no doubt heal over time, "There you go, you're all patched up. Now would you mind explaining me about all this?" he said as she ran her hands where her wound once was, obviously shocked at healing prowess he had just shown.

"You just healed my wound faster than most seated officers in the 4th could have... either you're a prodigy in healing or you just have a lot of reiatsu to waste."she whispered to herself, making Ichigo rub the back of his head in a sheepish fashion.

"I think it's the latter, it took me ages to get the control I have now, you should have seen me before, I'm pretty sure I was a beacon for that energy. Anyways, we should head in my apartment instead of staying in the street." he said as he helped her up, suddenly, he sensed a presence, very well hidden, but he sensed it, near them, "Wait. There's somebody near here." he said as he turned around, looking straight at the direction where the reiatsu was coming from, "Oi! Come out of there!" he yelled, prompting a person with a straw-hat, a green haori, and an infuriating smirk, to land down on the street, facing them, "What are you doing here? I wasn't able to sense you before, but you were clearly watching all that just happened. Mind telling me why you didn't help, more so, how you knew all this was gonna happen?" Ichigo said, his voice showing the suspicion he had, he tightened his grip on his sword, ready for anything.

"Why me? I'm just a humble shopkeeper, the only reason I was there was because I sensed something happening, I'm not nearly strong enough to have defeated that scary hollow, I didn't know any of this was gonna happen. I'm just here to help this young lady here." he said, careful not to say the name of either of the two young people in front of him, Ichigo would certainly pick up on that.

"Stop bullshitting us. You're clearly powerful enough to defeat us, and the hollow, at the same time, and I can tell you already knew this was gonna happen, there's something you're not telling us." Ichigo told him, putting his sword in a ready position.

"Ahh, I guess you got me, you're more perceptive that I thought you would be, Ichigo, all I can tell right now that wouldn't require a long explanation is that I did know this was going to happen, but I didn't plan it, the only reason I let it happen was so that you could awaken your powers. I'm just here to help you guys. Please understand that." he pleaded, his voice serious for somebody like him, Ichigo almost relented, but his cynical side still told him to push further.

"And how am I supposed to know that this isn't just some ploy to get us to come with you?" he said.

"I'll answer all of your questions if you just follow me. But for now all I can show you is this." he said as he reached in his pocket, and pulled out a golden locket, that Ichigo instantly recognised, and opened it, shocking Ichigo down to the bone.

"T-that's..." he stuttered out, the locket, now opened, showed a picture of his mother, smiling happily, with a toddler Ichigo in her arms, he recognised it instantly because he had one of those as well, and his mother had told him that she had given another one to somebody else, and that that other person could be fully trusted if they showed it, "Why would you have that? My mother had nothing to do with all this!" he yelled out, Rukia was simply sitting on the side, entirely confused at what was happening. The straw-hatted man sighed, bringing his hat down to cover his face.

"Unfortunately, there is a lot that was never told to you, and there is a lot you must know in order for this all to make sense to you, but I trust that you will follow me now." he said, sounding truly regretful, Ichigo shakily nodded, still shocked by what he had just seen.

"Yeah... okay, let's go, I'm pretty sure we can trust him, Rukia." he told her. Walking towards the man, "What's your name, you obviously know ours." Rukia followed after him, deciding that if Ichigo trusted the man, she could, which when she thought about it, didn't make much sense.

"Urahara Kisuke." he answered, a playful, and annoying, smirk on his face, "Follow me, if you will."

Taa daa, chapter 2 of Hybrid is done!

Now I know I said, literally last Wednesday, that there would only be updates every Wednesday, each two weeks, but that doesn't mean I can't release extra chapters, or release them earlier. So basically, I'll be consistent in that there will definitely be at least one update every two weeks for each story, but I'll be inconsistent in that there might be more than one update for each story each week. Got that? Probably not, but oh well.

Hope you liked this chapter, this story will be very different from cannon, as you can see, I won't have Ichigo be as dense as he is in cannon, or in other fanfictions, I refuse to have a dumbass main character, it's infuriating to read. I also won't have everybody hold secrets from him that should be told to him, like, you know, almost every single fucking secret that was kept from him. There'll be more changes than that, but that would be spoilers.

Thanks for reading.