Feeling Hollow

by Daricio

Instead of visiting the Vaizard, Ichigo realizes that fighting and defeating his inner hollow isn't the only way to deal with his problem. Could the two possibly form an alliance? -All chapters revised! More details in first and last chapter.

2. Ridiculously Long Training Montage

Ichigo was sitting on the side of a building. His zanpakuto, still sheathed, was lying a few feet away from him. His eyes were closed and his face held a mixed look of concentration and irritation as he attempted to keep his spirit energy pushed down into a semblance of control.

Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked up at his inner hollow, who was sitting and watching him from a short distance away. "I'm bored," he stated blandly. "How long do we have to do this?"

Hichigo rolled his eyes. "Until you can do it quickly and hang onto it without having to think about it."

Moving himself carefully out of the position that he had been sitting in for the past hour or so, Ichigo groaned, stretching his stiff muscles. "I don't understand why I need to do any of this. I mean, sure, if I mask my spirit energy, I'm not so easy to locate, but I don't see how that'll help in the middle of a battle. And it's not like Zangetsu is a kidou-based sword or anything, so I don't have to worry about focusing spirit energy for that either."

Hichigo smirked. "So, you're giving up already?"

"I didn't say that," Ichigo protested. "Just that I don't understand why we're spending so much time with this. Three days doing nothing but suppressing my spirit energy? When I said training, I was thinking more along the lines of sword fighting."

Hichigo got to his feet and folded his arms, and chuckled to himself. "You still don't trust me, I take it?"

Ichigo glared, but held himself back from commenting. It was true. He had no reason to trust the hollow, and he probably never would. Still, he couldn't see what Hichigo would gain by only teaching him a useless skill. "An explanation would be nice," he bit out.

Shaking his head, Hichigo sighed. "Fine. I've got four reasons why you need to learn better control of your spiritual energy before we can get anywhere else. Number one: Tell me, how does your Bankai work?" He paused, awaiting a response.

"Um..." Ichigo frowned. "Well, according to Byakuya, instead of creating a giant sword of some kind like most Bankais do, my Bankai compresses the destructive power into a smaller than usual form, which then makes it so I can move at high speeds while still using the Bankai's destructive power."

"Exactly." Hichigo smirked again. "So you can move fast simply because your energy is compressed into one spot. Now, what exactly are you doing when you suppress your spirit energy?"

Ichigo got it. "I'm pulling all of my spiritual energy into one spot. Compressing it. Are you saying that if I do this while I'm in Bankai, I'll move even faster?"

Suddenly, Hichigo reached up and grabbed the black hilt of his version of Zangetsu. The sheath slipped off and, with blinding speed, he leapt at Ichigo.

Caught completely off guard, Ichigo fumbled and dropped his hold on his reiatsu. He scrambled to grab his own sword and was only just barely able to bring it up in time to prevent Hichigo from chopping an arm off. Ichigo's spirit energy, now free of his hold, exploded outward, knocking the hollow backwards several feet.

"Correct," Hichigo continued as if nothing had happened, sheathing his zanpakuto again. "If you want to do that, you're going to have to be able to keep your spirit energy under control, no matter what happens to you."

Ichigo scowled, breathing hard. "Fine, I get it." He warily sat back down, keeping his eye on the hollow as he carefully pulled his spiritual energy back under control. "All right, so what's the next reason?"

Hichigo smirked. "Getsuga Tenshou," he said simply. He turned and rolled his eyes. "'Not a kidou based sword.' Honestly, you're denser than I thought. The strength of Getusa Tenshou depends on how much reiatsu you feed into it. Normally, you don't pay much attention to the kidou part of it; you just pour a random amount of spirit energy into Zangetsu and force him to deal with it. But if you were to control the amount of spirit energy..."

"Then Zangetsu wouldn't have to try and sort out the right amount, so I could attack faster," Ichigo finished slowly. "Right?"

"Not just that. You could control the size of the attack." Hichigo grabbed Zangetsu's hilt again and Ichigo tensed, but his hollow faced away from him this time. "Make small waves to be released as you swing your sword normally." He flicked his blade casually, releasing a light blue wave that dissipated a few feet away.

Without pausing, he swung again, sending out a Getsuga Tenshou that put a crater in the side of a nearby building. "Then the regular canyon-forming attacks for stronger or long range attacks. Then for max damage, use attacks to completely catch your opponent off guard. Getsuga Tenshou!" Hichigo released a giant blue wave that destroyed three buildings right in a row.

Ichigo blinked slowly. "Oh."

Hichigo rolled his eyes. "Is that all you can say?" he grinned. "You're pathetic. But you want to know my third reason, of course: you don't actually use the Getsuga Tenshou attack correctly."

"What?" Ichigo gave his hollow a suspicious look. "But you just said it; give spirit energy to Zangetsu and he magnifies it into an attack. What more to it is there?"

Hichigo smirked. "I'll show you what I mean. Go to Urahara's shop."

"Urahara's shop?" Ichigo frowned.

"Because I want to try this in the real world. The demonstration will have more impact on solid ground rather than these buildings, and while I would love the pandemonium, I don't think you want any more random holes blasted in the middle of Karakura town," Hichigo said dryly. "It won't take long, just do it."

Ichigo grimaced. "Is this necessary? I really don't want Urahara getting involved in this. He and Rukia both already technically know you exist, and I don't want them getting suspicious."

Hichigo scoffed. "Whatever happened to 'If I cared about what people thought, I'd have dyed my hair black a long time ago'? Seems you care more than you say you do."

"I don't care what they think. I just don't want to deal with the hassle of explaining everything," Ichigo sighed, running one hand absently through his hair. "I'd end up wasting time arguing with them. It's easier if they don't know."

Hichigo shrugged, "Fine, then. That's not my problem. But do it."

"Fine, fine." Ichigo rolled his eyes. Concentrating hard, he forced himself up and out of his inner world to where he was sitting leaned up against a tree in the same clearing he had come to that first night.

Slowly, he pulled himself to his feet, groaning at how stiff he was. Sitting for hours without moving wasn't doing his back any favors. Ichigo glanced down at his watch. It was about midday, so the shop would still be open. With a shrug, he began to walk.

When he arrived, he found Jinta and Ururu both out front of the shop. Ururu was sweeping. Jinta was obviously supposed to be helping her, but was instead using his broom as a baseball bat.

"Here's the windup, and the pitch! And Jinta the Great slams it right down center field! It's a home run!"

"Jinta, I don't think you should be goofing off," the girl said softly.

"Hey," Ichigo called as he approached, startling the two of them. "Is Sandal-hat here? I need to talk to him."

Jinta nodded. "Yeah, the manager's down in the training room."

"Great, thanks." Ichigo opened the door and entered the shop, heading for the back room where the training room entrance was. Deciding that entering the training room with his human body was a bad idea, he pulled out his badge and used it to change to his shinigami form before jumping down the hole, ignoring the ladder.

He didn't see Urahara right away, but he did see Renji's odd snake Bankai making dust explosions as it hit rocks a ways away from the entrance, so he headed that direction.

"Renji's here," he commented with a frown. "If you want to show me something, I'll have to see if I can get him out of here first..."

He felt Hichigo shrug mentally. "You're making a much bigger deal of this than you have to." Ichigo ignored that.

As he came closer, he was able to make out who Renji was training with. "Chad?" his frown deepened.

"Ah, Kurosaki!" Suddenly, Urahara popped up, standing a short distance ahead of him. He had a cheerful look on his face, and he waved his fan at Ichigo. "Haven't seen you for a while! What brings you here?"

"Well, I wanted to ask you if I could use the training room to try something. Looks like Renji and Chad beat me to it, though," Ichigo said. "What are they doing? Training?"

The older man turned to watch the fight. "Why would they be doing anything else?"

A good point. "When do you think they're going to be done?"

"Done?" Urahara blinked at him. "Well, when they get tired, I suppose. Both of them are staying here for the time being, so they haven't been using any set time periods for training."

"If you want to get in some training too, Ichigo, you don't have to wait for us to leave!" Renji called. Ichigo looked up to see that he and Chad were both walking towards him, having temporarily stopped their battle. Chad's arm had returned to its normal state, and Renji had dropped his Bankai. "We can do a three-way free for all."

"Hey, Renji. Hey, Chad," Ichigo greeted them. "Thanks for the offer, but no. Regular training wasn't what I had in mind. I actually wanted to experiment with Getsuga Tenshou, and I figured that putting craters in here was probably better than putting craters in the park."

Renji smirked at him. "All right then. You still don't have to wait for us to go. We'll stay on this side. Just make sure you don't aim at us."

Ichigo hesitated. When Hichigo had said he wanted to show Ichigo something, he probably meant that he would want Ichigo to let him do it, and that meant a change in reiatsu, plus the hollow eyes, and that mask... "Um... I would... prefer if I did this alone," he said slowly.

Renji's smile faded. Urahara looked faintly surprised. "Alone? As in, you want all of us to leave?"

Ichigo smiled sheepishly. "Well, I don't want to be rude, but... yeah."

"Why?" Chad asked, looking concerned.

"Um... Well, like I said, I want to experiment with Getsuga Tenshou. Rukia might have told you already, but I've been working on controlling my spiritual energy, and I wanted to try something new with it. But I don't really have a very solid grasp on it yet, and I don't want anybody to get hurt if I end up causing some backlash or something."

Hichigo chuckled. "Well, at least you're better at BSing than you are at swinging a sword."

Renji gave him a very odd look. "If there's backlash, we'll just duck," he said simply. "Besides, I doubt anything you'll do will be particularly strong at the moment, not when you've spent the last three or four days just sleeping all the time."

"Sleeping?" Ichigo glared at him. "Sleeping?! Is that what you think I've been doing? And how would you know, anyway? Why does everyone think they have to follow me around all the time?"

"Why do you think you have to isolate yourself all the time?" Renji shot back. "I don't care what you're doing all by yourself. Whatever it is, you could probably accomplish it faster with help, you idiot!"

"I told you, I don't want any-" Ichigo cut off suddenly, his eyes widening as, while he was distracted with his argument, his control over his spiritual energy slipped again. The released energy flared out uncontrollably, causing Renji, Chad and Urahara to flinch visibly, the force sending them sliding backwards a few feet.

Ichigo sat down hard on the ground. "Sorry," he muttered, closing his eyes and rubbing them with the palms of his hands. "Lost it..." He looked up at them all again. "This is why I've been training by myself."

Renji shook his head. "You're doing Academy-level stuff and you want us to stay away in case you bump us accidentally? You're being downright arrogant, is what you've been doing by yourself."

Ichigo's first instinct was to yell back, but he shoved it aside and let out a large sigh. "Look, I... Just give me five minutes, okay?"

The three of them glanced around at each other for a moment, then Renji abruptly turned and headed for the entrance. "Fine, then! Come on, Chad. If Ichigo's too scared to have us watching him, then I suppose we can be nice and take a break for a while."

Ichigo felt his temper flare at the insult. "Scared? You come back here and say that to my face, and I'll show you who's scared!" But the red-haired shinigami just smirked over his shoulder and kept walking. Chad glanced at Ichigo briefly, then nodded to him and followed silently after Renji.

Urahara smiled at him, his hat shading his eyes so that Ichigo couldn't tell what he was thinking. "Well, I suppose you know yourself best, Kurosaki. If a few minutes here is what you need, then I'm happy to provide it for you." He turned, his coat flaring dramatically behind him.

Ichigo watched them silently as they went up the giant ladder. "And now they all hate me," he muttered to himself.

"So? It made them leave, right?" Hichigo sounded unconcerned. "Ready to start?"

With a growl of frustration, Ichigo reached up to grab Zangetsu's hilt. "Sure. What do you want me to do?"

"For now, just fire a Getsuga Tenshou like normal. I don't care where you aim it; just make it as powerful as you can," Hichigo directed.

Ichigo nodded. He focused on his spiritual energy, carefully gathering it all in to himself again. Then he sent as much focused energy into Zangetsu as he could, mimicking what his hollow had done earlier. "Getsuga Tenshou!" he called out, slashing the zanpakuto down in a wide swing.

The resulting attack was larger than any Ichigo had produced before without using Bankai, and he smirked proudly at the newly formed canyon in the floor of Urahara's training grounds.

"So you were paying attention to what I was doing." Hichigo grinned at him. "All right, then. Now try it in Bankai."

Ichigo frowned, but did as Hichigo said. Bringing Zangetsu into position, he gathered his spiritual energy and released Zangetsu's bankai. The white hilt wrap looped itself several times tightly around his right arm, and a flash of white swept over the area.

Now he stood wearing his usual Bankai outfit and holding the much smaller, black version of Zangetsu. Keeping his hollow's words in his mind, he retained his hold on his reiatsu and pushed it into his attack. "Getsuga Tenshou!"

A red-edged black wave shot forward, cutting a straight canyon for a short distance, and then twisted upward and sideways, spiraling around to cut a line of parallel canyons at a diagonal to the others.

Hichigo laughed. "You even managed to work the spiral in there! That's not bad for just copying me. Now, are you sure that's the strongest you can make your attack?"

"Copying?" Ichigo scowled. "Getsuga Tenshou is my attack!"

"Which of the two of us was the first to use Getsuga Tenshou while in Bankai?" Hichigo shot at him, grinning. "Every attempt you've made at it since then has simply been mimicking what I did. But guess what? I didn't use Getsuga Tenshou to its full abilities, and you had no idea it could actually get stronger."

With that, he pushed past Ichigo and took control, ignoring the surprised noise of protest Ichigo made. With a large grin, Hichigo leapt high into the air and held Zangetsu out in front of him with one hand, bringing the other up to lightly touch the blade. "Getsuga Tenshou."

The attack was less of a wave than it was a giant, pure black bubble of destruction, centering on Hichigo's blade and spreading outward. When the blast cleared away, all hints of the previous canyons were completely gone, erased by the giant crater that had now appeared. Hichigo promptly gave him control again, forcing him to deal with figuring out how to land.

Ichigo was speechless, looking around at the destruction as his feet hit the bottom. It seriously looked like someone had used a paint program to erase a gigantic blob from the landscape. "How... but you... what?" Finally, he managed to piece his words together to form comprehensive sentences. "How did you do that? What did you do?"

Hichigo cackled. "Your problem is that you use your Bankai Getsuga Tenshou in the same way you use your regular one. While that is the correct technique for the regular attack, and it does technically work with the Bankai version, it really was meant to be used as a completely different attack."

"And this has to do with controlling my spiritual energy?" Ichigo asked, starting the climb up the hill back to the surface of the training grounds.

"Of course. How you apply your reiatsu and choosing what to do with it after you release the attack naturally has an effect on the attack. How have you never experimented with this before?" the hollow chided.

Ichigo's face set back into a scowl as he reached the surface again. "I didn't even think to try."

"Right. I somehow managed to forget how dumb you are." Hichigo snickered to himself. "Now for the fourth reason why you should control your spiritual energy. Gather it up and tell me what you see."

Ichigo shook his head, but once again did so, since there didn't seem to be any harm in it. When he had his spiritual energy collected, he opened his eyes and began to look around. To his surprise, he could clearly see Renji and Chad's spiritual energy high above him in the shop, along with Rukia's for some reason.

"Usually, you're horrible at sensing other peoples' reiatsu, right?" Hichigo asked with a smirk. "But if you don't have your own thick, fat reiatsu floating around your head, you'll be able to see farther.

Ichigo just nodded, ignoring the insult and frowning up at the ceiling. Urahara's spirit energy wasn't up there with the others.

He turned to glance around him, searching for the old man, and quickly found him leaning against a rock. "Very impressive, Kurosaki," the man commented when he saw that Ichigo had noticed him.

Ichigo gave him a slightly wary look. "Did you watch?"

Urahara said nothing, and somehow Ichigo knew that he had. Which meant that he had probably noticed him talking to himself. "Look, I know what I'm doing," Ichigo began lamely.

The shopkeeper walked up and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Kurosaki, you don't need to prove yourself to me. I have trust in you, no matter what you're doing, and your friends do too. You help nothing by keeping them away."

Ichigo looked down. He knew that, but he still had no desire to try to explain Hichigo to them. Heck, he couldn't even explain Hichigo to himself.

"You know, I tried to tell you the same thing," Hichigo chuckled. "You're even more pathetic than usual when you're mopey."

"Not helping," Ichigo shot back. Aloud, he sighed, then addressed Urahara. "Okay. Tell Renji, Chad, and Rukia to come down. I think I'm going to take them up on their free for all idea."

Urahara nodded at him and released his shoulder as he walked away, leaving Ichigo to his thoughts.

"Keep your reiatsu under control when you fight," Hichigo instructed.

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Of course. Piece of cake."

Soon enough, the others came back down. As they approached, Rukia called out to him. "I'm not spying on you," she defended herself before he could accuse her. "I also came here to train."

"Right. I totally believe you." Ichigo shrugged her off. Honestly, he didn't actually care if she was following him or not. As long as she didn't ask questions, he didn't mind her keeping close. This was the girl who had lived in his closet for months, after all. It's not like he wasn't used to this.

Behind her, Renji whistled when he saw just how big the hole in the ground was. "Holy crap, Ichigo. Okay, maybe I didn't want to get hit by that."

"I warned you," Ichigo returned. "How do you feel about that free for all training now?

"You sure you got anything left in you after that?" Renji smirked at him, unsheathing and releasing Zabimaru. "I wouldn't want you to collapse in the middle of a fight."

"Come at me and see," Ichigo said confidently. "I bet you're the one who collapses."

"You talk big for a lazy bum who sleeps all day!"

"Look who's talking, freeloader!"

"What was that, strawberry?!"

"You heard me, pineapple-head!"

Rukia shook her head at them. "These two," she sighed, though her words had a warm tone to them. "They always do this, don't they?"

Urahara shrugged. "Sometimes two people who have personalities that clash in just such a way that no matter what happens, the other person will always irritate them for no explainable reason. These two just happen to have personalities that clash with just about everybody they meet."

Chad just nodded. "That seems to be a fair assessment."

"They're just being childish boys," Rukia added with a smile.

After a moment, Chad nodded again. "Also a fair assessment," he admitted.

---

"So, according to Yamamoto, Aizen is actually planning on sacrificing Karakura town in order to make some 'King's Key' thing?" Ichigo shook his head. "What a coincidence; first we manage to accidentally help him get the Hougyoku, now he wants to destroy our hometown, of all places. We keep getting mixed up in this thing."

Urahara, Renji and Chad all looked grim. They were all standing in Urahara's training grounds, the match between Renji, Chad, and Ichigo having been interrupted by Inoue's announcement from the Commander General.

Inoue nodded. "Yeah. Yamamoto says that he'll probably be ready to do that by the end of the winter, so Soul Society is planning their attack for mid-winter. About a month or so from now."

Ichigo sighed. "So I guess our training has to get finished before that," he commented inwardly.

There was a short pause, then Hichigo smirked at him. 'You almost sound disappointed by that.'

Ichigo's attention was forced back to the outside world as Urahara began to speak, his eyes shaded over by his hat. "It's an unexpected development. We're going to have to train harder than ever to become strong enough for the winter battle." He looked up, his expression set in firm lines. "This is going to be an all out war."

Inoue nodded. "I want to become stronger too."

Urahara sighed. "I thought you might. However, I must tell you, Inoue," he hesitated, then cleared his throat and continued. "I really don't want you fighting on the front lines," he admitted.

The others all stared at him. "What? Why?" Ichigo asked.

"Tsubaki." Urahara stated simply. "You haven't been able to heal him since the last battle with the arrancar, right?"

Ichigo glanced at her. "Really?"

She looked down at her shoes. "Yeah. He was shattered into so many pieces, healing him is impossible. I don't even know where to begin."

Urahara nodded. "Tsubaki is your only means of attacking. Without him, obviously you shouldn't be on the battlefield."

Chad suddenly looked angry. "Wait, Urahara. You heard her: she wants to get stronger. You can't just tell her 'no'!"

Ichigo nodded fiercely. "Even without Tsubaki, she can help. Her healing power is unmatched, and she can defend herself and others with Santen Kesshun."

"I am fully aware of the powers of her Santen Kesshun shield," Urahara interrupted. "However, I don't think it will be of much use in the battle. As for healing, we'll have fourth Division for that. Captain Unohana's team will be on the front line with us, and they have already been trained in battlefield operations."

"But..." Chad tried to protest.

Urahara shook his head firmly. "A soldier who's lost their powers will only get in the way in a fight."

"Urahara!" Chad's fists clenched. "She can-"

"It's okay."

Ichigo and Chad turned to look at Inoue, frowning. She looked up at them and smiled, her eyes beginning to brim with tears. "It's okay," she repeated. "I understand. I don't want to get in the way."

"Inoue," Ichigo started.

"Thank you, Ichigo. Thank you, Chad." She paused, and then turned to Urahara. "Thank you, Urahara, for telling me. Please, excuse me." Inoue turned and ran for the entrance.

"Inoue, wait!" Chad started to run after her, but Renji put an arm in front of him to stop him.

"Urahara's right, you know," he said solemnly. "Fourth Division has been specially trained for combat situations while they heal. Inoue has not. And besides that, it's really not in her nature to fight anyway."

Ichigo scowled. "You didn't have to put it to her so bluntly, you know. Don't you have any regard for her feelings at all, Sandal-hat?"

Urahara kept his expression hidden in the shadows of his hat. "If it will keep her off the front lines, then it had to be done."

"What are you talking about?"

With a sigh, Urahara looked up. "Don't let this interfere with your training, any of you, but I feel I must tell you this. Inoue's powers are possibly far greater than we realize, and I don't want Aizen thinking he can use her. I want to prevent kidnappings as much as possible, so I want to keep her out of Aizen's sight."

Understanding dawned on Ichigo's face. "But why not just tell her that? Why tell her she's useless?"

"Because of the way Inoue reacts to things. If I told her I wanted her out of the way for her own sake, she would want to fight anyway. However, if she thinks she'll be in your way, then no matter what her feelings, she'll stay back." Urahara frowned. "I just hope that she'll forgive me afterward."

Ichigo sighed, knowing that Urahara was probably right. Regretfully, he turned his attention back to the deadline of the battle. "We should step up the training somehow. I know I'm still not strong enough to beat those arrancar yet."

Hichigo frowned. "Continue your normal training with Renji and Chad," he said finally. "Keeping that up is important. However, when you're done training with them for the day, go back to that park and I'll start teaching you how to use the black Getsuga.'

"Right." Ichigo nodded to himself, then turned to Renji and Chad. "I guess we should get back to training, then. Inoue will be all right."

Renji nodded. "Right. Let's go, then."

---

Rukia originally didn't want to join Renji, Chad, and Ichigo in their training, mostly because she wanted to experiment specifically with Sode no Shirayuki's abilities. She could just feel that her zanpakuto had more to offer, more dances that she could use if she worked at them.

But that went out the window when she found Inoue alone and crying. Immediately, she offered to train with her. She might be off the battlefield this time, Rukia had reasoned with her, but she couldn't give up. She should become stronger, if only so that she could help next time.

Rukia admired Inoue a great deal. The girl was often silly, which was something Rukia was never good at. But when it came time to be serious, her whole attitude changed. She could be fierce when she needed to.

They came back to Urahara's shop for their training, despite the old man's harsh words. Both of them admitted to each other that they would like to keep an eye on Ichigo, worried about his recent odd behavior. They were surprised when Urahara approached with an offer of providing a portal to Soul Society so that she could continue her training with a group of fourth division shinigami.

Rukia wasn't sure if she was happy or sad about Inoue going. She knew that fourth division would be able to help her more with her healing and defensive powers than simply training with her. Part of her wanted to come with, but she hesitated to go, her mind still wandering back to Ichigo. She decided to stay, battling with the other three for the next week, doing a reasonably good job of being a challenge.

She tried not to stalk Ichigo too much, but on top of seeing him dodge all their questions and isolating himself, there was his hollow to worry about. She wanted to be there if he finally decided he wanted her help.

During the time she had been staying in Soul Society, her brother had warned her to be careful around Ichigo, telling her about Ichigo's loss of control during their battle. Somehow, Ichigo had a hollow that constantly threatened to take over. It was probably Urahara's fault.

She knew that Ichigo had stopped fighting even the weakest hollows for a short while after returning from Soul Society, because he'd been afraid of the hollow taking over again. She knew, and she had even gone so far as to yell at him and force him to fight, telling him that if he was afraid, he just had to get stronger so he could beat it.

She'd known that he had an inner hollow, but somehow, the possibility of losing Ichigo hadn't seemed real to her until she'd seen his eyes turn into those of a hollow that night in the park. She had to push away thoughts of Kaien.

Now, while everyone in Soul Society was training to take on Aizen and his arrancar, it seemed like Ichigo was training to keep control of his own mind. When she thought of it that way, some of his actions made more sense. If he could gain complete control of his reiatsu, logically it'd be easier to suppress the hollow. It was no wonder he was trying so hard to master that particular technique.

If that was what his training was for, it did seem to be working, at least to some extent. His reiatsu shifted sometimes, adding a distinctly "hollow" tint to his aura, but he barely seemed to notice.

This reiatsu training wasn't totally pointless for his fighting style either. Ichigo had recently started releasing his reiatsu at random times while he fought, using the small shock wave as a surprise attack. Add that to his recently pumped up Getsugas, and it was obvious that he'd already grown much stronger.

One night, as they were all heading back home for the night, Ichigo branched off on his own again, heading back towards that park. He'd told her once that he was just meditating to strengthen his reiatsu control, but she wasn't sure she believed that. Obviously, he was doing something, but she didn't know what.

Rukia grew more and more frustrated, trying to decide what he was doing. If she asked him, she knew, he'd just tell her to quit following him around, and that he was fine.

She walked alone back to Ichigo's house, still steaming. She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she almost didn't hear the sound of Ichigo's name floating by on the wind. When she noticed, she immediately paused a moment to listen, her back against a building. Their voices came from a nearby alley, not far from the sidewalk.

"...Ichigo right now, we don't want to lose him!" It was a female voice that Rukia didn't recognize.

"I know, I know, I got it. He still won't listen to me, though, it's not my fault. Trust me, he'll come!" Rukia knew that one, but she couldn't remember a name to go with it. A new student who had harassed Ichigo a couple of times back when he was still trying to make school happen.

There was a sharp slap noise followed by a cry of pain. "That's what you said last week, Baldy! And guess what! No Kurosaki Ichigo!"

Rukia frowned deeply and peered around the corner into the alleyway. The new "student," a man, stood a short distance away, clutching a bloody nose and cowering away from a short, blonde girl wielding a sandal.

"I don't get it either, okay?" he protested, his voice now muffled by his hands. "With the rate his hollow was gaining power, he should have lost it by now, or come to us. I don't understand how he's managed to keep this up so long. But there's no way he could suppress it on his own, and it's obvious it's still trying to take over. He'll come!"

The girl rolled her eyes and raised the sandal threateningly. "Quit babbling already! Just talking to him isn't going to convince him. We've given him plenty of time to try to deal with it on his own. If we wait too long, the hollow will take over and then we'll just have to kill him."

The student frowned. "He'll be much less likely to want to join us if we force him to, you know."

The girl hit him again, hard. "I really don't care! If you don't bring Ichigo in, then I will! You got it?!"

Rukia decided she wasn't going to get any answers she needed by simply listening any longer. She rounded the corner and faced them. "Excuse me, I couldn't help but overhear... But what exactly are you trying to get Ichigo to do?"

Both of them looked up at her, surprised. Then the girl rounded on the boy and beat him with the sandal again. "You idiot, you were followed again!"

"No I wasn't..." he groaned, his nose bleeding heavily now.

Rukia frowned. "Answer my question. Who are you and what do you want with Ichigo?"

The girl turned back to Rukia and, scowling, gestured at herself. "I'm Sarugaki Hiyori. As for Ichigo, why do you care, shinigami?"

Rukia was mildly surprised that the girl had recognized her as a shinigami, but she shrugged it off. "He's my friend. Why wouldn't I care?" she shot back.

"Shinigami/hollow hybrids are illegal in Soul Society, right?" Hiyori said smugly. "So, again I ask, why would you care about some outlaw?"

Rukia's fists clenched. "Shinigami/hollow hybrids? Is that it, then? You're shinigami who gained access to hollow powers and were exiled from Soul Society, and now you're trying to take Ichigo away from us?"

Hiyori laughed bitterly. "Ichigo is already a hybrid. No matter what we do, once what he is comes out into the open, there's no way the leaders of Soul Society will support him. Take him away? No, we're trying to give him a place to belong, whether he accepts that or not. He belongs with the Vaizard."

"He belongs with his friends. He belongs wherever he chooses to be," Rukia argued.

"Not if the place he chooses rejects him," Hiyori folded her arms in irritation. "I just told you, Soul Society will never accept him. He insists on calling himself a shinigami, but that's never been what he really was, and it never will be."

Rukia mouth opened, then closed. She was unable to refute that. Ichigo had never been a normal shinigami, having become one when she gave him her powers. And then Urahara's training creating a hollow within him... Hiyori was right; no matter how much good Ichigo had done for Soul Society, Soul Society would be unable to simply ignore this. The fusing of shinigami with hollow was one of the most forbidden acts possible, and exile would be the least of the punishments they could give him.

Hiyori looked smug. "I see you understand. Friend or not, if Soul Society orders you to kill him, you'd have to do it. Here's my advice: Stay away from him and don't interfere with us. Come on, Shinji."

With that, she turned and strode out of the alley, the other man following quickly behind her, still holding his nose.

Rukia stared after them for a long time. Finally, her face set into a determined expression. If Soul Society would have Ichigo exiled for being a hybrid, then she would just have to make sure that Soul Society never found out about it. Byakuya had already decided not to tell the General Commander about Ichigo's power, and together they could try to keep him off the radar. Ichigo would have a place in Soul Society. He wouldn't have to join these Vaizards if he didn't want to.

Even if she couldn't help him in any other way, she could at least do that much.

---

Ichigo seemed particularly out of it today, though Rukia tried not to comment. They had all stopped for a mid day meal, and Renji kept making fun of him, shoving him over occasionally. Ichigo hit him back two times but missed on the third try.

Rukia frowned. Whatever 'training' Ichigo was doing when he went to the park, he was obviously exhausting himself. She sighed. "Seriously, Ichigo. Are you alright?"

He looked over at her, slightly annoyed. "Leave me alone," he said with his mouth full. "I'm fine."

"You look mostly dead today," she informed him flatly. Ichigo grunted and went back to eating.

Renji laughed. "You mean more than usual?"

"Shut up," Ichigo said dully.

Rukia shook her head. "Ichigo, you seem to have stopped being able to walk in a straight line today."

"Your fighting is sloppy too," Renji added unkindly.

Even Chad agreed, giving a nod. "Maybe you should rest," he suggested.

Ichigo just shrugged them all off. "I'm fine," he insisted, even as he accidentally dropped a rice ball on the floor. He scowled at it. "All right, fine, I'm not okay. But I'll be okay. Don't worry about it, I can handle this."

Rukia scowled at him. "Count to ten for me."

"What?" Ichigo stared. "Why?"

"Just a sneaking suspicion. Count to ten."

Ichigo let out an exasperated sigh, then closed his eyes tightly. "One..." he hesitated for a long moment. "Five? No, two. No, wait... eight?"

Rukia glared at him. She had proven her point. "Ichigo, go home and get some rest. Real rest, not that training thing you do while pretending to sleep."

"I'll be fine," Ichigo insisted, getting up and turning away. "I can't stop training now."

Rukia started to protest, but his words reminded her of... "Is it your hollow?" she asked softly. The other two looked away, as though embarrassed to bring up the elephant in the room.

Ichigo glanced at her. "What do you mean?" he said carefully.

"It's not just the heavy training you're putting yourself through that's making you so tired, is it? You haven't fully suppressed your hollow yet, so you're having to fight it too." She looked away. "If that's it, I understand. And if you ever need something..."

A strange mix of emotions flashed across Ichigo's face, but his usual scowl was back in place before she could identify any of them. "You're sort of right," he said simply. Then he sighed, rubbing his head with one hand. "I'll be okay, don't worry about me."

He pushed his way through his concerned friends, and his hand went back to his sword. "Let's get back to work."

---

"Something on your mind, miss Rukia?"

Startled, Rukia jumped, turning her head in surprise. "Urahara? What are you doing here?" It was a valid question; it wasn't every day the sweet shop manager came to Ichigo's house and sat on his bedroom windowsill, especially so late in the evening.

Urahara smiled. "I was looking for you, actually. You seem down, though. What's on your mind?"

Rukia watched him for a moment, then shrugged. She had lots of things on her mind, what with Ichigo, the Vaizard, and now training with Inoue, but she wasn't about to tell him as much. "Nothing," she said defiantly. "I'm fine. What do you want?"

Urahara shook a finger at her. "That's not true. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here in Ichigo's room watching him sleep."

Rukia sighed, a little deflated that he saw right through her. He hadn't even needed to ask the question. She sat down heavily on the chair beside Ichigo's bed. "Except that I'm not watching him 'sleep', since that's obviously not all he's doing right now. The idiot still won't stop." Ichigo had an intense expression on his face even as he slept. He didn't seem to wake at all or notice their conversation, but he moved restlessly.

"This is precisely why I wanted to find you." Urahara looked pleased. "You see, I, too, am curious as to what he's up to."

Rukia raised an eyebrow at him. "What are you planning?"

"Take a look at this." Urahara lightly tossed something to her. Catching it reflexively, she looked down. It appeared to be a black, heart-shaped locket on a silver chain.

"What is it?" she asked, turning it over in her hands and examining it. "I mean, it's pretty, but..."

Urahara grinned. "It's a little thing I've been working on recently. It works rather like my Bankai Doll, only in reverse. In other words, it forces a person into their own inner world so that they can communicate with their sword and achieve Shikai."

"And that helps us, how?" Rukia asked, looking back at the necklace and frowning. "I've already gotten Shikai, if you hadn't noticed."

Urahara waved her off with his fan, which had mysteriously reappeared in his hand. "I discovered recently that it can be used another way. That is, it can also take someone into someone else's inner world."

Rukia turned a little pale. "You want me to go inside Ichigo's mind? Without his permission? That's a huge invasion of privacy!"

"But it would force him to answer your questions," Urahara pointed out. "You could check on his mental state just by seeing what the landscape looks like, you might even be able to help him fight off his inner hollow."

Rukia shook her head. "He'd never forgive me," she said softly. "The inside of your mind is a personal place. I know how I'd feel if somebody else forced their way into my mind."

Urahara shrugged. "Well, he'd definitely prefer to have you come into his mind than, say, me."

"He'd probably prefer not to have anybody in his mind!" Rukia shot back.

"Perhaps so," Urahara returned gently. "However, he already does: a hollow. And you can help him with that."

Rukia hesitated. Hadn't she just been wishing there was something more that she could do for Ichigo?

"A fight for your own mind can definitely be called a fight for pride," she said slowly, remembering Ukitake's words from so long ago. "I shouldn't interfere."

Urahara shook his head. "All fights are in some way a fight for pride," he reasoned. "And any time you receive help, your pride gets injured. Sometimes, you just have to accept that help is required, and take the hit. We can't help him unless we know what's wrong. This is the best way to find that out."

Rukia shook her head firmly. "No. I refuse to do this without Ichigo's permission. Sorry." She held out the necklace for him to take back.

Urahara looked at her hand and the necklace in it for a long moment, and then looked up at her face with a smile. "All right, then, that settles it."

Confusion spread over Rukia's face. "What settles what? Take it back already!"

Nodding, he reached to take it. "I'd rather hoped you would disagree, actually. Because you don't want to do this, my forcing you to means it's not your fault. Ichigo won't be mad at you, and we figure out what's wrong." And instead of taking the necklace, he tapped it sharply.

Immediately, it began to glow a deep black and Rukia felt herself freeze involuntarily. She watched as Urahara made a few complicated gestures first towards her, then at Ichigo. Then, everything went black, and she was falling.

"Come see me when you get back!" she heard his cheerful sounding voice as if from a long ways off.

"Urahara, you jerk!" she screamed into the blackness as she fell.

With a bump, she suddenly realized she had stopped moving. Color flooded back into her vision and she looked around, curious despite herself as to what she would find.

She appeared to be standing on a large, blue surface that was full of rectangular, glass-covered holes. Above her was blue sky. The clouds seemed a little off-looking, for some reason she couldn't quite pin down, but otherwise it all looked fairly normal. Calm and tranquil.

"Okay," she said to herself as she watched the movements of the clouds. "The first step here is trying to find Ichigo himself." She turned around to search behind her, scanning the area.

Then she blinked. In all other directions, the surface she stood on eventually ended in a cliff of some sort, leaving nothing but the expanse of sky. Back behind her, though, the surface ended in some sort of a wall. It was white in some areas, and black and yellow in others, but what struck her as odd were the plants growing sideways out of it.

It suddenly hit her what she was looking at: a sidewalk, a street, planted trees. It was the ground, as seen from above. In that case, the surface she was standing on was...

Rukia took a step backwards in shock and let out an involuntary squeak. She swung dizzily to take it all in and came very close to toppling over. "Sideways?! Why is everything sideways?!"

Now the scenery around her made sense, or at least as much sense as sideways could. She was standing on the side of an office building, which was covered in windows. The clouds had looked off to her because the wind was blowing them down rather than across the sky.

Wide-eyed, she stared around. "What did Ichigo do to himself to turn his whole world sideways? It's no wonder he couldn't walk straight!"

"What are you doing here?" an unfamiliar voice asked from behind her.

Startled, she whirled around. There before her stood a dark haired man probably in his mid-thirties, dressed in a black, ragged cape. "Who are you?" she blurted out without thinking.

The man raised an eyebrow at her. "This is Ichigo's mindscape," he pointed out. "The one who doesn't belong here is you, not me."

Rukia understood suddenly. "You're Ichigo's zanpakuto, Zangetsu."

Zangetsu nodded. "What are you doing here?" he asked again.

"I-it's not my fault, Urahara did it!" she explained hastily. "I didn't want to, but-"

Zangetsu held up a hand to stop her, sighing. "Perhaps you should explain yourself to Ichigo. Follow me."

Silently, Rukia did as she was told, following the man as he jumped from one building to the next. Once she realized that she still had the ability to stand on the air in here, the strange landscape stopped bothering her.

They traveled less than a minute in silence, and Rukia slowly realized that they were heading towards a specific building in the distance, which was occasionally emitting a black flash of some sort.

As they got closer, she made out two people on the surface of the sideways building, one dressed in black, the other in white. They were fighting with each other, exchanging quick sword blows that Rukia could hardly follow, and the flashes were coming from them every time they clashed. The black-clad figure was obviously Ichigo. The other, she couldn't tell. Did Zangetsu have a duel personality like Ukitake's zanpakuto?

"Ichigo!" Zangetsu called out when they were still a fairly large distance away. "You have a visitor!"

"A what?!" came the shocked reply as Ichigo spun to face them. The white-clad figure leapt at him while he was distracted and Ichigo only barely noticed in time to move out of the way. "Gah! Hold on a sec, let me take care of this!" The white one laughed, but backed off.

Ichigo ran over to them. A look of pure shock was plastered on his face and he pointed a finger wildly at Rukia. "What are you doing here?! How are you here?!"

Rukia shifted uncomfortably and she held up both hands. "It's not my fault," she said again. "Urahara gave me this necklace thing and told me that it would let me go inside your mind to check up on you."

Ichigo frowned. "Check up on me?" he asked, anger filling his voice.

"I didn't want to!" Rukia defended herself. "I tried to give it back to him, but he activated it instead! Since I am here, though, maybe you can tell me something."

"What?" His frown was still in place. He obviously wasn't going to let her off the hook that easily.

"What in the world did you do to yourself to turn your entire world sideways?"

Ichigo's expression went blank. "Wait, what?"

Rukia stared for a moment, then gestured wildly around at their surroundings. "You can't tell me you didn't notice?!"

Ichigo shook his head with a slight smile. "No, no, that's not it. It's just... You mean that your inner world isn't sideways?"

Rukia looked around again. "No. Mine is a snow covered field, with flowers. This is just..." she trailed off, turning back to face him. "You mean this is normal for you?"

"Well," Ichigo shrugged. "Yeah, apparently. Zangetsu won't explain why, either. He just ignores me." Ichigo glared at his sword, who remained silent, his face expressionless.

Rukia frowned. "If this is normal, then how come you couldn't even walk straight, or even count earlier today?"

"Um..." Ichigo looked slightly embarrassed. "See, trying to practice with Getsuga Tenshou in the real world would quickly turn Urahara's basement into more of a pile of rubble than it is already, So I figured I'd practice in here, where the only thing that gets destroyed is buildings."

Rukia stared at him. "And you didn't think that maybe destroying your own mind would be a bad thing?"

"It's not permanent," Ichigo protested. "The buildings themselves just represent my ability to access information, not the information itself. And they rebuild quickly. See, I can already count again: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten!"

Rukia frowned. "And the number after that?" she asked suspiciously.

Ichigo scowled at her. "... Shut up. The point is that it comes back. Besides, once we figured out that stuff like my coordination was being messed up, we put up barriers around the important buildings, like motor skills and fighting and stuff..."

"Important buildings? And things like basic math aren't important?"

"Not really. I can fight without using math," Ichigo argued.

Rukia was exasperated. "Fighting's not the only important thing here! What about your memories? Quiz time, how many sisters do you have?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "More random questions. These I can answer, though. Two."

"And their names are?"

"Karin and Yuzu."

"And how old are they?"

Ichigo frowned, figuring this one out slowly. He glared at her. "Not fair, you know I can't count that high yet."

Rukia shook her head. "Ichigo, they're eleven."

There was a long pause as this sunk in. Ichigo scowled again. "Shut up. I could have sworn we put up barriers around my long term memories too."

"Why don't you just put up barriers around all of the buildings in your mind?" Rukia asked, exasperated.

There was another long pause as Ichigo thought about this. "Takes too much energy, I guess? I don't know, old man Zangetsu's the one holding them up."

The zanpakuto spirit remained silent.

Rukia sighed, looking around again. Her gaze fell on the white-clad person who still stood quite a distance away, now wearing a pair of dark sunglasses. "Ichigo... Who is that you were training with when I got here?"

An expression that Rukia couldn't interpret flashed across Ichigo's face for an instant and he glanced backward. At the question, the strange white one started to come towards them, and Ichigo tried to give an explanation. "Well... He..."

She got tired of his stammering and simply theorized, "Is he a part of Zangetsu? Or is he an illusion or something?"

Ichigo looked mildly relieved. "Something like that," he agreed.

The other person laughed at this. As he got closer, Rukia was startled to realize that his features were exactly those of Ichigo's, except that he looked like he'd been bleached white. The sunglasses he wore were the same as Zangetsu's, and she couldn't see his eyes.

"Yup, the old man has to hold the barriers, so I'm here to train Ichigo!" he said cheerfully. His voice was decidedly different than Ichigo's; slightly higher pitched and slightly echoed, which was strange but similar to the old man. He grinned. "He sucks at it, though, so that's kind of boring."

"Shut up." Ichigo repeated, glancing warily at his white clone. "Anyway, did Urahara tell you how you were supposed to get out of my mind?"

Rukia sensed that Ichigo was trying to change the subject, but he brought up an important point. She felt her heart sink as she realized that she didn't have any clue how the necklace actually worked. "Um..."

Ichigo sighed, frowning. "So you're stuck here until we figure this out," he concluded dryly. "Great. Sandal-hat always did come up with the most wonderful plans..." The white Ichigo snorted with amusement.

"Maybe the necklace has some way of getting me back?" Rukia wondered.

Ichigo glanced at her. "Is that it?" he asked, pointing to her neck. Startled, Rukia looked down and realized that it was, indeed, around her neck rather than in her hand. There were so many strange things in here that she hadn't even noticed that she wasn't holding it anymore.

"Oh. Yeah, that's it." She unhooked the clasp on the chain and held the pendant in her hand, looking it over. "I don't know. It just looks like a normal necklace to me." She paused as she noted something new. "Except that it used to be pure black, and now it's gray."

"Maybe the color is a time limit of some sort? Like, when it turns white it takes you back?" Ichigo frowned at it. "It looks like a locket. What's inside of it?"

"I dunno. Hopefully, instructions of some sort." She pried it open, with some difficulty.

Inside, there were simply two pictures, one on each side of the heart-shaped locket. One was of Rukia, the other was Ichigo.

Rukia turned red, snapping the locket shut. Ichigo scowled. "Okay, as if I didn't have enough reason to want to kill Sandal-hat for this..."

"I'll help," Rukia promised, glaring at the locket, which was now a slightly lighter shade of gray.

The white Ichigo seemed to think this was absolutely hilarious, and he snickered loudly to himself. Ichigo hit him. It didn't help; he just laughed harder. "Knock it off, it's not funny!" Ichigo growled. Zangetsu smirked. Ichigo noticed and whirled on him. "Not you, too!"

Rukia couldn't help but giggle. Ichigo stared at her. "And what are you laughing at?"

"You!" she laughed. "You realize that you're yelling at an illusion, right?"

Ichigo scowled. "Well, he's an annoying illusion."

For some reason, this made the white Ichigo laugh even more. Ichigo kicked him. "Shut up!"

The white Ichigo stood back out of reach and his laughs subsided into snickers.

Something dawned on Rukia suddenly, and she looked around warily, searching. "Ichigo," she said slowly. "I came in here thinking that you'd be fighting your hollow. But I haven't seen anything that looks even remotely like a hollow in here. Where is it?"

The white Ichigo burst into another fit of laughter. Ichigo twitched, losing his patience. "Okay, that's it. Get lost." Ichigo stepped to the side and pushed him off the edge of the building they were standing on, causing his laughter to turn into a shout of surprise.

Rukia raised an eyebrow as his yells faded into the distance. "Um, will he be okay?" she asked.

Ichigo shrugged. "Don't worry so much. I wasn't even expecting that to work; it's not like we can't stand on the air or anything."

"Right. It's amazing how easy it is to forget that we can do that. Anyway, you didn't answer my question."

It seemed like Ichigo didn't know quite how to answer that. "My hollow is... taken care of for the time being," he finally said, not looking at her.

Rukia backed off. He was right that it wasn't currently a threat to him, apparently, and she already felt bad enough for invading his privacy as much as she had. Also looking away, she changed the subject slightly.

"On my way home the other day, I ran into the Vaizard," she felt she might as well mention now that they were alone (aside from Zangetsu).

That caught Ichigo's attention and he groaned, turning back to her with annoyance. "Them again. They seem to think that they're the only ones who can help with my hollow problem."

Rukia nodded. "I got that impression, yes. They told me to leave you alone."

Ichigo smirked humorlessly. "Yeah, you did a really good job of that," he said sarcastically.

"Like I'm going to listen to a couple of shinigami/hollow hybrids!" Rukia shot at him. "Or to you, for that matter. I don't care if you don't want me to worry about you. You're my friend, and I want to help!"

Ichigo hesitated, and then sighed. "You have helped, Rukia. But you have to understand, this is something I have to do myself."

"Why?"

"It's hard to explain." Ichigo said simply. He glanced down at the necklace in Rukia's hands. "If we're right about the color thing, you're almost out of time."

Rukia looked at it and saw that he was right. The locket was now a very pale gray.

"And when you get back, this never happened. As far as you're telling Sandal-hat, you saw nothing in here. Right?" Ichigo threatened.

Rukia frowned, but nodded. "Right," she promised, feeling slightly guilty. It was a lie. Urahara would be able to tell better than she could whether or not Ichigo really needed help.

The necklace finished turning a pure white, and it began to glow brighter and brighter until her vision filled with white.

Then, she was standing back in Ichigo's room, looking down at him in his bed and holding the necklace, which had once again turned black.

A moment later, Ichigo opened his eyes, looking up at her. "Good, looks like it worked," he noted. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go find Sandal-hat and kill him."

He got up and left the room, leaving Rukia alone once more. "I'm sorry," she whispered after him.

---

Urahara listened intently as Rukia recounted what had happened when she went into Kurosaki's mind.

He had already received an earful of yelling and complaints from Kurosaki himself, and the way he told it, Urahara was almost afraid Rukia wouldn't report to him. He was greatly relieved when she came by later, after Kurosaki left, to give him her own earful, plus the information he wanted.

"So, you definitely saw Kurosaki's sword, Zangetsu, right?" he tried to clarify when she was done.

Rukia raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah, I told you already, Zangetsu was there. Why wouldn't he be?"

Urahara pondered this. "Listen to this; both Kurosaki's sword and Kurosaki's hollow are part of his power. The stronger of the two is the one that manifests in Kurosaki's mind, unless the stronger one allows the other to have a physical form also. So the fact that you saw Zangetsu tells me that either his inner hollow is so weak that even his sword can suppress it, or that his hollow is letting Zangetsu also be in his mind."

Rukia's eyes lit up. "There's be no reason for the hollow to let Ichigo train with his own sword, so it's got to be the first one! That's why Ichigo said he doesn't need help!"

Urahara shook his head gravely. "If the hollow was weak enough for Zangetsu to suppress, it would be completely unable to even try and take over. Since we know that it did take him over while he was fighting your brother, it has to be stronger than that."

"Oh." Rukia's heart sank. "But then why would it let Zangetsu be free?"

"I have no idea. That's the problem," Urahara sighed. "And there's more of a mystery here as well. Why wasn't Kurosaki training with his sword itself if he was there?"

Rukia thought about this. "The white Ichigo illusion said something about Zangetsu holding the barriers that were protecting some of the buildings."

"And that's another thing," Urahara mentioned solemnly. "Most illusions don't talk, especially if the person who's making it is right there. That implies that either this clone you mentioned was more than just an illusion, or that Zangetsu is powerful enough to create autonomous illusions, which is highly unlikely."

"So, not an illusion. A part of Zangetsu, maybe? But then why does he only have one sword?" Rukia chewed her lip thoughtfully. "What is going on, then? What have we gotten from this besides more questions?"

"We've gotten the knowledge that Kurosaki's mind isn't falling apart. We've gotten the knowledge that, for now at least, he has things under control. All we can do, I suppose, is hope they stay that way, and hope that he decides to tell us what's happening." Urahara frowned, his hat shading his eyes.

Rukia sighed. "I hate feeling like I can't help him, though."

Urahara nodded. "I feel the same. Still, we can help in some ways. Trying to keep him off Soul Society's official radar, as you mentioned, and keep them from using force to bring him in against his will."

Rukia's expression hardened with resolve. "True." She stood with a sigh. "Thank you, Urahara."

"No, thank you," Urahara returned. As he watched Rukia leave, Urahara thought hard. "Kurosaki, you are one very interesting individual..."

---

Everyone in the training grounds noticed the portal to Hueco Mundo appearing all at the same time, and their heads turned in unison to the ceiling.

"There's four of them," Ichigo said at once, eyes narrowing as he tried to pinpoint them.

"I don't get it; it's too early for the Winter War to have started already," Rukia complained.

Renji shook his head. "No. This isn't the main battle. Not enough of them."

"Three of them are Espada level, though," Rukia warned.

"One of them is Grimmjow," Ichigo said with a grin. "He just separated from the other three."

As Chad and Renji both got to their feet, Urahara gave them critical looks. "Not good timing," he commented. "None of you are rested."

"I can fight," Chad insisted, but the armor on his arm faded away as he stood. Urahara was right; he was wiped out.

Renji scowled at him. "I don't care if I'm tired. I can do this."

Urahara shook his head, trying to reason with him. Ichigo didn't even bother listening; he went straight to the ladder anyway and started to climb. Rukia was right behind him, and soon enough the other three all went up as well.

Urahara probably would have kept Ichigo and Rukia out of the fighting too, if they hadn't both simply ignored him and left. Ichigo felt an irrational anger at the old shopkeeper for trying to force them to stay behind, but it quickly faded into an adrenalin rush as he ran toward the oncoming arrancar.

Rukia frowned. "Grimmjow is heading this way. He's definitely targeting you," she commented. "Be careful."

Ichigo simply smirked. "Him I can take," he said confidently.

"Don't get too full of yourself," Hichigo warned, but he was also smirking as he watched the proceedings. Ichigo was already confident that he could defeat the sixth Espada this time.

Ichigo spotted Grimmjow up ahead, standing at a level just above the roof tops, watching him. Ichigo jumped up to the same height so that the arrancar wouldn't be above him.

Grimmjow grinned at him. "I've been looking for you, shinigami."

Ichigo laughed, unsheathing Zangetsu. "That's my line, Grimmjow."

"Although I must say, your choice in company is lacking. Do you expect her to do any better than she did last time?" Grimmjow taunted.

Behind him, Rukia tightened her grip on her sword, but Ichigo ignored it. "And I must say, your choice of appearance is lacking. Seen your other arm lately?"

Grimmjow smirked at this. "I decided I didn't need both arms to kill you."

Hichigo laughed. "More likely Aizen got mad at him for disobeying orders last time."

"Probably," Ichigo agreed. "Fine. I guess I don't have to go easy on you, then." He brought Zangetsu forward and pointed it towards Grimmjow. The hilt wrap snaked itself around his arm as he released his bankai.

Grimmjow laughed, unsheathing his sword. "Just going to use that again? Don't worry; I'm ready for you this time. No surprises. Bring it on, shinigami!"

Ichigo ignored this, gazing calmly at the Espada. For a long moment, they both stood there, tensed for action, waiting for the other to make the first move.

A slight widening of the arrancar's smirk was the only warning Ichigo got before Grimmjow suddenly disappeared from his vision, but it was enough. Ichigo turned, following Grimmjow's sonido, and met his blade head on with Zangetsu. The two exchanged several quick sword blows before jumping away.

Ichigo smirked. Hichigo had been right about being able to move faster; unlike last time, he found himself actually able to keep up with the Espada's movements.

Grimmjow just laughed. "You're boring me, shinigami! Where's that other power of yours? Give me a real challenge!" Ichigo glanced briefly down at Rukia, but otherwise ignored the comment. The arrancar grinned, having noticed the look. "Oh, a secret technique, then?"

Ichigo didn't reply; instead he leapt suddenly towards Grimmjow. He held eye contact for a half a moment, and then shouted, "Getsuga Tenshou!" Immediately after the words left his mouth, he flash-stepped to Grimmjow's other side, moving faster than his own attack to release another one from the other direction. "Getsuga Tenshou!"

The two medium-strength attacks collided, trapping Grimmjow in between them. The arrancar was only lightly damaged, however, having been prepared for the random assaults that Hichigo had used during their last battle. He countered, forcing Ichigo to jump back to avoid him. Grimmjow began charging up a cero blast and Ichigo prepared to counter with a more powerful Getsuga.

Below them, Rukia activated her first dance. "Some no Mai, Tsukishiro!" A circle of ice appeared on the ground, then shot up into a column that headed straight towards Grimmjow.

Caught off guard by the outside attack, Grimmjow very suddenly found himself completely frozen in place. Mentally, Hichigo grinned, seeing a perfect opportunity to attack the arrancar while he was immobile, but Ichigo hesitated and instead lowered his sword.

"Why aren't you attacking?" Hichigo demanded. "He can't move!"

Instead of replying, Ichigo glared down at Rukia. "What was that for?" he shot at her.

She stared at him for a moment before narrowing her eyes in irritation. "What do you mean, what was that for? This is the thanks I get for helping you?"

"That wasn't helping, it was interrupting!"

Hichigo laughed softly. "I see. As usual, you're too soft to attack your enemy while he's down, and you're too proud to accept any help."

"I could have taken him by myself. I wanted a fair fight and outside help isn't fair." Ichigo argued, talking to both Rukia and his hollow.

Rukia glared at him. "What were you expecting me to do, then? Just sit here and watch you?"

Ichigo scoffed. "Nobody said you had to stay here. There's three more arrancar, you know. You could have gone to help the others."

"And leave you here to fight by yourself?" Rukia shot at him.

"Well, if you were going to stay, you should at least have not gotten involved!"

"Like I could ignore an opening like that! Like it or not, Ichigo, I'm going to help you when I can!"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Funny, that sounds strangely like-"

He never got to tell her exactly what it was she sounded like because suddenly there was a deafening noise to his left, like a large pane of glass being shattered against the ground. Ichigo whirled, realizing in a moment that Grimmjow had somehow managed to break his way out of the giant block of ice, and brought Zangetsu up to defend...

Only to realize with dread a moment later that Grimmjow wasn't attacking him, but Rukia. Changing gears, Ichigo flash stepped, trying to get in between the two of them to block Grimmjow's blow, but it was too late; Grimmjow was already there.

Rukia, startled, brought her sword up to defend herself. The arrancar simply knocked it aside, plunging his sword deep into her chest. "And stay down this time," he hissed menacingly at her. He kicked her off the end of his blade and, her eyes wide with shock, she dropped to the ground.

"Rukia!"

Grimmjow turned to him with a smirk. "Shall we continue, shinigami?"

Ichigo tightened his grip on Zangetsu, overwhelming anger filling his mind. The control he had over his spiritual energy began to slip. With an inarticulate cry, he lunged forward, half blind with rage. Grimmjow laughed and dodged easily, twisting and smashing the back of Ichigo's head with the hilt of his sword. Ichigo was sent flying hard into the street below.

"Don't lose your focus!" Hichigo warned as he slowly got back up. "You're letting your emotions get the better of you!"

Ichigo's thoughts were muddled with his anger. "Quit backseat driving!" Ichigo shot back. But he forced himself to calm down, at least a little. Anger during battle was as bad as fear, he knew, and his hollow was right; he had to focus.

Gritting his teeth, Ichigo jumped back up to Grimmjow's level again, aiming a blow at his head and releasing mini Getsugas as he slashed.

At first, Grimmjow was surprised by these smaller attacks, but all too quickly, he adjusted to them and began dodging instead of blocking in order to avoid them.

Ichigo didn't let up, continuing to block and attack, waiting for an opening to send a larger Getsuga Tenshou at him. Finally, Grimmjow dodged sideways and was slow to turn back to face Ichigo, giving him the opening he needed. No longer attempting to conserve spiritual energy, he shoved as much as he could into his attack and let it fly at the arrancar's head.

Ichigo caught a glimpse of surprise on his opponent's face before the red-tinged black wave completely engulfed him.

Immediately, Ichigo turned and started towards the spot where Rukia was propped up against a wall, the light of her healing kidou throwing soft green light and shadows across her face. "Rukia, are you all right?"

"Behind you!" she called, and Grimmjow cut through the remainder of the smoke and debris from the attack. He was heavily burned, bleeding, and short of breath. Ignoring all this, he leapt toward Ichigo again and the shinigami was forced to turn back to meet Grimmjow's sword with his own.

"I don't get it! How did you make that attack stronger, shinigami?" Grimmjow demanded, grinning.

Ichigo released his reiatsu briefly to create a shock wave, knocking the arrancar slightly off balance. "What's the matter? Can't handle it? Maybe you should give up now."

Grimmjow recovered quickly, countering with another blow that Ichigo blocked. "No way! This is great! Now I just have to get you to use that other power of yours, and this will be a perfect battle!"

Ichigo just frowned. "Focus on what's in front of you first!" he called. "Getsuga Tenshou!" He sent another medium-sized attack at Grimmjow's face.

The battle continued, with sword constantly clashing against sword. Ichigo clearly had the upper hand so far, although he was having to fight hard to keep that advantage. But he also knew that Grimmjow hadn't even released his sword yet. Ichigo still had a few tricks up his sleeves, but if the arrancar decided to take this seriously, he might still be hard pressed to keep up.

As soon as Ichigo had pushed a good distance between himself and Grimmjow, Hichigo called out to him suddenly. "Ichigo, switch with me!"

Ichigo hesitated, having just been about to lunge at his opponent again. "Why?" he asked suspiciously. "I'm doing fine!"

"You're also getting tired,' Hichigo pointed out with a smirk. "Let me fight while you rest."

There was a long pause as Ichigo considered this, breathing heavily. Grimmjow, for his part, seemed perfectly content to stand back a ways and wait for Ichigo to make the next move.

Ichigo struggled within himself. The idea seemed strange, but possibly something that could work. Tag teaming. But on the other hand, could he trust his hollow with this, especially with Rukia right there? What if the hollow only wanted to get control so he could destroy everything?

But strangely enough, if he didn't count fighting Ichigo, he couldn't remember his hollow attacking anyone other than the people he'd already been fighting, and Rukia had been there the last time this had happened. His hollow had said that he was the representation of Ichigo's instincts, but instinct didn't have to mean simply killing, and he'd proven himself again and again as they trained, never taking control unless he legitimately wanted to show him something.

Could he trust him once more?

Yes, he decided, and he moved before he could change his mind, releasing his hold on his spirit energy. At the change, Grimmjow flinched, dropping back down into an attack stance. "You better leave some for me !" Ichigo shouted. Mentally, he stepped back and let Hichigo past.

Hichigo grinned, seizing control and immediately lunging at Grimmjow again.

Grimmjow barked out a laugh as he dodged the sudden volley of attacks. "So you decided to use it after all, shinigami!"

Hichigo simply cackled back at him. "Don't talk about things you don't understand, arrancar! Getsuga Tenshou!"

He sent his attacks at Grimmjow rapid fire, using shunpo to send them at him from all directions. Dodging such an attack was impossible. Grimmjow was sent flying into the street below.

Ichigo was already itching to be back in control again."Rukia, is she...?"

Hichigo glanced down at her and grinned, noting with amusement the terror on her face as she looked at the steadily forming hollow mask. "Looks fine to me. I guess you'll have some explaining to do later," he laughed.

Ichigo groaned. Hichigo returned his attention to Grimmjow, who had gotten up and was lunging at him again. With matching grins from both parties, the fight continued.

Time after time, Hichigo sent his Getsuga Tenshou attack at the arrancar, sometimes leaving them as simple waves and at other times spiraling them to come around at him from behind. Grimmjow blocked or avoided most of these attacks, countering with his own powerful sword blows and occasional ceros.

For now, Hichigo appeared to have the upper hand, but both combatants were taking damage.

Grimmjow's fighting became more and more haphazard as he began to tire from the constant attacks. Hichigo flash-stepped behind him, turned, and fired a Getsuga Tenshou wave, piling as much spirit energy into it as he could. Grimmjow turned to face it and, unable to dodge it in time, countered with another powerful cero.

The two attacks collided in midair, exploding outwards from the force, but Hichigo's attack had been far stronger. Grimmjow was blasted backwards, and he fell from the sky to land heavily on the ground. Hichigo dropped back down to street level as well, his sword ready for Grimmjow's next attack.

Grimmjow was breathing heavily, covered in burns and cuts. Hichigo himself had several long cuts across his chest, but he ignored them; they weren't very deep.

Slowly, Grimmjow looked up at Hichigo, grinning. "Good job, shinigami. You've improved since our last battle. Now I can use my full strength against you!"

Hichigo smirked. "Bring it on, arrancar!"

Grimmjow held his sword out in front of him, beginning his release. "Kishire! Pan-"

But before he could finish, he was interrupted by the arrival of another familiar looking arrancar. Turning to face him, Grimmjow growled. "Ulquiorra..."

Ulquiorra looked impassively back at him. "The mission is complete, Grimmjow. We're leaving."

Abruptly, the two were enclosed in the yellow light of the Negation field. Grimmjow looked positively enraged.

"Running away again, Grimmjow?" Hichigo taunted. "What a pity!"

Swiftly, the arrancar angrily turned back to face the hollow. "Shut up! Don't you dare die before we meet again!"

Hichigo smirked. "Same to you."

The Negation field swallowed both arrancar into the portal back to Hueco Mundo.

"What mission?" Ichigo asked after a moment. "Were Grimmjow and the others just distractions?"

Hichigo shrugged slightly. "It's possible. There were only four arrancar, and Ulquiorra wasn't one of them. He was probably doing something while the others kept us busy."

"But doing what, though?" Ichigo asked in frustration.

"No idea. You should probably go meet up with the others who were fighting," Hichigo suggested. "You can-"

"Ichigo?" a trembling voice asked. Hichigo turned in slight surprise, having forgotten that Rukia was still there.

She had gotten to her feet again. She took a few stumbling steps towards him, one hand clenched over the wound in her stomach, her wide eyes fixed on Hichigo's. In her other hand, she held her sword loosely.

Hichigo smirked, laying Zangetsu lightly on his shoulder, since he had no sheath while in Bankai. "Sorry, Rukia! Ichigo's not here right now! Want me to take a message?" He laughed at her.

Rukia's eyes narrowed at him and her sword came up swiftly, its point resting threateningly at his throat. "Give Ichigo back, you monster," she hissed.

Hichigo simply laughed again. Inwardly, Ichigo groaned. "You're not making this any easier."

"But she's so amusing!" Hichigo responded with a grin. Reaching up, he lay one finger on the flat of her blade and pushed it away lightly. Rukia didn't have the strength to bring it back up. "So rude, Rukia! You're far too weak right now to be making demands like that."

Rukia grit her teeth and her hands clenched tighter on her sword. "GIVE HIM BACK!" she screamed, trying to take a swing at him. He jumped out of the way easily, laughing.

Ichigo growled. "Okay, enough is enough. Quit scaring her and let me have control back, you jerk. She's still wounded, that needs to be taken care of!"

'Sure, ruin all my fun,' Hichigo complained.

"I said get out of the way!" Ichigo grabbed him and tried to yank him down. Hichigo held on to his control instinctively.

"Hey, wait a- Ichigo, stop!"

Ichigo shoved again, this time succeeding in taking back control. The mask shattered. Hichigo, thrown back into Ichigo's mind, sulked slightly. "Fine, be that way. I was about to give it back."

Ichigo returned his attention to Rukia, who had dropped her sword as his reiatsu returned to its normal state. It clattered noisily on the ground.

Ichigo rushed to her side, reaching to support her so she wouldn't fall. "You're hurt. Come on, we've got to find Inou-"

Suddenly, she threw herself at him, breaking down and crying, clinging to him desperately. "Thank goodness," Ichigo was able to make out between her sobs.

Ichigo was somewhat shocked. He could count the number of times he'd seen Rukia seriously cry on one hand, and even those times she'd never done this. Awkwardly, he placed a hand on her head. "Rukia, are you all right?"

She shook her head against his chest. "Stupid idiot," she said through her tears, looking up at him. "That's my line."

Ichigo gave her what he hoped was a reassuring look. "I'm fine," he promised.

"You're not. It scares me, Ichigo. I don't want to lose you, too."

"Aww..."

"Shut up," Ichigo shot back. "I'm fine," he repeated to Rukia. "I guess now would be a good time to explain something to you."

"I hope it's an explanation for how you've managed to keep your hollow suppressed for so long, only to lose control so easily," a dry voice came from above. "Because we'd like to know the answer to that, too."

Ichigo flinched, looking up. Standing on the edge of the surrounding rooftops, several people had surrounded them. The one who had spoken was Hirako Shinji, which meant that these people were the Vaizards. He counted quickly; there were eight, including Hirako.

Rukia tried to pull away from Ichigo, but the sudden movement made her wince in pain, collapsing against him again. He held her tightly. "What do you want now?" he demanded of the Vaizard above him.

Hirako jumped down to the street and began walking towards them. "The same thing we've wanted every other time we've contacted you. We've given you plenty of time to think about it."

Ichigo scowled. "You're wasting your time."

"We wasted our time," Hirako corrected with annoyance. As he approached, he unsheathed his zanpakuto. "Now we're tired of waiting. You will come with us. It's really not your choice."

Slowly, Ichigo lowered Rukia to the ground so that he could fight without having to worry too much about her. As he did so, he kept his eyes on the approaching Vaizard. "Don't move," he directed her, only glancing at her briefly.

She glared at him, reaching out and grasping her zanpakuto, obviously not about to do what he asked.

He decided he didn't have time to argue with her, instead stepping towards Hirako. He could still possibly win this, as long as they didn't all gang up on him. Which, he had to admit, they might. Why else would they all have come?

However, for now, he at least had some element of surprise: neither he nor Hichigo had used the true form of Getsuga Tenshou while battling Grimmjow. They'd done this on purpose, not only for the potential surprise value, but also because it used up a huge amount of spirit energy. Ichigo still had enough to use it at this point, but probably only once or twice. Hopefully, that would be all he'd need.

Beyond that advantage, Ichigo also guessed that Hirako would assume he was far more tired from the last battle than he really was. He still obviously thought that Ichigo was fighting against his hollow, and so would have had to use a lot of energy to get control back.

He answered the Vaizard's comment. "I'm not going to suddenly change my mind and join you just because of a threat like that," Ichigo spat, holding Zangetsu at the ready.

Hirako sighed. "I thought as much, though I had hoped otherwise. To be honest, if it were up to me, we would go with your decision and let you do whatever you want. However, this last display of yours has even changed my mind; if your hollow can take over that easily, then obviously you need us more than we need you."

Ichigo narrowed his eyes at him. "I don't need your little group of outlaws," he insisted, gripping Zangetsu tighter. "I know what I'm doing."

"Fine. I guess we get to do this the hard way," Hirako said with a frown. Without warning, he leapt at Ichigo, who barely had enough time to bring Zangetsu up to block as he swung his zanpakuto not just once, but three times in succession.

"He's fast!" Ichigo exclaimed. He slammed on his reiatsu control to maximize his speed, sending several quick Getsugas at the Vaizard, all of which were dodged easily. Hirako almost disappeared entirely from his vision as he moved, and several of his blows connected painfully.

The Vaizard jumped at him again and Ichigo whirled around to block, missing and receiving another cut on his arm instead. Ichigo caught a glimpse of his opponent and attacked, vaguely relieved to hear metal clash against metal rather than a total miss.

"Switch again, Ichigo!" Hichigo called desperately. "He's strong! I don't even know if I can take him, but I can at least use our hollow powers!"

"Do it, then!" Ichigo agreed. He shoved hard against Hirako's blade, putting some distance between them, and then gave control back to his hollow.

Hichigo didn't even have the chance to move, nor did he even sense the other Vaizard coming. Suddenly, he was pinned to the ground, six different blades pressed at varying angles against his neck. Hirako stepped forward, tapping the point of his zanpakuto into the hollow mask. At the touch, the mask shattered.

Hichigo mentally yelled, dropping control of the body. They reeled for a moment before Ichigo grabbed up control again. Strangely, he felt nothing. "What happened?"

"Some sort of kidou!" Hichigo hissed in pain from the back of Ichigo's mind. "Don't know what, but it hurts!"

Ichigo glared up at Hirako as well as he could while he still had several Vaizard literally sitting on his back. "What did you do?" he demanded.

"Hollow repellent," the Vaizard explained boredly. "One of Hachi's recent inventions. Would have been great to have back at the Shinigami Academy. More to the point, this should be proof enough that you need us. You can't even begin a battle without your inner hollow forcing control?"

Ichigo scowled back at him. "You don't know what you're talking about," he shot back.

Hirako watched him for a second. "Let's go," he said finally. "Hachi, see to the girl."

"I will," one of the other Vaizard responded. The weight disappeared off of Ichigo's back and he was hauled forcefully to his feet. He twisted around as much as they would let him to look at Rukia. She was watching in slight shock as a particularly large Vaizard approached her.

"Leave her alone!" Ichigo yelled, struggling against the many hands gripping his arms. Where was Zangetsu? It had been taken from him in the struggle; one of the other Vaizard obviously had it.

"Calm down," Hirako intoned. "Hachi is our healer; his abilities are much like Orihime's. Despite what you may believe, we're not monsters. We're not going to just let her die."

"Yeah, right," Ichigo bit out distractedly. He'd spotted his zanpakuto, held loosely in the hand of a green-haired Vaizard with odd goggles. If he could get it back, he could send a true-form Getsuga Tenshou at them. He looked over at Rukia again, judging the distance between them, and decided she was far enough out of the way that he wouldn't hit her.

Abruptly, he made a lunge for the sword. He was unable to completely break away from the hands holding him, but he was able to grab hold of Zangetsu's hilt, and that's all he needed. He poured spirit energy into the blade. "Getsuga Tenshou!"

The black bubble of destruction had the desired effect; all of the Vaizard abruptly dropped him, backing away to safe distances. Even then, when the air cleared again, Ichigo was pleased to see that not all of them had been fast enough to escape the blast entirely, and several were sporting large burns.

With a smirk, Ichigo turned to face Hirako, trying to ignore the fact that he was completely exhausted. Hirako glared at him.

"Is that kidou wearing off?" Ichigo asked Hichigo, keeping his eyes on the Vaizard.

"Mostly," Hichigo answered, and he gave a weak laugh. "But you're on your own for now. Don't screw up."

"All right, Ichigo. We tried to be nice, but as usual, you refuse to listen to logic," Hirako yelled to him. He raised his right hand up to the left side of his face, summoning his helmet-like hollow mask. "This ends now." He flash-stepped at Ichigo again.

Ichigo thought the Vaizard was fast before, but it was nothing compared to this new breakneck speed. He barely even had time to think before Hirako was on him. He blocked as many attacks as he could, even attempting to counter-attack with smaller Getsugas when he could, but each blow was draining his energy more and more.

Suddenly, Hirako was right in front of him, his free hand pointing at Ichigo. Red energy began to collect on the tips of his fingers.

Ichigo flinched, but there was nothing he could do; it was close range, and he was too exhausted.

"Cero," Hirako said quietly, his voice strangely distorted by his hollow mask. Ichigo's vision was filled with red light as the cero completely engulfed him.

For a moment, everything went white. Then, as he felt himself fall, it all faded to black.

"Ichigo!" Rukia's feeble cry echoed in his ears, but then that, too, faded. Ichigo fell into unconsciousness.