CH 2:
The Kurosaki family mourned for their losses soon after the disappearances of both Ichigo and Masaki Kurosaki despite ongoing police investigations. It was clear as day for those that could feel it in the air. The residual reiryouku that is.
Though Isshin may not have been able to feel it just yet, he could tell that they were gone the moment his reiryouku sparked back to life and a quiet murmuring began at the back of his mind in a voice that reminded him sorely of Engetsu. It was confirmed by a bucket-hatted shopkeeper that came around soon after however, successfully squashing any hopes of ever finding the two lost members of the family.
It broke him even further to seen his two youngest children come up to him when they had realised that their brother and mother were late getting home and came to ask him about it.
In reality, he couldn't really bring himself to tell them that monsters ate them. Instead he said that they were in an accident and wouldn't be coming home… at all, ever.
It would take some time before there was any progress made in regards to passing through this difficult time.
Ichigo stumbled over a rock because of a poorly timed step and tripped, hitting his face on the stone cold ground. It wouldn't be the first time it happened since he ended up in the 'stone forest' as Ichigo had come to call it.
He had been left rather drained after the first battle with one of the beasts and had yet to fully recover despite his miraculous recovery of his severed foot and once broken arm. Several ribs remained broken however as the voice made note that the energy expenditure wasn't worth it and that they had spent the entire beasts worth of energy and some just to heal those two parts to reasonable working condition. In the end breakfast wasn't breakfast. It was a waste of energy.
Ichigo had gained valuable knowledge from the encounter however, knowledge that the voice made sure of him to take note of despite his refusal to remember such a horrifying experience.
First and foremost was that despite the beasts direct linear speed, its ability to move around quickly left much to be desired, meaning that it found it much harder to turn and keep up its pace as compared to when it was running in a straight line. In other words movement was key…as was injury avoidance if the energy expenditure to heal something cost so much.
The other clear piece of information he had gained was that adding his blood to the energy in his attacks made them exponentially more powerful, or at least he thought it did since he had yet to attack one of the creatures without adding his blood to the weapon he wielded.
"Need more."
If it weren't for the voice's insistence at getting more food, though Ichigo didn't remember eating the beast, Ichigo would be taking a nice nap right about now, but even he could tell he was hungry now as his stomach rumbled beneath his skin.
"Turn right."
Ichigo listented to the voice as it seemed to know what it was doing for the most part when they were here. It hadn't let him down yet so he was willing to trust the voice for the most part.
As he continued in the new direction that the voice had told him to go, Ichigo could make out the sound of tearing flesh and teeth crushing bone. He winced for the most part at the unpleasant sound but the pressure at the back of his mind suppressed his feelings yet again preventing any more intense emotions get the better of him and make him run away at first sight or sound.
Walking forwards a few more steps, Ichigo stood next to a tree and pressed his back to it and slowly edged his way around the tree until he made it to a giant tree root clocking any further progress.
Leaning to the side over the giant root Ichigo made out a giant frog of some sort that appeared to be munching down on the dead carcass of some unfortunate beast that had fallen prey to the other beast's cannibalism. At least Ichigo thought it was cannibalism, they all had masks after all.
Thankfully however the frog had its back turned to Ichigo as it munched away at the dead body before it.
Sliding onto the giant root as gently as possible Ichigo made his way over it before stepping down and making his way over behind the beast as carefully as he could, trying not to make a sound as he went…well a louder sound than the crunching of bones anyway.
As Ichigo approached he readied his left hand, the other still badly burnt and let the pendant he had drop into his palm. The moment he was behind the frog he ignited the triangular weapon with a thought and leapt upon the giant frog in an attempt to surprise it somewhat and take it out in one strike.
Alas, he was not so lucky, as the searing energy that had been present for his first kill was not within his weapon and so the weapon merely bounced off of the skin, though not without a massive 'whump' noise to it. It appeared that his physical strength had increased somewhat since his last attack. That or he was somehow channelling the energy he felt to make himself stronger.
Whatever the case Ichigo was slightly disappointed he didn't kill the giant frog in a single strike, an avenue of great desire in any case especially considering his severely weakened state.
The moment Ichigo stepped backwards from the beast after making the strike the frog turned rapidly as Ichigo attempted to keep to its blind side by running around the backside as it turned to face whatever creature had failed to slay it in the first strike.
As Ichigo made his movements he was actually slightly glad for the slight miscalculation made when he attacked the frog from behind. This way he could make it to the other creature's carcass and get a bite in while the frog turned away.
Stumbling upon the body as the frog faced the direction the attack had come from Ichigo dove at it, ravenous for the mound comprised of flesh. As he approached it however and his triangular weapon neared it the flesh began to dissolve and the leftover wisps went into Ichigo's weapon, and through the weapon, Ichigo.
It was quiet the experience Ichigo thought to himself as he watched the carcass dissolve before his eyes. It made him wonder if this is what happened the first time he defeated a beast. Did it dissolve and go into him?
He was knocked out of his reverie as soon as the voice in his head blared at the incoming danger.
Turning quickly Ichigo was fast enough to hop back a step to avoid the frog's long tongue from lashing out and scoring a hit to his chest, but not fast enough to avoid the flying rubble that took the hit instead. It flew into his chest aggravating the already broken ribs into flaring up in pain.
Ichigo grunted quietly to himself as he took the hit shielding his eyes from the flying rocks with his arms crossed in an 'X' like fashion across his face.
"How dare you!" a slurring voice made its way out of the frogs mouth as it retracted its tongue from where it struck. "That was my meal! My path to evolution!"
The frog leaped forwards at a speed Ichigo was unaccustomed to seeing even when he was back in the world of the living. Surely the physical size had to slow it down right?
It appeared not as the frog's tongue lashed out yet again in an attempt to wrap around the apparently defenceless Ichigo in order to trap him.
"That was mine!" The hollow roared yet again as Ichigo managed to bring around his weapon in time and allow it to take the brunt of the force as it was forced up against his body and began to crack.
Ichigo's eyes widened at this. Not even the previous monster he had faced was capable of damaging the weapon to this extent. Then again, the previous monster had never actually struck the weapon to begin with…except for when it was having its face smashed against it.
"The masks… destroy the mask!"
The voice shouted in Ichigo's mind as it realised the connection between this beast and the previous one.
It had died from its head being destroyed though it had become rather distraught when Ichigo had managed to cause damage to it and ended up killing itself in an attempt to kill him.
Ichigo blinked as the ground passed beneath his feet and he finally reconnected with the ground causing dust to pick up from the landing and cut his feet with the small bits of rubble from the earlier clash.
Ichigo winced slightly at the sight of blood that began to leak from the cuts. He'd end up dying of blood loss at this rate!
Ichigo reached down however to smear his hand with blood yet again to attain the power boost that he had temporarily gained earlier again. His hand however stopped just a few centimetres shy of the blood and was forcibly retracted.
It was immediately obvious as to what the cause was.
"Why?" Ichigo whispered to himself as the frog approached yet again in a single leap to grind little Ichigo into dust.
"Too powerful to use consecutively…The new power you have is already straining your soul and body as it is…Don't want to die."
Ichigo blinked for a second. Had the voice just used more than just a few basic words to describe the current situation?
How strange. It wasn't even a few hours ago that it struggled to put a few words together. Perhaps eating these beasts allowed it to get smarter.
"DIE!"
Ichigo's contemplation didn't matter much at this point however as the frog was upon him, and in a flash its tongue struck out again, this time landing on the mark and striking Ichigo in the chest causing blood to come out of his mouth and the pain in his chest to elevate once again from the sudden strike.
Ichigo went tumbling backwards head over heel until his momentum died down and he came to a sliding stop on his back approximately fifteen metres from his take off spot.
Slowly rising to his elbows to take a better look at the monster approaching him Ichigo cringed slightly when the monster showed utmost confidence in its current predicament, and rightly so. Ichigo was severely injured and it was in perfect health.
"Hehehe, and here I thought you were going to be at least some fun since dared to take my food from me." The frog said amusedly as it approached him. "Well, well, what do we have here? A little boy?"
Ichigo was merely confused at this point…well mix that with a dash of fear and panic and you'd probably hit the spot. Ichigo didn't realise that the monsters were capable of such casual conversation. He thought it was all 'Die' this and 'Die' that if the scene he had seen when his mother was torn to pieces and the earlier words from this hollow were any indication.
"Don't…" Ichigo made out in a painfully wheezy breath.
"Hmm, don't what?" The frog questioned in a sarcastic voice. "Eat you?" The frog began cackling straight after that declaration and stepped forwards once more even closer to Ichigo than before, practically face to face with the poor boy, breathing directly on his face.
"Afraid I'm gonna have to though." The frog said casually. "After all, you did eat the rest of my meal you scavenger shit!"
The frog's mouth opened wide as it finished and its tongue lashed out the instant there was room for it to pass through its grotesque teeth.
Ichigo however managed to roll to the side just in time to miss the shot, though not the after effects as the ground shattered and caved inwards causing Ichigo to roll back down to the bottom of the hole and directly back into the frogs line of fire.
"I won't miss again!" The frog roared as it struck out once more, this time impacting the weapon Ichigo wielded as he used it as an improvised shield, placing it between himself and the frog, allowing the rain of frog tongue to strike it continuously.
The cracks appeared gradually as Ichigo scrunched his eyes shut in fear waiting for his shield to break and his life to end. He knew that there was only one of two ways this battle could go against this giant frog.
One was his death after the shield shattered. The other was him putting his blood into his weapon once more and possibly dying after he burnt the frogs tongue off. Neither outcome was particularly pleasant and he didn't want to die just yet, however the blood was his best option as far as things went so far.
More cracks appeared.
Ichigo's free hand reached down his leg and he wiped his hand across the fresh blood that had been spilled and placed his hand on the shield before him. He immediately regretted the decision somewhat as a burning sensation made itself known throughout his arms and began arcing around to his back and across his spine.
He wanted to drop the weapon he held in his hands badly. He couldn't though, not yet at least, not until the frog was dead.
The frog lashed out once more, striking the blazing shield and immediately searing the entire tip of its tongue.
"Ahh!" The frog cried as it stumbled backwards, confused as to the sudden turn of events. "Wha 'id you 'o! My 'ongue!"
Ichigo slowly stumbled to his feet as the frog backed off somewhat and gave him some space to move.
Pronged weapon in hand Ichigo haphazardly began to step forward one step at a time until he regained enough balance to start running at the frog and smash the weapon in the monsters face causing a chip to fall off the moment it connected. Ichigo pulled back once more to strike again but had to finish his attack short as the frog turned and swiped at him with one of its front webbed feet.
"Ahh!" The monster screeched as it saw the chip of its mask fall to the ground as it swiped at the entity now known as a danger to its continued existence.
Ichigo's step back however was far further than he had originally anticipated as green lights flickered out beneath his feet in his fear for his life. It was strange really. The more he came closer to death the stronger he became. He just hoped it wouldn't always be so close to death however.
Recovering from his leap backwards Ichigo ran forwards yet again, though under slight mental guidance's from the voice in his mind though its attention appeared to be split as it attempted to split his mind and the pain he was feeling apart while keeping him alive in his fight for his life.
Ichigo stepped left as the monster lashed out with its right frog foot and struck the ground where Ichigo had been just a fraction of a second ago. Continuing his path forward Ichigo accelerated forward yet again with a slight spark of green light when he saw the frog foot swiping back in his direction.
Passing by the frog's back foot Ichigo lashed out once again and struck its knee effectively burning his way through some of the flesh on its leg before retracting his arm and making his way around to the back of the monster.
The frog howled in pain yet again as it half limped to turn around managing to strike out with its still damaged tongue at Ichigo whom was almost on the other side of its body at this point and hit him in the side, catching the young boy off guard.
Sent tumbling to the ground Ichigo barely managed to raise himself to his knees as pain wracked his body and he only wished to cry at the impending doom as the frog thrashed and clawed at the ground. The pain sustained from using his blood in his attack was too much and the weapon in his hand had dimmed in colour.
Hastily making its way over to Ichigo in an attempt to swallow him whole the frog was caught off guard when it was tackled to the ground by a white blur.
Lavender eyes watched from a perch in the stone trees above the ground as a human?... Yes a human attacked the giant frog below them and managed to press an offense against the frog in a rather valiant attempt to stay alive after stealing the frog's meal.
To be honest the act was rather foolish and even the owner of the lavender eyes knew that, yet they couldn't help but remain impressed when the human managed to score a few hits and incapacitate the frog to some extent. It would appear that the regenerative capabilities of this frog weren't quite on par with some of the others of its species.
Well never mind that now. The way in which the human managed to disable the frog was haphazard and dangerous at best, yet it thought of different ways to survive its encounter with the frog. Even going as far to do something they had never seen done before. Combining his own blood with his energy weapon to make it many times stronger than before.
Perhaps this human had what it took to help it. Maybe they could team up…if the human wasn't for attacking anything it came across.
It was after this point that the owner of the lavender eyes began to make their move. Slithering down the tree by coiling their self around the branches they made their way to the base of the tree and just managed to make out the little human get struck down by the frog in his attempt to get around to the frogs back and strike it down.
It was then the frog appeared to be blinded to the world around it with rage. The rage that came with being critically injured by a weaker being and humiliated by having its kill stolen in the same day.
Moving quickly the snake slithered along the ground closer to the duo, coiled its body together and sprung out from amongst the trees tackling the frog to the ground dazing it in its confusion, giving them the required time to coil their body around the frog and crush it in its powerful grip.
Ichigo glanced up towards the tumbling frog and giant snake that had appeared in his vision.
Hope appeared in his heart and he desperately attempted to get to his feet and make his way away from the two fighting monsters.
It was when Ichigo heard the snapping sound did he dare turn around and look at the two battling giant creatures.
The frog was dead, its head hanging limply in the snakes embrace. There was no movement to be seen as the lifeless eyes of the frog gazed into the distance.
The snake was the first one to make a move. It approached him slowly, towering over him easily; its mouth was large enough to swallow him whole should it choose to do so.
"Are you alright?" the snake spoke in a feminine voice clearly identifying it as a female.
Ichigo sat there stunned for all of but a moment before nodding soundlessly in shock. He just tried to sit himself upright against a tree that was a few metres away behind him…though he supposed in hindsight it may have looked like he was scared of her, the monster?
"No.", Ichigo shook his head. This was no monster. The giant snake was trying to help him.
He looked up at her once more and was slightly disturbed to see a somewhat disappointed look on its face if that was even possible with the fan-like mask on its head, covering most of its face. Though, that did not stop her from approaching again, dragging the monster with her, still coiled in her grip.
"I'm ok." Ichigo replied in a somewhat confused voice.
The snake tilted its head somewhat as though in a notion to mean that it didn't believe him in the slightest. As though to emphasize that line of thought, it slid forwards the dead frog and offered it to Ichigo.
"Can you eat this?" the snake questioned somewhat hopefully.
Ichigo just nodded his head somewhat thankfully before reaching forward with the reignited weapon causing the snake to flinch somewhat and back away suddenly before it saw the weapon pressed against the frog and the almost immediate disintegration it suffered upon contact.
For a moment the snake could have sworn that there was a tiny mask at the front of the weapon the boy held pulling the slivers of the frogs disintegrating body into its mouth.
Shaking her head for a moment to clear the sight from her mind the snake looked at the boy once again and saw that he began to relax as the small cuts on his feet began to heal over and push out the foreign debris.
Finally having finished the frog off Ichigo felt his ribs beginning to click back into place and flinched when one or two felt like they were pinching his insides as they moved about.
"Why did you help me?" Ichigo questioned the snake before him as it watched him intently.
The snake appeared to look at him for a second before shaking her head and answering the question.
"I was hoping that we could form an alliance of sorts in return for me saving your life." The snake said truthfully.
Ichigo felt a little confused at that statement. The snake had completely annihilated the frog in a single attack. Why would she need his help?
Predicting his response from the look on his face the snake replied before he could speak.
"I may have killed that Hollow quickly, but that was only because of your efforts before to kill it. In any other circumstance it is unlikely that I would have been able to kill it by myself as my abilities are fairly limited due to my lack of limbs."
A look of understanding dawned on Ichigo's face as he took in the words of the snake. She wouldn't have been able to take out the frog if Ichigo hadn't distracted it. Or at least it was very unlikely.
Suddenly something clicked in Ichigo's mind.
"Wait," Ichigo said suddenly, surprised that the creatures had names to them. "You called it a Hollow. Is that what all the creatures in this forest are called?"
The snake then performed the equivalent of raising an eyebrow, whatever that was and nodded.
"I would have thought that you being here meant that you knew what this place was and what the creatures here are called."
Ichigo shook his head in response.
"No. I just woke up here after my mum and I were attacked by a monster near a river on our way home and then I woke up here."
The snake appeared to flinch somewhat at the child's shortened story. Surely there was more to it than that, but she didn't want to press just yet. Instead she would give the boy a condensed version of all he needed to know about the place he was in.
"You are in Heuco Mundo. Most of, if not all the creatures here are called hollows. They are easily discernible by the mask on their face and the hole they possess at some point on their body." The snake gestured to the hole in its midsection.
"So this forest is called Heuco Mundo?" Ichigo questioned from his position against the tree.
The Snake shook her head, "No, this forest is called 'The Forest of Menos'." The Snake Hollow corrected Ichigo. "Heuco Mundo is the name of the world we are in."
"World?" Ichigo questioned. "So I was brought to another world?"
The Snake paused for a second before nodding her head. "Though I am not sure how, you were brought to this world along with the hollow that attacked you and your mother. Normally a low level hollow can only make enough space for itself to pass through the gap." The snake concluded looking at Ichigo more intently now that it realised the sheer impossibility of the little boy passing through as he did. It was nothing short of a miracle.
"Though I must say you are taking this rather well for a boy who looks like it's his first time in Heuco Mundo."
Ichigo flinched a little before responding. "Well, there is this voice in my head that's been telling me what to do and to eat the other hollows to get through. He's been getting smarter somehow as I eat the hollows though, so I think he's learning about Heuco Mundo as I eat the hollows."
The Snake's eyes widened minutely at the response. From what she had gathered from her far and few between meals, hollows that had voices in their mind were continuously assaulted by a buzzing at the back of their consciousness. If they didn't continue to eat the noise would get louder and louder until they ate another hollow and suppressed the noise or they lost their mind and regressed back to a Menos Grande.
"You don't happen to hear a buzzing at the back of your mind do you?" The snake questioned cautiously. If he was there was no telling what could happen.
Receiving a shake of the head in response the snake sighed somewhat as she closed her eyes and went over what just happened.
"Well, I don't think you're going to get back the way you came. It must have been a miracle that you managed to pass through the planes of existence at all. If you wish to go back you'll have to learn how to open a garganta and develop an air walking technique."
The colour drained from Ichigo's face as he heard that. Garganta? Air-walking technique? What were those!?
"Or, we can team up together and you can help me reach my second evolution, an Adjuchas and I can get you back myself." The Snake stated.
Ichigo looked at the Snake in surprise. "Why can't you do that now?"
The Snake was a little taken back at the question. "He really doesn't know much about this place or hollows does he? Thank goodness he doesn't know about the Shinigami."
"Only hollows of Menos level can successfully open a garganta." The Snake replied, "The power level required to do so is too great for someone of the lowest hollow form to achieve. Even then, the air walking technique required is not possible for extended periods of time until one reaches the second evolution Adjuchas."
"I thought you said a Menos could open a garganta?" Ichigo replied in a confused tone.
The Snake looked to the side as she tried to come up with some sort of reply for the boy. "Normally yes, however, Gillan, the first evolution suffer from severely decreased intelligence, even if the dominant personality stays in control…Well, from what I can tell anyway. The likely hood of me understanding you at that point, much less surviving a trip to the world of the living is highly unlikely, and I'd like to increase my chances of survival first." The Snake explained her reasoning.
It made sense, at least Ichigo thought it did anyway, and the voice wasn't exactly giving any input at the moment so this was his own decision to make. He could either part ways with the new Snake Hollow he'd been talking to and likely die an early death, or he could team up with her until he learnt an air walking technique and how to open a Garganta or she herself made it to the second evolution.
No matter how he placed it, the second option was by far the best he was being given at the moment.
Nodding his head to himself Ichigo attempted to stand back up and looked into the Hollow's eyes and made his reply.
"I'd like to team up with you if that wouldn't be a problem." Ichigo responded politely.
The Snake appear absolutely delighted to have gained a comrade in the Forest of Menos if the way her tail was twitching was any indication.
"Wonderful." She said as she got closer to him, taking his word as permission to get closer to him to observe his wounds. "You appear to be quite hurt. Are you going to be okay?" she said appearing to be genuinely concerned with his well-being.
Ichigo nodded his head, "I think so," Ichigo said shying away a little at the sudden closeness of the female Hollow. "Though I don't think I'll be able to move for a bit." He responded.
"I'll carry you then!" she said suddenly, wrapping her tail around Ichigo and placing him on her back before taking off in a random direction.
Her head seemed to per to the side as thought she just remembered something. "Oh, I almost forgot," she started, excitement still in her voice, "My name is Cyan Sung-Sun."
Ichigo blinked and somehow managed a slight smile despite the severe hardship he had faced over the past day. "Nice to meet you Sung-Sun-san. My name is Ichigo Kurosaki."
"The pleasure is all mine Kurosaki-san."