Darkness and his Light

A/N: Sorry about the poor last two prologues but they were necessary for something later. The chapters will be longer and hopefully better quality so I there'll probably only be three or four of these a week until school starts up again. Anyway I hope you enjoy Chapter 1.

Thanks for reviewing it really means a lot knowing I've gotten something right.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any other Anime/Manga franchise.

Chapter 1: Gaining power

(With ?)

"Arrghh!" He screamed in intense pain his voice sounding a bit demonic (like Ichigo's hollow form). Coming out of the right side of his mouth was a white substance that started rapidly spreading out over his head covering the whole right side of his face and back and most of the top of his head.

The substance then started moving down the right side of his body and his left arm, leaving his left leg mostly untouched, before settling down in the middle of his chest.

After having calmed down, the white substance started taking shape. His head had a white forward-pointing horn on the right and a smaller black one the left (A/N:White's horn's but longer on the right and shorter on the left). He had half of a hollow mask with a straight, thick black line running from the bottom of the mask to the back of his head, not quite touching the horn. He has dark spiky brown hair with a blond streak running through it, though only visible on the left side of his face and down to his mid-back. His right eye has a black sclera and a yellow iris with a slit for a pupil, and a normal, ocean blue left eye. His left arm was black with a long black blade for a forearm and his right arm was white with long black line from the shoulder to the middle of his hand before extending to his fingers which were shaped more like claws. The same design was on his leg. In the middle of his chest was a white was semi-large hole that wasn't quite a full circle having a white crescent inside the hole.

Overall his body was white with a silver tint to it and stood at a height of 5'8". The body parts mutated by the strange substance were leaner and muscular as well a lot stronger then before. Just as his transformation was complete he released a large amount of spiritual pressure, worthy of a 4th seat Shinigami, before it started condensing on itself now barely as large as most 12th seat Soul Reapers.

"Ugh" Not used to having as much power as he just used, ? then fell unconscious drained of any energy, spiritually or otherwise.

However, even having next to no spiritual pressure right now, the short burst of power he had just displayed had immediately given his location and presence away to any hollow and soul reaper in this town or the next.

(Karakura town)

"Hmm? Seems like there's another strange hollow on the loose." A tall man wearing a green and white stripped bucket hat said sounding nonchalant.

This man was Kisuke Urahara. He has messy, light-blond hair with strands framing the sides of is face and hanging between his eyes. He wears a green and white stripped bucket hat that shadows his eyes, a dark coat with a white diamond pattern along the bottom half over top of a dark green shirt and pants. He also had a fan in hand.

It had been four days since White's demise. Isshin had given up his life as a Shinigami, with help from Urahara, in order to save Masaki from undergoing soul suicide and turning into White himself.

Medicine, being the only thing he learned from Reijutsuin Acadamy useful in the world of the living, he ended up opening a small clinic and started learning new things to help himself survive the living world with a bit of help from Urashara.

"So that was another Hollow that fights like a Soul Reaper?" Came the somewhat deep voice of a black cat.

"Yeah but this one feels different somehow. More like a human but still a Hollow as well as and something else?" "Maybe it's like another Visored. Though it makes me wonder how a human called have gone under something like the hollowfication process and survived without my antidote. Unless Aizen's been experimenting with Hollows again." Urahara said with rare seriousness

"Whatever it is, we need to prepare. It seems like something big is about to happen in the coming years." The cat stated

"Yeah your right. That thing seems have used up all it's spiritual pressure carelessly leaking it out like that. It's bound to attract a lot of Hollows. It's as good as dead, one less risk we have to worry about. If on the off chance it survives all the Hollows and Soul Reapers after it we need to found out what it's intentions are and where it's allegiance may lay." Urahara stated in a even tone.

"...Very well" The cat said before jumping off the wall it was perched on and running away.

(with ?)

Still unconscious, ? slowly started waking up inside his inner world.

"Ugh, where.. ..am I?" ? said his words sounding more like a statement then a question.

Getting up, ? finally took notice of his surroundings. He was in a small grey room with doors to around him. Directly in front of him was a door with the kanji for 'Human' on it. To his right wasn't really a door and more of a blurred mess that looked like it could have been a door. The door to his right looked like it was chained shut to keep anything from going in.. and more likely.. ..getting out. The door had black, white, and gold hue coming off it, and if one looked closely, the kanji 'Hollow' could be seen on it.

Not trusting the 'Hollow' door, and the right being a mess, ? slowly walked up to the 'Human' door and opened it revealing another room with more doors. The door on the left had 'Memories' written in kanji on it, the middle had 'Heart', and the door on the right had a crossed out 'Emotions' on it.

Stepping through the door and closing it behind him, ? felt his mutated limbs start reverting back to their original form but not disappearing fully though much less prominent now. He now had his left hand back though the whole arm was still a light black. Everything seemed to fade in colour and the mask only came down to his cheek. His long horn was now only as long as the short was and the short horn was now only a little stub on top his head. His hair also shortened considerably, only reaching his shoulders.

(A/N: This'll be his appearance in the 'Human' door and will only change if I give it a new description in the story)

Going from right to left, ? creaked open the right door only to be met with pain, unfathomable pain but unlike his transformation, this pain wasn't physical his chest and head ached and felt a bit.. ..hollow.. ..empty so he pulled it shut with every bit of strength he could muster to get rid of the pain. Surprisingly, the door didn't break, not even a creak or chip appeared, and the cross over the writing shortened a little bit, though not enough to be considered significant.

"Agh n-no s-stop ple-"

Th Ump

Feeling extremely light-headed, ? collapsed to the floor and stayed there for a few minutes to regain his bearings.

When he felt he had enough strength to move again he sat up and dragged himself over to the wall for some support and slowly started getting back up.

'Sigh'

'Let's just get this over with.' he thought with defeat.(A/N: He won't sound demonic like Ichigo in thoughts cause he retained his human mind)

Moving the middle door he slowly pulled it open fully expecting to be met with a similar pain to the last. He closed his eyes and tensed his face preparing for the pain, except it never came. Instead what greeted him was an flowing warmth and feeling of satisfaction which completely shocked him. This door was the complete opposite of the last door so, feeling confident ? pushed the door completely open and felt more warmth and saw a blinding light but felt something was missing and starting thinking as to what it could be.

When he realized he felt satisfaction, which he thought was an emotion, he looked over to the first door he visited in this room and sure enough, one of the lines running through the kanji was gone.

Having an idea as to what was going on he walked to the last door and open it not knowing what to expect. What he saw though surprised him, through the door was another room this one having 'Muscle', 'Brain', and 'Soul'. Not really understanding the brain and soul doors, ? tried soul first already having an idea as to what muscle was.

He was disappointed though when the door turned out to be locked. Trying 'Brain' next, ? was assaulted with memories of his life when he was alive. He remembered catering to his pregnant mothers needs when he was six. Spending those boring nights in the hospital. All the celebrations he thought important. Then he remembered how he died.. ..what happened to his family.. ..his little brother.

Pure Rage.. Absolute Anger towards the one who would so easily destroy life.. ..His families life.

His blade came back full force even extending slightly longer and being sharper then before.

Seeing the long blade only seemed to anger him even further, making him remember what happened in more detail.

Remembering he called for help seemed to snap him out of his Hatred for White before he grew worried for his brother's and any surviving members of his family's safety, subconsciously willing himself out of his Inner World.

(Outside)

Quickly sitting up, ? was greeted to the sight of a pierced hollow mask. It seemed a small hollow tried to get jump on him while he was unconscious.

'Huh?' Obviously confused as to how he was now back where he remember being before falling unconscious and there was a weird creature with the same mask as that monster only not humanoid in the least besides having arms he suddenly figured what was happening when he saw the creature's claws.

"Grrgh! I'll kill every single one of you evil masked freaks!" He roared out before slashing the hollow to bits.

There seemed to be a lot of these creatures around because everywhere he looked he could see there was at least one there or could somehow feel them hiding in the shadows.

Looking down at the hollow he just killed he noticed his body seemed to absorb it and he felt somewhat more energetic then he did before. Storing away that little piece of information away for later, ? braced himself to slaughter every single one of the masked creatures that he could lay his eyes on.

(A/N: Skipping the 'fight' because it'd take too long and they're just a bunch of weak hollows. Like fifty of them, but still low level, weak ones.)

"Ha.. Ha.. .. HA HA HAA!" ? screamed like a psychopath. He had noticed pretty early on in the fight that if he was near a dead hollow and focused on it, he could start absorbing it becoming stronger in the process.

"Any left! Is there anyone left who thinks they can challenge me!" Still eager for a fight he started looking around for anyone who still put up a fight but when he saw nothing but dead hollow bodies the littered the area he started to calm down.

"I guess that's it" He said a little saddened about no longer having the thrill of battle running through his veins.

'I better clean this place up a bit.' ? then started running around absorbing all of the bodies of the hollows he killed.

'sigh'

'Oh man, what do I do now?' He thought before remembering why he was so angry in the first place.

'God damn it! How could I be such idiot to get sidetracked so easily!' He berated himself

Flying to his old home, ? quickly search the premises and sound the iron scent of blood revolting though thankfully there was no bodies to go along with it.

Concluding that help must have arrived he left as quick as he came, focused on getting to the nearest hospital as quick as he could.

Arriving at the hospital in record time, ? ran past any security and staff that he noticed never even spared him a glance which he thought was a bit odd and searched every ward for his little brother. He was caught off guard by the sound of sobs that sounded a lot like his mother.

Not really having positive emotions, ? didn't feel very attached to his family and found it a lot easier to come to terms with their deaths so hearing this threw him through a loop, His mother should be dead, right? (A/N: I'll explain now why he's worried about his brother despite not being attached. ? has a strong sense of morality (when he's not fighting and going through his crazy moments) and feels that even though he has no current feelings toward his family, he should feel sad and angry that they're dead because that's what he should be feeling, he would normally be worried about his brother too so he forces these feelings to try and still feel human. That makes sense right?)

Walking into the room ? noticed it was, in fact his mother mostly unharmed crying next to a hospital bed.

Smiling lightly too himself he looked up to see his brother. Attached to him was lots of cords and needles hooked up to a big bleeping machine.

'sigh'

He reached a hand out to his mothers shoulder to try and soothe her worries.

She whirled around feeling a large hand on her shoulder but when she turned around she saw no one there.

Seeing his mother look a- no, looking through him as if he wasn't even there really unnerved him, but he stayed silent.

Turning back around to face her youngest child she begun to sob quietly for a little bit before speaking for the first time that day.

"Your Mother's going crazy without you and your brother here, so please, please wake up... Your all I have left in this world now... Kuruden."

Frowning ? looked out the window on the other side of the bed and finally took in his new appearance.

'Is that me?' he questioned with shock written all over his face 'No way that's impossible, it's probably that thing messing with me. He denied

"I'll kill him, yes I'm much stronger now I'm sure I can" He said inwardly planning out his revenge.

'No what am I thinking! I could barely lay a scratch on him and I'm pretty sure my eyes could've been playing tricks on me!' he thought coming back to rational thought.

'I need to get stronger, much much stronger than I already am if I even want to think about killing him.' He thought, determination clear through his left eye though his right eye just screamed of bloodlust.

? started feeling out the area for an nearby hollows but when he couldn't find any worthwhile he left the hospital room and headed towards the next town over in hopes of finding more hollows there then in the average town he used to live in. The next town being.. Karakura Town

(Karakura Town)

"It seems like it survived somehow and is on it's way here." Stated the black cat from before with interest. "I guess I better get on with it then."

Jumping onto a nearby roof from a tree, the cat started heading towards where it could feel the now more powerful being.

(With ?)

"More, I need to find more of them." ? said actually sounding serious and focused on a bigger goal then fighting for the sake of it.

He was just going about go off and look for more hollows when he found a black cat sitting on a wall in front of his face, the cat also seemed to have more power then every hollow he absorbed combined that he couldn't detect before. Or maybe absorbing all those things did something to his brain, there's no way a cat would have more power the all tho-

"Hello, your quite an interesting one aren't you." It said with amusement.

'It talked?! I'm definitely losing it then!" He thought absolutely bewildered.

"I can assure you your not going crazy, I am able to speak." It once again spoke, this time it's amusement showing on it's face.

"You can read minds too?!" obviously shocked about this turn of events.

"No but your face is like an open book." The cat clarified.

"Oh, I guess that makes sense." He said momentarily forgetting he was talking to a cat. "Wait! How are you able to talk?"

"Would you mind coming with me for bit please" Completely ignoring the question the cat begun walking away.

"Oi, you didn't answer my question and who are you anyway." ? said irritation clear in his voice.

"Me? My names Yoruichi but isn't it customary to give your name first?" Yoruichi said with the same grin since the start.

"My name?"

"Yes. What are you call-"

"I know what a name is damn it!" ? interrupted

"My name huh.." "..My name is..."

A/N: Finished chapter one! Took me a little while doing this one there's almost 3,000 words in this one. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. Also feel free to ask any questions you might have. Especially with any plot holes this story might have I don't see any but I'm sure I've most likely just missed it, this is my first story after all, there's no way there isn't any.