A/N Hello all! It is I, yet again! This time, I'm putting a bit more into the length. I may get a bit of trouble with OOC, but I think that I explained it pretty well. New chapter will be up each day for the next three days, hopefully! All of which I plan to have this length, if not more so. Again, please review! I needs my reviews, to know if I am doing anything bad! If not, then a little bit of encouragement is always welcome. Anywhore, onwards to progress! Oh and tell if you liked the fight scene *SPOILERS*
Disclaimer: Again, Tite Kubo= awesomeness maker
On his way home, Ichigo's combat pass starts going off and pointing towards the park to his right. Although he can't sense or see anything, he definitely felt a Garganta open. Please not one of those. He's not sure that he can handle one of those, especially with his current condition. If he loses control right now, there is a very high possibility that he won't be able to get it back.
He runs to some near bye bushes, uses his pass to separate his soul from his body, and makes sure he won't be aching when he gets back in. Then he turns towards the direction that the Garganta was. Taking off at a run, he hopes that it's just a hollow that can hide its spiritual pressure.
As he nears the park, he sees what he had hoped against. Right there, in the middle of a group of children, looking down with wide eyes as if he were a beggar at a king's feast, was a Vasto Lorde class Menos. Locking his jaw and narrowing his eyes, Ichigo takes Zangetsu off of his back and points it at the monster, and yells at it.
"Hey, you disgusting freak! Over here!" he yells at the hollow, getting its attention along with no small amount of irritation. As it Sonidos over to stand five feet away from Ichigo, it looks at him with an annoyed frown, which turns quickly into an amused smile as it senses just how much reishi this kid has. It licks its lips and pulls its French Rapier-esque zanpakuto out of its sheath.
Now that Ichigo has a clear view of the creature, he notices that it is wearing a formal military like white and black coat, with a matching hakama. The sash around its waist is black, and holds his plain white sheath in place. The top half of its face is covered by its masquerade like mask. What he can see, however, is a thin, black, pointy mustache with a goatee that points straight downward. It has full lips that protrude slightly, as if puckering up for a kiss. It has heavily tanned skin, and from what he can tell, it looks male. But when it speaks, he can barely contain a laugh, because the squeaky, high pitched sound that comes forth from the hollow's mouth is NOT what he expected.
"Monsieur, I hope you don't mean to fight me. It is hopeless for you." Upon seeing Ichigo's reaction, however, it gets angry. "I assure you, Monsieur Orange Head, that I do not kid you. You will die here!"
Upon hearing the last sentence, Ichigo breaks into hysterical laughter. He just can't bring himself to feel intimidated by this guy.
Now thoroughly enraged, the large man with the tiny voice attacks, causing Ichigo to snap back to attention. As soon as the first strike is blocked, the second is given, which cuts a shallow, but in no way small cut along Ichigo's right arm. Ichigo Flash Steps away, only to be followed bye way of Sonido, and realizes that it's time to go Bankai. This thing is fast, but Tensa Zangetsu can make Ichigo faster.
Shooting off into the air, he fires a Getsuga Tensho to buy some time, and he feels a pull. And he knows exactly what it is. This is what he is afraid of. If he fires another Getsuga, or uses his powers at all, he will no doubt lose control. At this point, he is afraid of even going Bankai, because he knows that might have to tap into his hollow's reishi reserves.
So, instead, he dashes into the smoke made from his earlier attack missing and hitting the ground. He swings at the spiritual pressure, only to miss and be kick hard in his left side, sending him soaring directly above the terrified group of children. It is then that he notices that they are a bit to danger close, and that he needs to get them out of the area and fast. So, he does the only thing he can do; he goes Bankai. After the blast of spiritual pressure, he Flash Steps all of the children out of the park, leaving him and the hollow to fight.
Since he is already in Bankai, he feels no reason to revert into his usual Shikai state. Instead, he just disappears from sight, only to reappear behind the creature and swing, making a deep gash on its back. As it cries out in pain, he attempts to behead the arrancar, only to slice the air in half.
"HOW DARE YOU, YOU INSOLENT SOUL REAPER!?" The angry hollow screams, at Ichigo. "I AM JULIAN-CLUADE FONTAINE! I WILL NOT TOLERATE THIS! PIERCE HIM, FLECHES RADIANTS!"
At the command, the sword disappears, and the arrancar's arms morph into dual crossbows, each locked with a glowing yellow arrow set to shoot. It starts firing into a huge volley of energy arrows, which fire as fast and deadly as lightning bolts. Ichigo manages to dodge most of them, but is caught by one, which explodes as it makes contact with his upper left arm. Ichigo plunges into the ground, Julian does not relent. As it makes its way towards Ichigo, it keeps firing into the dust cloud, until it stops to let it settle and see how much damage is done. However, he never gets the chance.
…
As she runs down the sidewalk, she continues the spew random curses while trying to keep the tears back. She isn't completely successful. However, in the middle of her rant, she feels a two spiritual pressures letting of a ton of reishi. And when she recognizes one, she runs towards it. She doesn't know why, and she doesn't want to. She just knows that he is probably being a dumbass and is about to get killed. Regardless of what has happened, she can't let that happen. He may be a dumbass, but he is still one of them.
But as she nears the park where the fight seems to be going on, something changes. And she knows what it is. She feels her gut tighten and her stomach do back flips. Her heart clenches and her eyes go wide when she sees Ichigo donning that half mask and that insane, murderous, battle-crazed smile, letting out that laugh, the one that has been haunting her for the past five and a half hours. The one that makes her want to run, cry, and curl up in a ball all at once. The one that sends shivers down her spine and panic attacks back up it.
As she watches, the hollowfied Ichigo literally turns the poor arrancar bastard into hamburger. Then, he snaps his attention back up, and zeroes in on her. She can't move, she is frozen in place by fear. All she can do is stand there and wait for the inevitable.
Once he sees who she is, his smile is wider than ever before (if at all possible), and he is off like a bullet. Once he is within striking distance, he sticks his hand out towards her collar, hoping to rip it off in one go. This is going to be so good! BWAHAHAHAHAHA! However, as his hand comes to about five inches from the white fabric, a red, transparent surface intercepts his fingers, causing them to crunch against the force and speed of his swipe.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGH!"he yells, clutching his broken hand, as he looks to find the source of this new grievance. And his response comes in the form of a kick to the face from an all too familiar sandal. As the mask shatters, he sees two faces before he falls backwards into unconsciousness. One is a terrified Hiyori, which causes a pain in his gut to make its way into his heart. The other is a very serious, very worried looking young shop owner, with an arm around Hiyori, trying to calm her down before she breaks into hysterics.
"Thanks…. Hat 'N' Clogs…" he manages to get out before black takes over his mind.
…
"It's okay Hiyori. Don't worry, I'm here," Urahara says in a fatherly tone. He knows when to be serious, and that know is one of those times. She needs someone to help her, and right now, he's the only one there. Why Shinji and the others aren't already there yet, he doesn't know, and it makes him angry for two reasons. One: he doesn't like not knowing things, and two: when it comes to Hiyori, he hates to see her in harm's way. She is one of the few people that he gets this way for. If she were to die, it would take quite a toll on him as well. She was his lieutenant, after all.
Hiyori doesn't say anything in return. She just turns to her former captain, looks him in the eyes with the terror still plain on her face, and does the one thing that she promised never to do. Falling into Kisuke's embrace, she lets go. She lets go of her tears, lets go of all the emotions pent up inside. I guess this is as close to Captain Hikifune as I can get. They stand there for about five minutes, him just letting her cry her heart out, before she backs out of his front and whispers the barest of 'thank you's. Then she turns around to look at Ichigo. He is lying there, twitching every so often, his face set in a mortified look as though his whole world has been destroyed. And in a way, it has been.
…..
Ichigo awakens to the sound of another skyscraper collapsing, its support beams finally giving way after all of the stress put on their weakened state. His eyes snap open and his upper body shoots up, looking for anything that could signify the presence of Zangetsu. However, he is not there. In his place is a stark white mirrored version of himself, right down to the last spike in his hair.
"What the hell have you done here?" Ichigo growls out, looking as though he is going to rip his hollow apart. "Where the hell is Zangetsu?"
"When you say Zangetsu, do you mean…"That one gets him a kick to the face.
"Quit with the shit, now tell me what you've done here!" Ichigo yells at his inverted doppelganger.
"Now now King, I don't like your tone," the hollow says, as he pulls the negative impersonation of Zangetsu off of his back. "Besides, I didn't do a damned thing! It's YOUR mind that makes up this world; therefore it's YOUR mind that's breaking! Every time you use my power, you get just a LITTLE more unstable, so I guess it is my fault after all. Oops!"and with that, Ichigo's other half rushes forwards to the readily awaiting real Ichigo.
What Ichigo doesn't expect, however, are the next words that come out of the beast's mouth.
"In just a little while, I'll have complete control over our body, King, and then I'll take my time in enjoying that little Hiyori!"
That's when something snaps. And that something just so happens to be the hollow's face, around Ichigo's knuckles. Ichigo then grabs the instinctual being's face and slams it into the barely standing skyscraper, causing the glass to all but shatter in his newly reinforced Inner World. So what if that reinforcement is anger?
The cracks then start to grow in white hot anger.
Oh, that's what.
Deciding that his torturer could use a little bit of agony himself, Ichigo presses his hollow's face into the pressure fractures, causing the white body to writhe and scream in pain.
"Do not, EVER, go near her again. Do not speak of her. Do not even think of her. If you do, I will know. And when I get back here, I will PERSONALLY do this and MORE. AGAIN. Do you understand?" hearing no response but screams of agony, his anger starts to boil over. In the form of lava. Seeing this, the horse is quick to respond to his king.
"YES! I UNDERSTAND! JESUS KING, GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
Something about hearing a being of instinct and fear scream out in pure instinctual fear just has a certain appeal to it, Ichigo finds. He then promptly picks his hollow up by the throat and holds him over the fiery liquid. "Now bring Zangetsu back!"
"DAMMIT KING! I ALREADY TOLD YOU! I AM ZANGETSU!"
"I said NOW!" He then lets the monster's hair get singed, almost lighting on fire, which gets his agreement easily. He then vanishes, and Zangetsu appears before him, on top of a pole that is seemingly unharmed by the fiery magma oozing around it.
"Ichigo," the deep, ominous voice of Zangetsu is released from the being's lips. "Calm down. Please, we must try and repair this world, not destroy it further."
"You're right, Zangetsu. Glad you're back, old man." Ichigo starts to breath deeply, and the lava dries up, seeping through the already sealing cracks. Ichigo then opens his eyes again. He looks at Zangetsu, and decides that if anyone were able and willing to help him sort things out, it would be him. "Zangetsu, can I trust you? I mean, outside of battle? As a friend?"
"Of course, Ichigo. I am willing to help in any way that I can."
"Well, it's just that… I'm scared, Zangetsu," Ichigo confides to his sword. He would never say that to anyone else. After all, Zangetsu is just a being of his own spirit, isn't he? So it's not like he is actually confiding in somebody. He just wants to vent.
"What are you afraid of, Ichigo? Are you afraid of your hollow taking over? Are you afraid of losing control? Or, are you afraid of hurting Hiyori?"
"You hit it right on the nail, old man. I just, I don't know what to do! If I stay how I am, he will definitely take over, but I'm afraid of going back there anymore."
"Why are you afraid, Ichigo? Do you fear that they will treat you differently?"
"No, it's not that. It's just, I don't want to hurt them again."
"You mean, hurt her again. You never touched anybody there other than Miss Sarugaki."
"Well, I suppose you're right as always, Zangetsu. Thanks, I owe you one."
"No, Ichigo. It is I that owes you; you have saved me yet again from that hollow, and we have already fixed most of our problem."
As Ichigo looks around, he notices just how much this talk with Zangetsu helped. Already, buildings are rebuilding, with only the slight cracks of minute amounts of worry etched into them. "Wow, looks like you're right again, Zangetsu. See ya later, old man."
"Goodbye Ichigo."
And with that, Ichigo plunges back into reality.
