Chapter 4: The Box


As Ichigo laid on his stomach, not that it had been by choice, he found that trying to keep himself from going insane was harder now than ever before as for one his hollow was laughing his ass off at their situation and because of the echo from his voice, Ichigo swore the hollow sounded more demonic than he normally did. Second, the blue haired espada had already tried to blast the box open with a close quarters cero; which resulted in the space filling with smoke that was now slowly choking him. So either he was going to die from one of two hollows causing him to go insane or from smoke inhalation; either way, if he lived, he was so killing Urahara.

"Kurosaki, you dead?" he heard the cocky arrancar speak.

"No." he said quietly. He definitely had become a bit subdued because of the situation. Yes, he was scared, but he wasn't going to let panic overtake his senses. He needed to think, but with the espada or his hollow talking, yelling or laughing at him; he could barely hear his own thoughts. Where did Zangetsu go? He wondered idly as he suddenly realized that his usually quiet zanpakuto spirit had simply vanished when he had appeared in this box along with his sword. "Grimmjow..." he began only to feel the arrancar stiffen. "where is your sword?" he asked, for having one would surely come in handy.

Ichigo groaned as he found himself being tossed about again, this time his head hit one of the box corners, causing him to hiss at the sudden contact. "Gone." was the panthers answer as Ichigo tried, unsuccessfully, to turn around to look at the espada. Of course, that would only happen if he suddenly developed nightvision. "Yo, Kurosaki. Why you got that twisted look on your face?" Ichigo could've sworn the man was smirking from the sound of it.

Wait a second... his mind came to a screeching halt. "You can see in the dark?" Ichigo asked.

"Tch." He heard him snort. "Of course I can!" he yelled. "Hueco Mundo is a world of darkness with only that damn moon hanging in the air for light. All hollows can see perfectly in the dark." Grimmjow smirked at the embarrassed look the orange haired youth seemed to gain.

Fuck. Ichigo just wanted to curl up and die now. How embarrassing.

Grimmjow neither cared nor wanted to know why the boy he'd been trying to kill was embarrassed. He had a hard enough time understanding his own emotions, he wasn't about to try to figure out another's. He looked at his fingers suddenly when he felt a vibration go through them. Pulling some of his power forward he was shocked to find that it was no longer answering him.

"What the fuck?" he said in more of a questioningly way than he meant it to sound.

This caused Ichigo to look at the espada, or at least turn his head in the direction that the espadas voice was coming from. "What is it?" he asked when he didn't hear anything else coming from the violent hollow.

"My power is no longer answering me." he stated, his voice sounding slightly panicked.

If Ichigo remembered correctly, if a hollow couldn't feel it's power it usually meant that the hollow was starting to regress. He knew that wasn't the case here. Urahara more than likely sealed their powers after Grimmjow had released that last attack. Probably thought that attack was directed at me. He mused. A part of himself wanted to keep this from Grimmjow, but the panic in the hollow's voice seem genuine. Sighing he went to explain. "Don't panic..." he began only to get a kick to his stomach.

"Don't panic!" Grimmjow yelled. "Fuck you Kurosaki!"

Groaning Ichigo dislodged the foot from his stomach. "Listen you idiot!" he yelled at him. "Urahara probably just sealed our powers because some idiot released a damn cero in close quarters!" he snarled. He could feel his hollow bleeding into his personality. Shaking his head, he forced the albino back and away from him. He was met with dark laughter for his effort. "Look, knowing him, he did this to get intel out of you on Aizen."

"So I'm a prisoner of war." Grimmjow stated and suddenly chuckled. "I don't know anything. Just that he's trying to create that damn key to get to the Soul King."

"Yeah, we already know that much." Ichigo said quietly as he pushed his back against the farthest wall away from the blue haired menace, which was only as far as his leg could reach.

The two sat in silence for a few short moments. Ichigo not really wanting to talk and Grimmjow even less so; but they both knew they had to get some sort of information out of the other. Neither could waist such a golden opportunity. "What's you side planning to do?" Grimmjow truly wanted to know. He liked fighting this kid, he was fun and he could definitely see himself enjoying a grand fight in him one day, if he'd get his act together.

"I'm a substitute, what part of that do you not understand!?" Ichigo half yelled, half questioned the espada. "They don't tell me shit!"

That got a quirk of an eyebrow out of the unusually docile espada of destruction. "Seriously?" he questioned. "Then why the fuck do you help those fucking weaklings?" he smirked at the sudden angry look the kid got on his face. "You could be so much more powerful, yet you fight like a puss because you don't use your true potential." his chest rumbled with a growl. "I hate fighting weaklings, so stop fighting with those weak Shinigami, because they're somehow making you weaker."

"Weak?" Ichigo asked, a frown appearing on his face. "If caring for my friends, my family makes me weak; than I'd rather be so than an arrogant prick!"

Grimmjow felt taken a back by that. The kid would rather be weak than give up his people? It didn't make sense to him. As a hollow, if you wanted to be strong you had to kill others to become stronger. If you hung around weak hollows, you'd sooner or later become food to the stronger hollows. He snarled in frustration. He didn't understand humans or shinigami. The way they thought was just strange.

"Aizen is still building his army." he stated remembering that stupid, almost hollow kid that he had just created using that stone. "He won't attack soon, but he won't be waiting too much longer."

Ichigo raised a single orange colored eyebrow. "What's he waiting for?" Ichigo inquired, truly curious what was taking the shinigami traitor so long to attack.

"Truthfully?" Grimmjow ask the youth, gaining a nod he continued. "I think he's looking for something, a weakness of some sort."

On whose part? Ichigo wandered when he felt the panther begin to move again. "Stop moving, you're only gonna get more uncomfortable."

"I hate tight spaces!" Grimmjow growled at him. "How about this Kurosaki, I won't try to kill you for now, if you get off your ass and help me break this fucking thing." Grimmjow smirked at the shocked look that crossed Kurosaki's face.

"Deal." Ichigo answered him. "However, the moment we are free..."

"...I'm going to kill you." Grimmjow finished. "After I kill a certain shinigami exiled freak."

Ichigo smirked at him. "Only after I have a shot at him." The two shared the same malicious smirk.

"Deal." Grimmjow stated as his grin grew at the thought of a bloodlust filled fight.

Outside the kido box seal Urahara Kisuke suddenly sneezed before freezing as he felt the eyes of one of his best friend's land on him. "Tessai..." he groaned as the dark haired man's eyes seemed to gleam at him.

"When this is over, remind me to look for my herbal remedies for you Boss." he said as he helped move the seal to the underground training facility under the shoten.

Urahara groaned. "But I'm not getting sick!" he bemoaned as he followed Tessai down into the basement to begin transport of both the arrancar and hopefully the still alive Ichigo Kurosaki.


M-Angel: LoL. I loved that scene in the anime where Tessai used one of his remedies to help Urahara feel better only for Kisuke to end sick to his stomach. I had to write something like that here. It just was asking for it!