Author Notes: After reading the first draft of the third Chapter, I realized how rushed it was and gave a very different twist ending. So I have been deleting chapters, rewriting them and posting them again until they make sense. By the ninth chapter, everything should be cleared up.


Chapter 4: The Blade In Me

(Bleach Soundtrack- Never Meant to Belong plays in the background)

Some of the students fell to their knees in horror, others vomited and others like Chizuru, Tatsuki, Michiru, Mahana and Ryo were in utter disbelief of what had occured. Reiichi felt a hand on his back and turned around briefly. He quickly assumed it was just another of the students, but something told him that the explosion he heard had to do with something way too frightening to imagine.

Orihime rushed to Ichigo's fallen form and held him in her arms with tears welling in her eyes. Chad clenched his fist in frustration of his inability to help Ichigo. The other students were shocked and utterly confused at the sight of Ichigo seemingly combusting for no reason.

Uryu glared angrily at the Hollows for their disgustingly nasty tactics as he prepared to fire a blue arrow at them- suddenly he noticed that a few of the frogs had gotten unto his back. Before he could react, they exploded, knocking him unconscious. Ryo gasped in horror.

The black haired woman gazed at the boy with a sombre look.

"So you're still here," she said with a regretful tone in her voice and sullen eyes.

Ichigo opened his eyes to see the Soul Reaper looking at him with a look of pity, slowly turned back to see his body being cradled by a crying Orihime- yet, he was still there. Before he could ask questions, he felt an emptiness in his heart- a large gapping hole was in the middle of his chest, slowly dripping out blood.

"There's something important I need to tell you- I felt your Spiritual Pressure earlier and sensed that enemies were coming after you. Those enemies are Hollows- look at their chests...what do you see," she asked the very distressed young man.

Ichigo gulped as he stared at the monsters- they all had the same type of gaping holes as he did.

"And with the ghosts you've seen, you've always seen a chain attached to a metal plate in the chest, correct," she inquired again.

He replied with a silent nod, slowly understanding the implications of those words.

"Normally, when that chain with the plate completely erodes- a ghost or Plus as we call them, loses it due to staying too long in the World of the Living due to a regret or obsession," she explained with a flat voice.

She turned to the Hollows with an intense glare of fury, before returning to see Ichigo with a look that was very sympathetic to his plight

"They become monsters who grow white masks to erase their former identities and devour humans to sate their unending hunger- Hollows. In your case, (she trembled with barely repressed restraint), it won't be long. I'll finish off these abominations...and luckily I will help you pass on in time- before...that happens," she said with a mournful pitch to her voice.

She then held up her katana in front of her with a cold look of emotionless to her eyes.

"Dance Sode no Shirayuki (Sleeved White Snow)", she declared with resolution in her voice.

Following this incantation, she turned it in a circle counter-clockwise. While she is turning it, the blade, hilt, and tsuba turned completely white. The cross guard became a hollow snowflake-like circle, and a white ribbon forms from the pommel. She then lunged herself at Fishbone D, thinly slicing the fish headed Hollow enough to loosen its grip and fall on its back unto to ground.

Shrieker and Grand Fisher remained perched on the other building, confident in Fishbone D's skills/

Ichigo then gave a look towards Orihime with a look of quiet melancholy- then to his now-exposed heart's heartbreak, she now looked to the Ichigo that was standing rather than the one that was cradled in her arms. He was now like the same beings that he had been able to see as a young boy- a ghost.

Welling even more tears than before, she tried to reach for him as Ichigo attempted to do the same.

Suddenly he felt a liquid coming from his eyes- pure white. The liquid began to expand and engulf his face, much to Orihime's heartache as Ichigo bent down in a fetal position in despair.

"God...Damnit," he said to himself as his voice slowly distorted into the dark tone that the Hollows seemed to share. As he closed his eyes that slowly turned from his brown-orange irises to yellow with black sclera.

"Ichigo...can you hear me now," said a familiar deep-voiced male.


(Bleach Soundtrack- Nothing is Explained plays in the background)

Ichigo opened his eyes to an underwater city of buildings pointed horizontally as it slowly became darker in hue as seconds passed. As he turned to look below, he saw two things that glowed brightly- one a forward horned demonic skull with a gaping toothy mouth wide open a box with several white ribbons jutting from the top of the box. Oddly, the skull did not intimidate him as much as seeing Orihime seeing his incorporeal state- he remained stoic as he float towards the space between the two objects.

"At last, you are able to see me. I have waiting for this moment for years," said the voice as the owner came from the dark bluish void in front of Ichigo.

It was a tall, stoic middle-aged man of lean-built in a tattered white dress shirt with an upturned collar and cuffs, black pants, low-heeled boots, and a long, amorphous black overcoat with a burgundy highlight that flares out into ragged ends. He wore brown-tinted, semi-transparent wraparound sunglasses over his obscured colored eyes. He had pale skin, high cheekbones, a stubbled mustache as well as beard, and long ragged black hair with brown highlights that was shoulder length.

"You're the voice from the roof top," Ichigo said with a slightly wide eyed expression to his otherwise sullen experience.

"Yes, but I've always been here. You've haven't been strong enough to sense it until the hour that you are now passing- I had wanted to wait until you had gotten prepared. But, we have no time,"said the middle-aged man with calm tone to his voice.

"What do you mean," Ichigo asked to the stoic man.

"The reasons for what purpose you have becoming stronger is not clear yet, but you who were born with the ability to see the spiritual realm- have over the course of your life, gotten stronger" answered the middle aged man.

Ichigo stood there, watching with silence with a half-closed eyed expression.

"As you've honed your combat skills, they gradually have warped into something greater than a normal man. Eventually, had it not been for this incident, they would've emerged far later than they have now. With your demise, the powers that laid dormant are now awakening to allow you to become a greater being than a man who can only see spirits ," the black clothed figure answered

(Bleach Soundtrack- Burden of the Past plays in the background)

"What kind of being? Like become Superman...," Ichigo quietly joked to which, the middle-aged man said nothing.

"Do you know what that woman with black hair is- the one that wields a sword," the black garbed man asked Ichigo of the katana wielding woman.

Ichigo shook his head.

"She is a Soul Reaper- a psychopomp that guides the souls of the deceased to the afterlife known as Soul Society; she also cuts the masks of Hollows so that they may either pass to Soul Society as well or be taken to Hell based on the lives they've lived," the middle-aged man explained as his eyewear shined ominously.

"So you're saying," Ichigo with more emotion to his voice.

The sunglass wearing man nodded silently in response.

"I don't think I can do that so easily- I realize that I currently have a hole in my chest. First, seeing a small lady in the sky, monsters after me, how I bite the dust and I'm now becoming one of those monsters...this just isn't my day," Ichigo said with an irked expression on his face.

The middle aged man then pointed to the two objects at the bottom of the space.

"There are two paths in front of you- one is to become a Hollow- a monster that lives to devour (directing towards the horned mask) and the other- is the safer option- find one of the ribbons that can unlock the box with powers within your soul (directing towards the box)," said the sunglass wearing man as he focused on the respective on

"You implied it just now- that I become a...Soul Reaper," Ichigo said with a slight hesitance to his last words.

"Yes, to use it as you see fit," the black clothed man replied as he nodded.

"And you're?," he asked the middled aged man with curiosity in his eyes.

"It'll become clear once you unlocked your power. Know that I am both your Soul Reaper powers- and the same time, I am not," the sunglass wearing old man answered cryptically.

"Do not head towards the mask, only to box. There will be a ribbon different from the others- pull it and the powers will be unleashed- if you want to take the option of the safe route," the old man said cryptically once more.

"What about the others," Ichigo asked the man, inquiring on the wellbeing of his classmates.

"They...are not doing well. In fact, in the moments we speak, they are at the mercy of the Hollows," the black garbed man explained.

"Wait, isn't that Soul Reaper chick helping-," Ichigo shouted with urgency.

"It has turned to a completely unprecedented circumstance that her powers didn't see coming," the middle aged man said ominously.

"So it's...something even she can't handle...then I don't want to be safe- I don't want this to decide my future (covering the hole in his chest)- if others are of need of my help- then I want the power to protect them," Ichigo yelled with a resolute expression on his face prepared to do what was necessary to gain the ability to rescue his friends.

The middle aged man gave a small smirk towards the young man.

"No man is truly perfect, but what he sets as his limits...is entirely his decision," the man said as he turned his head towards the top of the oceanic void.

"So even a dead man can rise from the dead if he has the will...makes me kind of a zombie. So I just have to dive after that box right and become a Soul Reaper right," Ichigo interjected with a small smile as he joked slightly.

(Bleach Soundtrack- Ditty for Daddy plays in the background)

The middle-aged man gave a slightly wider eyed expression of shock as he then took a seated thinking position

Ichigo then gave a comical expression of worry towards the old man as he asked nervously, "So what's wrong. Say something old man."

"Your hole...it was merely impaled correct," the middle aged man asked with a calm tone with a single sweat drop on his brow.

"Actually...my heart was torn out. It's ok, since I'm going to be a Soul Reaper, I'm going to withstand whatever they dish-," Ichigo replied confidently.

"You actually need that inside your body to live...even as a Soul Reaper- they're not actual zombies- merely incredibly powerful ghosts with the same types of bodies as humans- regardless of their power.," the old man said in a serious tone that was slightly tenser than normal.

"Oh...oh crap," Ichigo said with a flat tone of horror as he realized how screwed over he was.

(Bleach Soundtrack- Enemy Unseen plays in the background)

Suddenly, the horned mask emerged behind the two as the young man and the older fellow gave wide eyed expressions of unease. The box with ribbons hanging from the right side on the bottom half of its gaping jaw.

"It seems that the time that you are becoming a a Hollow is fast approaching...such a shame," the middle-aged man said with a sigh and disappointment.

(Bleach Soundtrack- Battle Ignition plays in the background)

Just as things looked hopeless, an orange glow appeared around Ichigo's chest, much to the two's surprise and quickly shrunk the hole till his chest was back to normal- his heart beating slowly.

"This feels like...Orihime...how the-," Ichigo asked with utter confusion.

Seeing the mask closing in to devour him, Ichigo took a determined expression and did something that the old man did not expect-

Ichigo then dived towards the white box, but he noticed something odd within them- one was crimson red.

As he pulled the red cloth, the box opened to reveal a cloth wrapped handle and a black aura with red outlines slowly covered his body.

Ichigo turned his head to the middle-aged man and asked, "Is this my power?"

"Yes...Ichigo, now say its name- MY NAME- before it closes in on you," the sunglass wearing man said with urgency in his voice.

"If I'm going to save them, then the safe route was never an option-," Ichigo answered as the mask proceeded to swallow the two individuals whole.


Chapter 5: White Dance, Hell Bat, Right Arm of the Giant