Chapter Four

Unlike most of times he'd had to a use Senkaimon Gate, this time they had Hell Butterflies so as they were on their way to Soul Society Ichigo and Rukia could actually walk through the passage way instead of the usual running-for-your-life-or-get-killed way. Ichigo shuddered when he remembered how many times he'd done just that.

Ichigo looked over at Rukia, who was on his right side. She had that crease between her eyes that she only gets when she's really worried. He grabbed her hand, linking his fingers through hers.

"Hey, I'm sure everything going fine. Urahura'll stick me under some machine, the nod and write something on a chart, and then give me a shot and a lollipop and send me on my way." He wasn't sure who he was trying to reassure, her or himself.

Keeping her gaze fixed ahead, Rukia nodded. They walked for a few more feet when Rukia, still holding his hand, got in front of Ichigo and walked backwards, looking at him.

"I hope so." Eyes fierce, she said, "And if everything is not all right, I will personally kick your sorry ass. Do you understand?"

"Yes ma'am."

Rukia eyed him warily. Then she turned back around and started pulling him, like by doing that he'd move faster.

They were almost to the gate when Ichigo said, "Hey Rukia, I'm sorry about earlier."

Still pulling him forward, Rukia spared him a look. "If you're apologizing for not telling me about this earlier, than apology accepted. But if your apologizing for…other things, save your breath."

"But I was rough, maybe a little too rough and maybe a little fast, I just-"

Rukia cut him off. "Ichigo shut up. You didn't do anything I didn't want or like."

That made him feel a little better; after all, he'd just wanted to get her for eating his cookie, but when she'd tossed that impish grin over her shoulder, he'd felt a yearning for her, to make her his.

They were at the gate and as it was opening for them Rukia said, "As for you being rough," she looked back at him, one corner of her mouth turned up, her eyes wicked, "I kinda liked it."

Ichigo stopped dead. Or he would have had he not been being pulled by a midget who was all too eager to get him poked and prodded by needles. Oh God, he hated needles. So the result was more of a trip, and as he fell forward he collided with Rukia and sent both of them barreling through the gate and into the dirt of Soul Society.

Ichigo had managed to turn so that when they'd landed Ichigo had hit the ground and Rukia was sitting on top of him.

Coughing through the dust, he asked, "You okay?"

She punched his shoulder. "What was that? How long you been walking?"

Still coughing Ichigo said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Then noticing her position she smiled and the wicked gleam came back to her eyes. Placing each knee on the ground next to his waist, she straddled him. Ichigo swallowed. Then grabbing his wrists, she held them over his head and leaned forward, but before she carry out her plan, someone cleared their throat.

Rukia snapped her head up and Ichigo moved his head back so he could look up at the person.

Standing there red-faced and rubbing his neck was Renji. Ichigo looked at Rukia; Rukia looked at Ichigo. Then, in a flurry of dust, flapping arms, and black robes, the two shinigami stood up and straightened up and dusted off their robes.

"Um, didn't mean to, er, interrupt anything, I just felt you guys' reiatsu and headed this way." Renji shuffled his feet. He really wished he hadn't seen that. He looked at Rukia and his blush got deeper. "Um, Rukia," he motioned to her collar by touching the place he was talking about on his own neck.

Rukia glanced down and gasped. The left side of her shinigami robes was a little loose and had slipped down her shoulder, revealing one of the marks Ichigo had placed on her last night. She turned slightly away from the guys and quickly pulled the robes closed and tighten the sash. Turning back she looked at Renji and broke the cone of awkward that had settled over the three.

"Hey, Captain!"

Clearing his throat Renji stood straighter and raised a hand to the white captains haori he wore over the black shinigami robes. He grinned, "Hey, Rukia."

"Hey congrats man. You deserve it, just don't corrupt any new recruits." Ichigo held out his arm, which Renji then grasped at the elbow while Ichigo did the same to him and they did one of those guy hugs.

Releasing Ichigo's arm Renji asked, "So what brings you two back to Soul Society?"

"We, uh, need to see Urahura," Ichigo said.

"Why-"

"We'll explain when we get there," Rukia interrupted. They'd stood here long enough. "Let's go."

They hadn't gotten very far when Renji asked, "So, who won the pool?"

Automatically knowing what his red headed friend was talking about, Ichigo said, "Mizuiro, Tatsuki, Chad, and Ishida."

Letting out a bark of laughter Renji put an arm around each of his friends' shoulders. "Well, now comes the hard part." Bringing the two of them in closer he whispered evilly, "Telling Captain Kuchiki."

Ichigo paled visibly, while Rukia just said, "What's so hard about that? Nii-sama will understand."

Well, it was fun while it lasted, Ichigo thought. And hey maybe if we tell him now we won't have to bother Urahura at all. I can just have a quick and painless death and skip the needles. Ichigo sighed, he knew this was coming and it hadn't bothered him, but now that that moment was coming, he was nervous. Not because he was afraid of Byakuya, but because he wanted the man's acceptance. He wanted Byakuya's acknowledgement that he was an equal worthy of Rukia.

"I'm pretty sure Urahara feels your reiastsu now so let's hurry and go to Twelfth Division." Renji released the midget and the strawberry. "You can explain what's going on too."

Renji was surprised at how much it didn't hurt to see the two of them together. He didn't remember when his feelings for her had changed back being simple friendship.

The three shinigami headed off in the direction of Twelfth Division.

The only thing that had changed about Urahura Kisuke was the fact that he now wore black shinigami robes and a white captain's haori. He still had the trademark hat, sandals, and fan. Ichigo shook his head. It was nice to see the man who had trained him first again.

"Kurosaki-kun!" Urahura gushed. "What a surprise! And Kuchiki-san and Abarai-kun too!" He fanned himself. "What brings you two kiddies to my part of the woods?"

"Uh, can we go somewhere else?" Ichigo asked. He didn't really want to talk about his problem in front of these researchers. And there was a problem; a big one. Ichigo could feel it inside, like it was an evil pulse.

"Certainly, certainly, right this way." Urahura turned and led them to a sitting room. After the three young shinigami entered, Urahura slid the doors shut and took a sit at the table, motioning for them to do the same.

At Urahura's nod, Ichigo told him and Renji everything. From the battle with the hollow and how he felt the sting but had not received a cut, the dreams of him being some kind of creature chasing Rukia, the anger he would occasionally feel that he had no clue where it came from, and the evil presence he felt inside. Finally, he told him about the voice telling him to kill shinigamis.

Urahura took all this in calmly. "Well, you definitely weren't poisoned. None of the other cases were reported to have heard voices or had mood swings before they passed."

Rukia spoke up. "How many have died since I left almost three weeks ago?"

"Thankfully only two, and the number of these poison Hollow in Soul Society has dropped dramatically. I expect them to be completely gone in a few days."

Urahura narrowed his eyes. "Could your Hollow be responsible for this?"

Ichigo shook his head. "No, it's not him. I'd know it if it was him and I wouldn't be freaked out like I am now."

He looked back at Ichigo and said, "No worries! We'll get to the bottom of this! Now, my boy, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to do some tests. Though we can rule out poison, the burning sensation you've felt in the same spot as the supposed cut, I need to find out what I can about that. So, Kurosaki-kun if you would follow me we'll get this over with. Kuchiki-san, you and Abarai-kun may leave or stay, this will take a while."

Rukia looked like she was going to stay but Ichigo said, "Go. I'll be fine. Gotta protect my ass, right?"

Rukia nodded. "Alright. I'll go on to my division and see Captain Utitake."

As she turned to leave Ichigo noticed the crease had returned.

"Later man," Renji threw a hand up and followed Rukia out.

Ichigo sighed and followed Urahura a little warily, the man looked a little too happy to be running tests on a live specimen.

Outside, Rukia was walking with her head down, looking at the ground. Renji put a hand on her shoulder stopping her.

"Hey."

He waited until she looked at him. "He'll be okay. This is Ichigo we're talking about here."

Grateful for her friend, Rukia forced a smile and nodded. But when they started walking again neither said a word on their way to Thirteenth Division.

As soon as he was outside in the sunlight and fresh air, Ichigo took a deep breath and tried to forget past two and a half hours full of needles, needles, needles, and oh yeah did he mention needles? Stretching his arms above his head, he walked toward the center of Soul Society.

When he reached Rukia's division he ran into Shunsui Kyoraku and Jushiro Utitake. Utitake immediately brightened.

"Ichigo-kun!"

"Utitake-san," Ichigo smiled and nodded.

"I was going to look for you."

"You were?" Ichigo raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. Kuchiki-san told me you were talking with Urahura but I wanted to speak to you as well."

Kyoraku jumped in. " Jushiro just wanted to thank you for watching over Kuchiki-san."

Ichigo ran a hand through his hair. "No problem."

Utitake went on. "I must admit, I do worry about Kuchiki-san, but I know that as long as you're with her she'll be safe."

"Yes sir. I'll never let anything happen to her."

Kyoraku patted Ichigo on the shoulder. "See Jushiro, nothing to worry about. I'm sure Ichigo will be keeping a close, personal eye on her while she is on her mission."

"Of course," Utitake said.

Ichigo spotted Rukia coming around the corner and said, "It was nice seeing you two again. I won't let you down."

Excusing himself, Ichigo hurried to follow after Rukia.

Watching the young man hurry in the direction they knew Rukia to be in, they shared a knowing look and continued on their way.

"Let's go have a drink, Jushiro."

"We just had one not thirty minutes ago."

After leaving the two captains, Ichigo turned the same corner as Rukia and almost missed her.

"Rukia!"

Rukia stopped and turned around. Ichigo came bounding up to her.

"Urahura finally finished the te-" Rukia clamped a hand over his mouth and looked around. There were several shinigami gathered here and there and this was a conversation they didn't need to overhear.

"Let's go for a walk," she said.

"Uh, okay." Ichigo let her lead him away.

They kept walking- not holding hands again until they got away from the public- until they reached a nice, cool grassy spot right before the Rukongai limits. Ichigo sat down and pulled Rukia down in front of him. He could see the questions in her eyes, but before she could ask he shook his head.

"Urahura told me that it would take a while to get the results, but he is positive that the Hollow didn't poison me. And he told me that if the dreams get to be too much he would give me some kind of experimental drug to take, but I don't think that's gonna happen. He also told me to have a talk with my Hollow, well it'll be more of a sparring match than a talk, but other than that he actually doesn't have a clue. He's close to developing an antidote for the Hollow poison, but since I'm not infected it won't fix me." Ichigo sighed, "Whatever the hell's a matter with me."

Rukia didn't say anything, she just sat there holding his hand.

Ichigo got a faraway look in his eyes. "You know," Ichigo stopped.

"What is it?" She didn't even try to avert his attention to her.

"The whole time Urahura was running his tests, I could see the gears in his head turning, struggling to find an answer. He looked," now Ichigo did look at Rukia, "he looked perplexed. Almost as perplexed as me as I was looking at all those buttons and things."

"Ichigo, are you sure it's not your Hollow trying to take over?"

"No, this sneaky way, the dreams and everything, the subtleness of everything it's not his style. Besides, that voice I heard was not his. This voice was completely different. Almost terrifyingly different," he admitted since it was Rukia.

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going find me a nice quiet spot and have a talk with my Hollow and the old man like Urahura said to. I will figure out what's going on." He said determinedly. "I won't give this thing a chance to hurt you."

"I'll crush its very life-force if it tries."

Rukia got up on her knees and kissed him, wrapping her left arm around his neck and putting her right hand against his cheek. Together they laid back on the ground, side by side and watched the clouds, fingers entwined.

"How long we got before you'll be needed for anything specific?" Ichigo asked.

"A while, why?" Rukia looked at him.

"Let's just lay here." He turned his head to look at her. "Talk to me. I don't care about what, just talk, anything to take my mind off the other stuff."

So Rukia started talking. She kept talking, with a few interruptions from Ichigo, until a Hell Butterfly floated above her head and requested her presence in Captain Utitake's office.

Ichigo had just finished dropping Rukia off at her division and was walking through Seireitei, when someone called his name. Turning, he saw Renji, Ikkaku, Hisagi, Yumichika and Kira heading his way.

"Yo, Ichigo!" Ikkaku grinned and yelled while they were still a ways off.

Ichigo threw up a hand in greeting. Then, when the five shinigami appeared in front of him using shunpo, he said, "Hey, guys."

Renji wasted no time. "We're heading to the training grounds for a couple of friendly sparring matches, wanna come?"

"Yeah Ichigo, it would even the numbers and I wanna take a shot at you!" Ikkaku, ever enthusiastic about fighting, said.

Yumichika knocked some dirt off his shoulder. "Even numbers are prettier than odd ones."

"Er, yeah," Ichigo turned from his feathered friend. "Yeah, I'm in."

"Great!" Renji slapped Ichigo on the back.

Ichigo almost asked why they weren't using Urahura's cave, but then realized no one else knew about it but a certain few.

When they got to the grounds, they paired off: Renji and Kira, Ichigo and Ikkaku, Yumichikia and Hisagi. Within minutes, the sounds of zanpaktous clashing one another, curses, and yells could be heard throughout the arena.

Ikkaku grinned and laughed as he jumped in the air and spun his spear like shikai. He brought the tip down with a yell. Ichigo brought Zangetsu up in an arch, pushing the other blade and causing the other shinigami to jump back to avoid the silver and black cleaver like blade.

With a grin of his own, Ichigo walked towards Ikkaku spinning Zangetsu over his head by the cloth. With a snap of his wrist his sent the spinning blade towards Ikkaku. Ikkaku blocked it and watched as the orange haired shinigami pulled the sword back by its cloth and resumed spinning it.

Ikkaku flash stepped behind Ichigo and, from above, brought his zanpaktou down forcing Ichigo to stop the spinning and block. The shoved away from one another and Ichigo charged. He flash stepped to Ikkaku's left and attacked. Ikkaku blocked and forced Ichigo back. He looked at his shoulder. The black cloth had been ripped and a bit of red showed on his skin.

He grinned at Ichigo. "Nice."

"I meant to take your sleeve without cutting you." Ichigo used both hands to grip Zangetsu, "Next time I will!"

As he and Ikkaku headed towards one another, Ichigo heard the voice again.

Kill, kill, kill the shinigami.

Ichigo stopped.

Ikkaku kept up his assault. When he was almost to him he raised zanpaktou, but quickly pulled back when the Substitute Shinigami stabbed his zanpaktou in the ground, grabbed his head and fell to his knees.

"Ichigo!"

Ichigo didn't hear them; all he heard was the sound of that voice ringing in his ears.

What are you? He asked it. Why the hell are you in my head, you bastard!

I'll take your body and kill all shinigami. The alien voice whispered.

Like hell you'll take my body! Get out! As he forced the angry entity away he felt a sharp pain in his chest. Ichigo dropped his hands from his head and put them on the ground. On all fours, he watched the world go black.

"Ichigo!"

Renji grabbed his shoulders. "Oi, Ichigo! Whats wrong?"

Ichigo raised his head and looked at the red head. The five shinigami around him- they had stopped their own fights- gasped. For the warm amber eyes of their friend had been replaced by black ones with yellow irises.

In Ichigo's voice, his Hollow greeted them. "Yo!"

Renji stood up, as did Hichigo. The five shinigami readied their swords.

"Now, now, you want be needing them." Hichigo raised his hands.

Renji asked, "Where's Ichigo?"

"He's tired." Ichigo's body took a step forward. "Now, I have some business with one of you."

Smiling, Hichigo asked, "Where is Kuchiki Rukia?"

Rukia had been in her captain's office with him and Captain Kyoruka when the Hell Butterfly had come to her and told her she was needed at the practice arena, that it was about Ichigo and she should bring a captain. Of course, her heart had flown into her throat.

As she flash stepped to the arena, Captains Utitake and Kyoruka followed close behind. When she got there she saw Renji, Kira, Hisagi, and Yumichikia, and Ikkaku standing in a circle. As she approached them she saw Ichigo standing in the middle of that circle.

His back was turned to her when she walked into the circle behind him, Utitake and Kyoruka stood outside beside Renji and Ikkaku.

She knew why she had been called. She spoke to the back of the familiar orange head.

"You're not Ichigo."

When he turned to face her, the first thing she saw was the black and yellow eyes. That was the only thing that was different. He smiled at her.

"Yo, Queen! I'm finally meeting you face to face."

"Where's Ichigo?"

"Relax," Hichigo held up his hands. "He's resting. Fightin somethin in your soul'll make ya tired."

Rukia drew her eyebrows together. "What do you mean 'he's fightin somethin in his soul'? The only thing in his soul that would fight him for control is you."

Ichigo's Hollow snorted. "Yeah, well right now he's pretty much got me beat. For now."

He walked over to Rukia. When Renji moved to stop him, Rukia held him off with a motion of her hand.

"You see, Queen." Hichigo rubbed Ichigo's hands together. "Right now, Ichigo's soul is stronger than ever before. So strong that I should I even attempt to take control, it would be useless. Do you know why that is, Queen?"

Rukia lifted her chin and stared him in the eyes. "No."

"It's because of you."

Rukia's eye widened. The others behind her looked at each other. This situation was too weird for them.

"Me? How?"

Ichigo's voice was dripping with disgust as Hichigo spoke, "Because of your love."

"Every king needs a queen and when Ichigo fell I love with you and you loved him back, lil ol' me's chain got tighter." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and turned her around and pointed a Zangetsu. "I'm not allowed to come out unless he wants my power. After all, I'm just the horse."

She shrugged his arm of her shoulder, "What does any of this have to with what Ichigo is fighting?"

The Hollow continued as if he hadn't heard her. "Ichigo's getting stronger and as he gets stronger, so do I. And I'm not the only one that knows it."

"When Ichigo got cut by that Hollow, and yes he did get cut by it, the Hollow in question entered Ichigo's soul through that cut and then closed the wound so that it wouldn't be discovered and destroyed."

Rukia gasped. Behind her the others-other than Renji- didn't know what was going on, but it didn't sound good.

"Wait, it's in his soul? Is it hurting him? What does it want?"

"No, it's tryin to take control. That's why it chose him out of what I assume was the two of you, because Ichigo's got me. Otherwise, he would have been poisoned. And what do all Hollow want? The death of shinigamis."

Ichigo's body shuddered. "He's waking up so I'll leave with this. If my existence wasn't on the line I wouldn't even bother, but if Ichigo doesn't fight with me, to rid his soul of the entity, he won't have to worry about me anymore. We'll both be dead. Cuz once this thing takes over, the only way to get rid of would be to kill it; meaning to kill Ichigo. Ichigo has to destroy the invader. And he'll need you to do that."

Rukia stared wide-eyed at Ichigo's body as his Hollow grinned that disturbing grin waved and then, Ichigo blinked and his eyes were back to being amber.

Ichigo felt light headed. When he swayed, Rukia steadied him.

He looked up to see everyone staring at him. Then he realized who had steadied him.

"Rukia! What are you doing here?"

"Ichigo, you don't know what happened?"

Ichigo shook his head. "All I remember is a sharp pain in my chest then blacking out." He looked around at the faces of those around him, turned back to Rukia and asked warily, "What?"

"We had a little visit from your Horse."

Ok, finally got this chapter done. Had a little detour when I got caught up in a Loveless story I was writing. Anyway, please review and tell me what you think of this chapter! The next chapter may take awhile, got a lot of reading to do for school. Good thing I like Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, but not too sure about the others.