Chapter Six

Chipping Away the Ice

Tōshirō and Grimmjow sat with Ichigo as the world seemed to come unraveled inside and out of his mind. He gasped suddenly, throwing his head back. They watched Ichigo's eyes go wide and bleed to gold and black, startling everyone around them. He blinked; the change was so complete, even the vertical pupil was gone.

"Fuck!" the strange voice of the hollow said. "He's blocking us. We can't release the last of it, the memories of his time there. He won't let us. Until he accepts them, he'll stay like this. We need help."

"How can we help?" Tōshirō asked. He was sitting on his knees in front of where Ichigo had curled up.

"I need one of you, willing to walk his inner world, the other to fight me when I surface," he said, eyes fluttering. "Quickly, I can't stay in his consciousness long."

"I'll go," Tōshirō said without thinking and reached out and took Ichigo's hand, or rather the hollow's hand.

Vaguely, he heard Urahara saying to wait, but it didn't matter, there was a flash, and Tōshirō's body fell back limply, and Ichigo's eyes bled to brown and white and closed.

When Tōshirō opened his eyes, he found himself staring at Ichigo…no. That wasn't right. He was staring at a version of Ichigo with white face and skin and the black and gold eyes.

"Oi, there, dragon captain," came the strange voice. "Welcome to our home."

Tōshirō sat up, rubbing his head and looked around. It was raining and he was sitting on something that had water standing on it a good two inches. He saw a pole on which a dark clad man stood watching.

"What? Is this his inner world?" he asked, realizing that the world was sideways.

"It is," the hollow Ichigo said. "Call me Shiro, well fer obvious reasons, dragon captain."

Tōshirō stood slowly, realizing that the world was stable. "What do you want me to do?"

"Stop the rain," came the old man's voice. "I am tired of the rain."

"Don't mind him," Shiro said, rolling his eyes. "Zangetsu gets all gloomy in the rain."

Tōshirō looked again. "That's Zangetsu? His Zanpakutō spirit? And what are you?"

"Zangetsu," Shiro said with a smirk, as though it should be obvious.

When Tōshirō looked confused, Shiro smiled. "Well, I am his Zanpakutō spirit. The Ojiisan is…more the other part of us. We can unite into one being if we need to. So, to make it easy, he's Zangetsu, and I'm Shiro. Even though we're both his weapon."

Tōshirō nodded. He'd never seen someone have two spirits except for those that could dual wield like Ukitake-taichou and Kyōraku-taichou. Did that mean that Ichigo was capable of that feat?

"He's a badass, you know. You should see how powerful I can be if Zan would let me."

"He cannot handle the full content of his power, Shiro. You know that. He isn't even ready for a full release of the Shinigami power he contains," the figure said, looking up.

"Wait, what does that mean?" Tōshirō asked.

"Means Zan and me, we don't let him have all his power. He'd burn up," he said, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "What he uses now is a fraction of what he's capable of, to be honest. How else could we recede and disguise all his memories to protect his mind? No one has no idea what he's capable of."

"Get on with things, Shiro. This plan of yours may kill him, or save him," Zangetsu said with a sigh.

"Oh, yes, what I need you here for," he said, grinning wickedly at Tōshirō. "See, King and I have this agreement. He's tha king and meh, I'm tha horse. So I give him power, but he drives the show. Now, he doesn't want me to control tha body, because well, I'm a hollow. And there's a lotta tasty fuckin' souls around with him, includin' his friends. He wants to protect them. So, I'm gonna release, fully, take over the body. Your job is to get him to come to his senses and take control back. Which he can do, but to do so he must accept everything, and come through it," Shiro said with a smile.

"And if his companions just kill you instead?" Zangetsu said.

"They won't. Not with tha lil' dragon captain in here."

"I hope you are correct," Zangetsu said and looked away from them.

"Wait, how do I even find him?" Tōshirō asked, looking around at nothing but water everywhere around him.

"Follow your heart, ice boy," Shiro smirked and faded from existence.

"What?" he asked, and then heard the keening of a hollow loud outside the body.

Zangetsu looked at him. "I should think haste would be important, Hitsugaya-taichou."

Outside the inner world, everyone had backed up when Ichigo's body began froth at the mouth and eyes, the hollow mask forming over his face. The release of reiatsu brought everyone into the med room, including Urahara, Orihime, Uryū, Chad, and several of the Arrancar. Before long he stood, and was transformed in a way that none of them expected. The chest began to darken and the hollow hole formed, surrounded by thick black lines, his skin turning white. He looked at them, and then between the mask's horns, a cero began to form. Urahara shielded them with Benehime, and soon, they were all defending against him. Grimmjow had engaged him with his sword and was keeping him focused on fighting him.

"Don't kill him!" Urahara shouted. "Tōshirō-san is still in his inner world with Ichigo!"

"What the hell is this?" Uryū shouted, leaping out of the way as the ground exploded in front of him with a cero. "The last time he was this thing, he almost killed me! And he was dead!"

"Ichigo's hollow Zanpakutō spirit must have emerged for some reason!" Urahara answered. "It seems…he's still capable of releasing to this extent! Try to subdue him!"

Inside, Tōshirō shunpoed over the waters, leaping from building to building. Follow your heart, what kind of crap advice was that? He sighed, scanning the water. Would he be under the water? It wasn't like regular water, after all, it was his inner world. So there had to be somewhere he was hiding…somewhere safe. Where would Ichigo feel safest? Where was his heart? He paused. Wait. This wasn't Ichigo as he was. This was Ichigo as he'd become. So where did he feel the safest now. After Fumiki had gotten done with him…

Tōshirō realized it was him. Ichigo had clung to him. It began with him being attacked in the human world. It had been Tōshirō who had been there through the trauma and who he'd reached for, the only person who would understand. And then he'd taken him from that and since then he'd instinctively gravitated toward him. He also went to Grimmjow, but after what Grimmjow had been forced to do to him, Tōshirō was the safer of the two. Tōshirō hadn't hurt him. And protected. He felt small and weak and…like a kitten.

Tōshirō could have slapped himself. Of course. He was looking for Ichigo. As a human, he should be looking for Ichigo as a kitten… The kitten didn't have to worry about things like pain and what had happened to him. The kitten was an animal with nothing but instincts and it was safe and protected. Tōshirō took off again, this time, looking for a much smaller target. There.

He dove beneath the waters and found himself bursting through into a room. A small, orange kitten sat on a lap, but the rest of the figure was indistinct. Pale hands held it in place, and it purred in contentedness. Tōshirō sighed.

"Ichigo!" he called. The kitten lifted its head and stared. "Please, come with me. I'll stay with you, I'll hold onto you while the memories come back, I will, okay, but the others they're in danger…your hollow spirit, he took control, he said he'd be the king now," and Tōshirō watched as the kitten stood, fur bristling on his back. Good, he had some thought left.

"I'll hold you, nothing will hurt you," he said softly and the kitten came to him slowly. Tōshirō gathered him up and swam through the water to break the surface. He leaped up to the surface and shunpoed back to where Zangetsu stood.

"Now," Zangetsu said, and the water rose and crashed over Tōshirō and the tiny orange kitten he held. He held on tight, though, refusing to be separated as a flood covered them.

His eyes were wide. He woke slowly again and he was just given the first shot of the whatever it was. His body was filled with pain he couldn't understand. He felt there was something in his mouth, like a leather bit or something.

"Time to do this part…I am so excited about this," she said and held up a large cylinder with something that looked to be made of flesh inside it. "I made it like a female's womb, but we'll see how well it implants into that body. Of course, the physical part isn't the important one. The fact that it will integrate with your soul…that's the important component."

She put down the jar and then strapped his body down again, and pulled off his clothes, baring his stomach.

"The procedure is simple. I implant this and once I attach it, it meshes with your spiritual energy and becomes like an artificial womb. Implantation should take place like with a female, like the way Arrancar's mate which isn't dependent on sex but on strength of reiatsu. The reaction, once implantation of foreign reiatsu should trigger a birthing canal to be generated. It will remain sealed until the birthing process begins. Considering the combination with feline structures, though, I'm unsure of the nature of any young or how many would be produced. But young you will have."

She then cut into him, opening his belly beginning at the base of his sternum and cutting down the whole of him to the pubic bone. He screamed into the bit until his throat bled. His arms were clenched hard and he could feel the strain on his leg muscles. Something felt strange and he found himself watching through his tear-filled eyes as she moved things around inside him. Finally, he pressed something into him that made him see white. Then, warmth spread throughout his abdomen and he was done. She moved her hands over his stomach, the key spinning on her finger. A strange sensation roiled over him.

"Now, for this," she said and turned away for a second. She turned back with something that looked like a small ball of flesh. She moved to an area on his neck and cut into that. He screamed again but he couldn't move at all. She slipped whatever it was into him and again, seemed to seal it somehow.

Lancing pain shot through him and his eyes watered. In his neck and stomach everything hurt as the things she put into him started to grow and change inside.

"Now, as far as what can impregnate you, only something with high reiatsu can implant the chamber. It has to be powerful to combine and make the perfect being," she said with a nod. "And I'm not certain it if can happen at all in this human body. Grimmjow's power is great, so he is the perfect candidate. With the changes made by using his tissue, it will make an even greater creature."

Tōshirō winced, holding the now larger form in his arms. He glanced; the tiny kitten had become larger, almost filling his arms now. Good, that meant it was working. The animal was receding. He jerked as another wave crashed over them.

"Stop!" Ichigo's voice was strained. He was strapped to a metal table, arms and legs restrained, and the woman leaned over.

"It won't hurt, much," she said, pressing a syringe into his neck.

The pain crashed over him, like his very body was being yanked apart at the cellular level, which of course it was. Fumiki frowned at him.

"Oi, shut up," she said, forcing a gag into his mouth to try and stop the tortured screams. "Seriously, shut up, I can't think with the noise."

But he couldn't. The pain was so incredible he couldn't stop crying out and weeping from it. Everything hurt, bones and muscles and organs. She turned glaring eyes on him. "Fine, I'll just remove his vocal chords. It will only be worse later," she said with a sigh.

She turned away, then back. She leaned over, scalpel in hand and sliced into his neck. The pain was sharp, but nothing compared to every part of him being rewritten. He didn't realize when the sound stopped, but it did, but he was still screaming. But no sound emerged and blood dripped form his mouth. She held up a key and spun it around her finger and suddenly the sharp pain in his throat changed as she manipulated the cells inside it to heal faster.

Tōshirō winced again; the catlike body was changing again, becoming more human, but still not quite all the way. Between the larger memories, smaller ones crashed into them, but the most painful ones were the ones that triggered transformation. Ichigo's body looked closer to what it had become as a large wave headed toward them. Tōshirō held on tightly.

Why can't I think straight, he thought as he shook his head mournfully. His thoughts were scattered and he couldn't remember anymore where he was before he was here in this hell. His hands were bloody when he woke to find that there were claws now in his fingers. He realized that he had a tail now that whipped around him. When did that happen? He thought that had to hurt. He touched it and flinched. The flesh on the appendage was tender and sensitive. He was sitting on the floor now beside the futon. He turned and saw Grimmjow watching him. His head hurt too. He reached up and flinched again as he touched something on the top of his head. He had a second set of ears, shaped like triangles, Cat. He was turning into a cat?

He swallowed and looked up to see the woman was standing at the cell door. She was staring at him.

"Kitten…new…tail…ears…claws…grown…how…" she spoke but half the words he couldn't understand.

Ichigo was scared and escaped into Grimmjow's lap. He pet him for a moment, but then he growled. Ichigo turned his face up to see Grimmjow's eyes had changed. He threw him off his lap and pushed him down. Grabbing his tail, Grimmjow pulled his hips upward to meet him. Ichigo cried out in silence, but it didn't matter. Moments later, Grimmjow cradled him and told him how sorry he was. Ichigo was confused.

Tōshirō flinched under the increased weight of the body against him. He was almost human, now, looking like he had when he found him. Maybe he would become human completely by the end of the process?

The rest of the memories now were a combination of all the times Grimmjow had taken him, and all the things that Fumiki had shot him with that made him writhe in agony. There was no specific huge event, but there were many small ones.

The worst thing, though, was the feeling of shame at what had happened. The loneliness and pain that came with hiving been ripped apart. He loved Grimmjow, but he feared him at the same time. His mind couldn't understand this strange thing that had happened. And all the wall, he wanted to see Tōshirō again. Perhaps that thought was the one that shocked the young captain the most.

Tōshirō felt himself impact the ground. And he gasped. It wasn't wet. He sat up and Ichigo, in his normal Shinigami form was lying beside him. He rolled him over and he gasped, eyes wide and blinking.

"Ichigo!" he called.

"Tōshirō?" he asked, brows knitting together in confusion. "Why are you here?"

"One more memory," Zangetsu said, and Tōshirō looked up to see him holding an ice encased box. He handed it to Tōshirō. "One you must open."

Tōshirō nodded, and sliced open the ice, and everything that happened involving Tōshirō went slamming out of the box into Ichigo. Ichigo gasped and blinked. For a moment, he looked like he was going to panic but then Ichigo's head snapped upward to the sky that was starting to clear.

"Shiro!" he said, finally leaping to his feet. "Dammit!" he cursed. "You're going to kill someone!" He stood, his body shifting into his Bankai. "I swear, you'll never come out if you hurt anyone!"

A cackling laugh came. "Oh? That so King? You want control, take it back."

Ichigo faded from sight and Tōshirō looked up to see Zangetsu with a subtle smirk on his face. "He'll need you. He needs protection, from himself. And he'll come to you."

"But why?" he asked.

"Despite it all, he's always loved you. Otherwise he wouldn't call you Tōshirō. Only those he respects greatly get that distinction from Ichigo. Now, go and heal him," he said and Tōshirō sat up with a gasp to see the rest of the group having obviously been in a battle with the hollow form of Ichigo. The mad laughter rang out.

"No, not good enough, King!" he screamed, and the others had all backed away. Tōshirō got up and waved at them.

"Leave him!" he called. Urahara looked at him and asked, "What is it?"

"Ichigo's reasserting control. I found him, gave him his memories back, and now he's trying to wrest control back. His hollow planned this…the only way to get him to come back was to protect you from the hollow. The hollow has no intention of staying in control," Tōshirō said, moving over to where the others were. Grimmjow continued to engage him blade to blade, but it was obvious he had no intention of hurting him, even like this.

The internal battle seemed to stall as Ichigo suddenly stopped and stood still, teetering between inner and outer worlds. Finally, the hollow's mask shattered, revealing the white faced Ichigo. "Ah, King, welcome back," he said and the eyes returned to Ichigo's brown ones. Tōshirō winced, though, because they were still cat's eyes. The white began to bleed away and the ears and tail both returned before he fell to his knees, sword falling from his hands.

Tōshirō flashed forward and caught him as he fell, breathing hard. He turned him to lie on his back and he looked up at him. "Tōshirō," he said softly. "Thank you," he said and passed out cold again.

"I think we should let him sleep now," Urahara said.

Everyone except Grimmjow and Tōshirō left for a while. In an hour or so, Kriya and Velocity returned to run some tests, and then Urahara returned. Tōshirō sat down with him and gave him a description of what he'd seen in Ichigo's memories. Grimmjow listened, head bowed. He, of course, had heard some of those things.

"It fits with the test results," Urahara said with a sigh. "I can't find a way to reverse engineer the changes without doing irreparable damage to his soul form. Kurotsuchi-taichou agreed with me. As painful as the initial changes were, reversing it would kill him. And the chamber She implanted is so integrated into him that it would be like severing a limb to remove it."

Tōshirō nodded and he continued. "And I think, he may have acquired the same ability as Yoruichi to change form, from what you saw in his inner world. The inner world of course reflects the outer world, so it wouldn't be far-fetched to believe he figured out how to protect himself by bending his reiatsu to shift form like Yoruichi has. I'll have her come talk to him about controlling it."

"So, what is he now?" Grimmjow asked from where he rested on the other futon. Shiro had given him one hell of a fight.

"Something new," Urahara said with a sigh. "He's still Ichigo, but with these physical changes, unless I can build a special Gigai, he can't return to the human world. The loss of his human body is not a good thing for anyone involved."

Tōshirō tried to hold his tongue. "Why does he come to me?" he mused. "And what about the pheromones that Grimmjow described? Isn't that like a heat or a rut or something?"

"Might be. He might see you as his protector or something. There may be a bond created there, Tōshirō-san, that cannot easily be severed. If he has bonded to you, and you intend to reject him, you must tell me now. I'm afraid the alterations have left him in need of a…I don't want to say owner or master, because that isn't it…person in control. And he may have chosen you because you've protected him. He may begin to show more affection toward you."

Grimmjow looked at them. "He'll need a mate, and seems ta me yer the one he chose."

Tōshirō sighed, and put a hand on Ichigo's face. He turned in his sleep toward him and Tōshirō started a bit.

Tōshirō blinked and looked up at him. "What? You mean, like…but Ichigo isn't that way…"

"Ah, that may not be so," Urahara murmured. "But your thoughts on it should be taken into account. Reject him properly if he does approach you in that fashion. Don't lead him to believe there is something there when there is not." The eccentric shopkeeper turned and left them alone.

Tōshirō frowned, and looked down to see him turn on his side, more facing where Tōshirō stood, and his hand reached out and grasped the small captain's, and he sighed in his sleep. What was this? Tōshirō himself had never thought of such things as relationships. His most common ones were with Momo, more his sister than anything, and Rangiku, who was more like his child than anything else. But Ichigo had always fascinated him. Souls didn't define the people they loved based on gender, after all, living for thousands of years meant finding someone for reasons other than humans did. Humans based preference often on procreation. However, souls didn't bear children, not in the same way as humans. So, he'd never loved another, except Momo, but again, that was different. He wanted to protect her, and shield her. But this, he wanted to stop the ache in Ichigo's heart.

"I will accept if he wishes it," he said finally, turning and leaving the room to go find the shower.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Fumiki growled as she paced the chamber. It wasn't much bigger than one of the cells she had shoved the useless Arrancar in, but here she had one of the "Sensors" and one of the "Blockers" she had created. Those stupid Arrancar and Shinigami had destroyed the rest of her creations. She turned toward a creature that was once an Arrancar. He, or she, Fumiki didn't even remember now, stood bolted to the wall by the bones the flared up from the shoulders of their body. She checked the cords that ran from the hole in the chest into the box beside him. That was the Sensor she'd created. Trapped in Resurrección form, she had channeled the power into the interface that she could read. On that interface, a sort of radar appeared, with dots for the highest concentrations of spiritual energy in the area. They were in Las Noches. Her kitten experiment showed up a different color than the rest. The Shinigami were red dots, the Arrancar were gray, and then there was the Fullbringer who was orange. Then there was that single blue dot. She kind of wanted to get her hands on that one. He was the one that had the bow. But that would be something for another day. For now, her focus was on kitten, who was a purple dot on the screen. He was surrounded by so many. She would have to wait until they left.

She snarled and punched the Sensor. It didn't do anything, of course. The bones that she'd grown around them to encase them protected the Arrancar. She glanced over at the Blocker. Like the Sensor beside him, this was another Arrancar that she'd altered. He emitted a constant hum because of the interference field he generated to keep anyone from finding this location. Like the other one, he was partially encased in bone and stuck in constant Resurrección. This one had a visible eye, and now and then it looked at her. She saw that eye was staring at her again. She snorted and reached onto a table that sat beside her with her tools. She picked up a scalpel and proceeded to cut the offending eye out.

When she was done she stared at the empty socket and smiled. Good. Now, to wait until they crossed the worlds… If she was lucky, not many would go with him.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo woke up with a splitting headache and he honestly didn't want to move from the cozy nest of covers he had wrapped around himself. He purred thoughtfully and then startled awake, sitting up and blinking. He didn't recognize where he was immediately, but it was a white room and he was on a clean futon. His head had been lying in Tōshirō's lap, and Grimmjow was on a futon on the opposite wall. No, it was real? All of it was real?

He reached up and grimaced at the triangular ears still on top of his head, and the tail that was now fluffed and swishing agitatedly behind him. He bit down on his lip and winced as blood trickled. He flopped back with a groan as the door slid open. He didn't move, but soon he saw Urahara looking down at him.

"Welcome back to the waking world, Ichigo-san. You've slept through nearly three days since we got you back," Urahara said coming in and sitting down beside him. "How do you feel, and what do you remember?"

He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I feel exhausted and seem to remember everything, unfortunately. What happened to…um…that woman?" he asked, and Urahara didn't miss the shiver that went through him.

"Well, I doubt we'll hear from her soon. She got away, but she is somewhere here in Hueco Mundo. And that's what I need to talk to you about. Obviously, you can't stay here anymore," Urahara said with a sigh. "I think you'll be safest in Soul Society. I went back to the World of the Living and discussed it with your father, and he agrees."

Tōshirō stirred beside him and looked at him sleepily. "Ah, you're awake."

Ichigo nodded. "Yeah, I'm awake. I guess Soul Society is the only place I can go."

"I'll be there," Tōshirō said with a smile. "We'll figure it out. Between Urahara-san and Kurotsuchi-taichou, we can figure out how to turn you back to normal."

"I don't think it matters. I wish I could change it back," Ichigo whispered as his head dropped. "I'm really a freak now, no one will want anything to do with me."

"Ichigo," Urahara said softly. "Komamura-taichou does fine in Soul Society, remember? And he appears far less human than you do currently."

Ichigo shook his head. "I don't mean that. Everything else, I'm broken. I can't even think straight anymore, and I'm scared witless at my own shadow."

"Ichigo, your mind hasn't completely reverted back to human yet, you were barely more than an animal three days ago," Urahara said and stood close to him, but not touching him. "She almost completely removed you from your mind. If it hadn't been for your hollow and Zangetsu, we would have never gotten you back."

"And Tōshirō," Ichigo said softly, crossing his arms over himself and suppressing a shudder. "He brought me out."

"That he did," Urahara said, reaching to put a hand on his back only to have him jerk away and turn wide eyed and stare at him. "Sorry, I wasn't sure. It will be better, okay?"

Ichigo shook his head. "No, it won't. I still feel like…like something is missing…that a chunk of me is just…gone!" he said, tears already pricking at his eyes, but he didn't care. "I can't…I can't even collect myself, I feel lost."

Grimmjow woke up and looked over at him. Tōshirō had put an arm around him and soon Grimmjow had crawled over and took his hand. He looked at him. "Ichigo," Grimmjow spoke quietly. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop it while she had us."

"But it isn't your fault!" Ichigo snapped, turning and taking Grimmjow's hand. There was something between them. "She…she used you to make me into this. And then made you…you…" Ichigo choked off the words. Right now, he was glad that he didn't see Grimmjow as the one at fault. One look at the Arrancar's face showed how he felt. "You took care of me."

Grimmjow swallowed, glancing at Urahara and then Tōshirō. He sighed. "So you want me to go with you to Soul Society, or stay here?"

For a second, Ichigo didn't understand the question. Grimmjow had to go with him. That was a given. "Why…why would you stay here?" he asked, suddenly desperate. He didn't get why he was desperate to have Grimmjow go too, but he needed him to go. He was…something else to him now. Not a rival, not… He shook the thought away. He wasn't a lover, but something much more important. Grimmjow was his stability right now.