CHAPTER 6
He felt like he was floating, in a dreamlike state, not really thinking about what to do...
"Hey! Get up lazy! What are ya doing in the precipice world!" The mocking voice tormented his head, but it wouldn't go away this time. "See what you are without me! A withered little baby with no purpose! I was doing great in your body, but no, you had to go an ruin all the fun by hiding in the stupid dark precipice world! At least Hueco Mundo is better than this!"
It wouldn't go away, the voice kept complaining and talking in the strange double way that made his head hurt and the backs of his eyes pound.
"No, no, no no no no..." He mumbled in his sleep state, before finally jerking awake and sitting straight up with a final, "GO AWAY!"
Ichigo looked around, trying to ignore the pleading in his head. He was still in the precipice world, but something felt wrong. He looked down at his hands; they were pale and almost white in color. His legs appeared the same way. He thought, am I turning into Ogichi?
"Yes, but more like I'm slowly taking over your body! Hahahahahahahahahahahah!" his laugh echoed on in Ichigo's head.
He stood up and almost immediately fell back down because of a rush of nausea. He clutched his head, but the pain didn't subside. That was when he finally realized what that messed up feeling was about the precipice world.
The rumbling noise echoed in the huge underground chamber beneath Urahara's shop. Kisuke stood atop a massive pillar and Tessai atop another one not more than thirty feet away, they both raised their arms and bright light encompassed them, then shot across the gap in the two pillars forming a large white wall, the wall began to waver and suddenly split horizontally, sliding away like tiles dropping revealing purple-black space behind.
"You must move quickly and when you find Ichigo, just keep running to Hueco Mundo, otherwise you will all be lost forever. If you can't find Ichigo, just keep running, don't risk yourselves!" Kisuke yelled from high above as the four saviors ran and jumped through the portal. "Good luck!"
"Alright, let's go and watch their progress." Kisuke jumped down from the pillar closely followed by Tessai and they went back to the computer that currently had four blinking moving lights going across the screen.
That same screen-shot was being watched also by a curious Kurotsuchi, who currently sat idly in his chair, watching as the blinking lights moved across his enormous screen. "It seems they have sent a rescue party after him. Hmm, curious..."
He had had the feeling that something was off in the precipice world for a while now. He couldn't quite pinpoint exactly what it was, he stood up and looked around, spinning in a slow circle. Ichigo finally decided that it must have been his imagination and he began to sit down, but as he bent over to sit, his eyes caught onto something. It was a separate path, it branched off from his small platform of spirit energy and went far into the distance, Ichigo turned and saw another going in a different direction. He was very confused and didn't remember which, if any, path was the right one. He stood still and focused. He reached out with his senses along the paths, but he could sense nothing that could tell one from the other.
"Confused, are we! I can tell you which path to take! One leads to Hueco Mundo, and the other...to Hell!" The sinister voice of Ogichi ended his sentence with a crazy laugh that sent chills down Ichigo's spine.
"What do you want? How do you know which path is which?" Ichigo thought in his mind so Ogichi could hear.
"You could call it, a hollows intuition." Ogichi spat back. "But, I'm not gonna tell ya until you promise to switch with me! Hahahahahahahaheehee!"
Ichigo knew that he could never switch with Ogichi again, because it only gave him more power. His only other option was to take a chance and choose a path. He only hoped that the path he chose would be the right one. With that thought he took off running on the path to the right.
"I hope he is ok when we find him." Orihime said from Chads shoulders.
"I just hope he hasn't turned back into a hollow." Uryuu said from the front of the line.
"I wish I could feel his spiritual pressure from here!" Rukia was frustrated that the precipice world cut off nearly all abilities to sense other spiritual pressures. "I keep thinking I feel him, but then it just seems to get farther away, or disappear altogether!"
"I know what you mean, I've been having the same feeling." Uryuu replied, only slightly out of breath. They had been running for about half an hour, it usually took up to two hours to reach Hueco Mundo, so they had a ways to go.
"Hey, Tessai, you might want to take a look at this. I figured out how to see the paths that Uryuu and Ichigo make when they run through the precipice world!" Kisuke sat huddled over the small computer screen constantly typing. "It looks really odd, you can see the red dots for Rukia, Uryuu, Chad, and Orihime, I can also see Ichigo, but..."
Kisuke trailed off as Tessai leaned over his shoulder to peer at the screen. "Hmm."
"The trouble is, I can see the path Uryuu is making, that's the whit line that goes out behind them, but I can't see Ichigo's, and he just started moving in a very odd direction." Kisuke looked back at Tessai and suddenly realized how close together they were, almost nose to nose, and promptly fell out of his chair sideways. "Aaaaahhh!"
"Looks like my studies are leading to a very interesting conclusion, eh, Nemu?" Captain Kurotsuchi still sat at his desk watching the red dots and white lines on the screen.
"Yes Captain." Nemu replied from her position standing ready right behind his chair with her clipboard snug against her chest, she too stared at the screen with a neutral expression.
"It seems that the rescue party was indeed heading for a collision with Kurosaki, but watch this.." He fast-forwarded the screen a few minutes to the present. "Right now, Kurosaki has begun moving, and the rescue group is only heading straight towards Hueco Mundo. And, ooohhhhh! Look Nemu! This is turning out to be extremely interesting!" he pressed some more buttons and the screen zoomed out, showing three orbs of varying sizes. "The two smaller orbs are the living world and Hueco Mundo, which is slightly larger, but that third orb is not the soul society! I believe that it is indeed the embodiment of Hell!"
"How is that possible Master Mayuri? I thought we had never been able to see Hell before." Nemu spoke quietly in the background.
"Yes, well I know that it is not the soul society, and we haven't ever seen Hell before, but maybe it is somehow reacting to that boy Kurosaki's presence..." He trailed off into thought and continued watching the screen, which now showed a red dot moving straight towards the third orb.
Thanks for reading; next chapter will require some reviews! Thanks for helping me get motivated!
