-Chapter 7-
Disclaimer, I do not own Bleach! If I did...the art would probably be really crappy T.T
I'd like to tell all my readers how grateful I am to them for reading! The story is slowly gearing towards the end... I feel like it's going to be a bit short :/ but I'm proud of myself because it'll be the first story I've ever finished! I know I said I'd be doing more arcs to make it go longer but... I'm just gonna focus on making this story more of a "master piece" instead of a long popular story.
On with the chappy! Arigato!
"Your mother!?" Ryoko shouted, suddenly a group of people began to stare. "Yes... and I need your help." Ichiro sighed, a scowl plastered on his face. Ryoko and Ichiro had been in Karakura town in the shopping district to find some clothes and things for his mother Rukia.
"Why don't you tell any of the captains? Better yet, why don't you tell your mother that you're... you?" Ryoko asked. "It's a long story. I'd rather not explain it. But that doesn't mean I'm not gonna need your help." Ichiro stated, crossing his arms and continuing to walk.
"Ok, ok. So what do I have to do then?" Ryoko asked. "Help keep watch over her. We both have things to do so we're gonna need to switch at times. I'm also going to ask for your help financially so that I can put her somewhere proper, since you're a noble..." Ichiro began, counting the things needing to be done on his fingers. "She won't get close to me because she doesn't know who I am. Looking like a hollow doesn't help. So you'll have to befriend her."
"Being a hollow doesn't help either." He could hear the real Ichiro laugh in his mind. "Whatever." Ichiro whispered to himself. "Alright... I can try my best to help. It won't be easy, especially for finding a place to put your mother." Ryoko said, placing her hand on her chin to think.
- 3 days later, abandoned building-
"Rukia. I have a friend for you to meet today." Ichiro said behind his hollow mask, his voice watery like a hollow's. "Good morning Kuchiki-san. My name is Ryoko." Ryoko greeted, giving a small boy as she entered the room. "Hello Ryoko-san. Thank you for the clothes." Rukia greeted coldly, turning herself around again so that her back was facing them.
"Kuchiki-san, we're here to help. Ichigo means alot to us too. And you mean a lot to us also. We'd like to make you as comfortable as possible." Ryoko said in a soft tone along with a smile. Rukia turned around to face them and noticed Ichiro giving Ryoko a warning glare, which Ryoko ignored. "We've found a proper place for you to stay. If you don't mind, we'll be taking you there." Ichiro said, grabbing Rukia's wrist and shunpoing away before she could protest.
They arrived at a small wood door in the hallway of an apartment. "This is where you'll be staying." Ichiro explained, opening the door.
The apartment room was a small open square with a couch position on the wall across the door with a small table in front of it. To the right was a small open kitchen and a small dining table next to it. To the left was an empty wall almost right next to the door, not leaving any space to put anything. Towards the far end of the left wall was a small hall that held 2 doors, 1 door being the bedroom that was placed on the left side, and straight was another door being the bathroom.
"It's pretty nice and cozy here. So this'll be your home until things are straightened out." Ryoko smiled. Rukia just nodded her head and slowly walked about the apartment, seeing each thing and checking for any crazy ninja devices. "She'll be safe here.. thanks Ryoko." Ichiro said with a sigh of relief. He probably would have been smiling too, but you couldn't see it for he had his hollow mask on.
"What do you plan to do with her now?" Ryoko asked, her voice in a low whisper. "I'll probably keep her here while I train somemore..." Ichiro answered, matching her whisper. "I can't let her out of here though. I don't want any danger coming to her.." "You have no intention of letting her fight Aizen with you, do you?" Ryoko asked narrowing her eyes. Ichiro nodded his head. "I can't lose her."
In the other room, Rukia kept her ear against the wall the whole time as she listened to their conversation. 'Who does that bastard think he is!? He's just gonna hide me! Trying to protect me!? I'm not useless!' Rukia thought to herself, almost yelling it in a rage.
-Meanwhile in Karakura-
Grimmjow continued to wander around, avoiding any sign of reiatsu he could. Last thing he needed to do was attract a hoard of shinigami towards him. But the first thing he needed to do was find Rukia, otherwise somehow, Ichigo would find him and kill him. Grimmjow gulped at the thought of being torn apart by that strawberry.
And then, the scariest thing happened. Grimmjow accidentally bumped into the strawberry! "HOLY SHI-" Grimmjow started until he saw an odd zanpakuto pointed at him. "Who are you?" The person asked. Grimmjow eyed the Ichigo look-alike and found that he was much, much shorter, and much, much younger. Plus he had large violet eyes that looked almost identical to Rukia's.
"Hahahhahahaha! Some elementary kid is trying to face off against me! You got some nerve!" Grimmjow laughed. "I'm in Middle school for your information." Ichiro stated with a vein on his forehead, in an instant Ichiro whacked Grimmjow in the head with the dull side of his zanpakuto. "What the hell!?" Grimmjow shouted angrily as he rubbed his head.
"Ichiro!" A blonde haired, green eyed girl called as she suddenly shunpo'd next to Ichiro. "Rukia's pitching a fit again." She said with a sigh. "Watch over this guy for me, Ryoko." Ichiro said. "Wait!" Grimmjow yelled suddenly. "Did you say Rukia!?" Ichiro gave him an odd look before summoning his hollow mask and putting on his black beanie. "I did. Why?"
"I was with Rukia! I gotta find her again! Or else..." Grimmjow replied. "Or else?" Ichiro asked, smirking under his mask. "Or else Ichigo will kill me!" Grimmjow yelled angrily, as if it was supposed to be obvious. "Do you know where Ichigo is?" Ichiro asked, suddenly surprised that his father's name was mentioned. "Well... aren't you him?" Grimmjow asked with a confused look, Ichiro face-palmed. "No! I'm not! ...I'll bring you to see Rukia. But you're not allowed to tell her who I am, or what I look like." Ichiro crossed his arms, his watery voice filled with suspicion and his gold, black eyes narrowing.
Ryoko grabbed Grimmjow's arm and shunpo'd with Ichiro to the apartment.
-Apartment-
"Idiot!" Rukia yelled suddenly as she tried jump kicking Ichiro. Ichiro though, avoided the kick with ease and as he did so, a path appeared for Rukia to fly into Grimmjow. Which she did. "Grimmjow!" Rukia gasped. "Damn bitch, your kicks hurt like crazy!" Grimmjow whined as he rubbed his face. "It's your own fault." Rukia stated dryly. "Oi." Ryoko whispered, tugging on Ichiro's sleeve. "You gotta get home. You know your grandfather's strict curfew." Ryoko said with a teasing tone. Ichiro sighed. Rukia of course, heard the conversation a bit and grew more curious of Ichiro. 'He lives with his grandfather?" She wondered to herself.
-Kurosaki clinic-
"Welcome home my grandsooooon!" Isshin greeted as Ichiro walked through the door, avoiding another kick. "Damn old man!" Ichiro yelled, kicking Isshin and pinning him to the floor with his hand wrapped tightly around Isshin's throat. Isshin's eyes widened as he quickly undid his grandson's hold then put Ichiro in a hold of his own. "Ichiro?" Isshin asked quietly, his voice serious and full of worry.
"Sorry I'm late." He replied impatiently. Getting up from the floor and Isshin's hold, he walked to the kitchen, and quickly ate the dinner prepared for himself then took seconds, hiding it in a bag. "What's with the hat?" Isshin asked, examining Ichiro's bag if extra food. "Got cold outside." He answered with a bit of venom. "Where you going?" Isshin asked, his eyes narrowing as he examined Ichiro's sudden change of behavior. "None of ya damn business." Ichiro barked out then left the house, placing his hollow mask back on.
-Apartment-
"I brought some dinner." Ichiro said coldly, placing a bag of food on the dining table. This was one of the rare moments Rukia was left alone. Ryoko brought Grimmjow to a different location and then back to her duties at soul society.
"So... What happened to your parents?" Rukia asked suddenly as she dug through the bag of food. "Dunno." Ichiro replied. Rukia wanted to ask more but stopped herself, seeing that it would probably give away the fact that she could hear Ichiro and Ryoko's conversations.
As Rukia ate, she could feel Ichiro watching her. Closely. She began to fidget a bit, then finished her meal, she decided to try something dangerous.
Walking over to the sink to empty her dishes, Rukia pretended to trip, along with a knife in her hand. In an instant Rukia closed her eyes preparing for pain as she almost impaled herself on the knife. But the pain never came. Ichiro had a tight grasp on Rukia's small body that hovered barely an inch from the knife that now laid flat on the floor.
"Be careful!" Ichiro shouted. Rukia could hear the anger in his voice and flinched a bit. "Do you know how terrible it would've been if you got hurt!?" He continued to shout, the anger in his voice slowly but surely turning into concern. "Why?" Rukia asked suddenly.
"Why are you so protective over me? Why won't you let me fight Aizen!? This is my fight! Not your's!" She shouted, her tone filling with anger also. "No. It's my fight. It was once your's, but now it's mine." Ichiro said plainly, moving to leave. "I have school in the morning, so I won't be around. Ryoko won't either. Please behave." With that, Ichiro left.
-Elsewhere-
"Allow a way to escape for Kurosaki Ichigo. With his wife and child freed, this shall be the best opportunity for me to use them." A calm voice said. "Yes, Aizen-sama. I shall allow him to sense reiatsu in his cell." Another replied, this voice was emotionless, yet harsh.
Being chained to a wall, Ichigo once again slipped into his inner world. He found that this was the best way to stay sane, and grow closer to his zanpakuto.
"Ichigo." Zangetsu's voice echoed as Ichigo opened his eyes, revealing his odd inner world which was now a replica of a flooded Karakura town. "Old man zangetsu... it's nice to see you again." Ichigo greeted, his voice was weary and emotionless. Ichigo's hair was long, reaching down to his waist, similar to his hair in the finally getsuga tensho, except orange. His chocolate eyes full of determination and pride were now lifeless orbs with one purpose, being used to see.
"Can't you feel it?" Zangetsu asked. This was an odd question. "Feel what?" Ichigo asked, arching a brow. "Rukia's reiatsu. It left." Zangetsu replied. "You mean..?" Ichigo asked his voice quiet. "No. She is not dead. It seems as if she has escaped." Zangetsu stated, reassuring Ichigo. "Escaped!?" Ichigo jumped, his eyes showing relief and revenge.
Almost in an instant after that, Ichigo awoke from his inner world, quickly raising his reiatsu to the point where his chains, and even the walls began to crumble and break down. Ichigo was free. Holding out his right hand, he summoned zangetsu and used a getsuga tensho to break his way through the wall.
In an instant alarms were set off. "Kurosaki Ichigo." An espada said, suddenly appearing beside him along with many others. All at once the espada jumped to attack Ichigo, but Ichigo held up zangetsu to block them, then attack. "Getsuga tensho!" Ichigo shouted, his sword surrounded with deadly black and red reiatsu, then releasing in the form of a gigantic crescent moon.
Ichigo continued to run, then out of the castle he was, landing on white sand, a dark night sky being his new roof. Finding a garganta like Rukia and Grimmjow before him, he jumped through it. Though he was happy to escape, he was also suspicious of the lack of guard.
-Karakura town-
Ichiro could see a garganta suddenly open, another reiatsu flaming through as an unknown being came to Karakura. "Damn we're just getting millions of friends." Ichiro hissed through his teeth. With his mother back, he was sure Aizen would be on his tail. Ichiro then remembered his mother. "I should probably check on her... especially if it is Aizen." He quickly shunpo'd to the apartment.
"Rukia!" Ichiro shouted, opening the apartment door. But it was empty. "Rukia!" Ichiro continued to shout, checking each room. He was sure the other people in the apartment could hear him. "Damnit!" He yelled, then made his way towards the area the garganta once was.
-Edge of Karakura town-
There he could see Rukia, in the shihakusho Ryoko provided.
"Rukia!" Ichiro shouted. The rage filled watery voice behind her made Rukia jump and quickly turn around. "You can't stop me!" She yelled suddenly, pointing Sode No Shirayuki at him. Ichiro's eyes widened a bit as he examined the area. It was filled with brown dust, as if something was destroying things.
"You do as I say! I can't let you get hurt!" Ichiro yelled, quickly swinging his Zanpakuto at Rukia's and disarming her of Sode No Shirayuki. He then grasped Rukia's arm and picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder. "Let me go! You can't do this!" She yelled, trying her hardest to free herself. She was tempted to use kido, but that would probably blow up in her face.
Suddenly, Rukia disappeared from Ichiro's shoulder. "R-Rukia..?" Ichiro gasped. In another instant, a hand grabbed Ichiro's mask and partially his hat, the hand ripped the two off and used it's leg to kick Ichiro back. "D-damnit! Is this Aizen!?" Ichiro muttered to himself as he flew backwards, soon skidding across the ground and hitting a small hill. Ichiro began coughing blood as the superhuman being appeared in front of him.
Ichiro braced himself to feel even more pain, but it never came. Instead, two rough hands grabbed his face and forced him to look up. Chocolate brown eyes met large violet eyes. Ichiro's eyes widened at the orange haired, brown eyed man in front of him. "I-Ichigo..?" Ichiro asked hesitantly.
Ichigo stood up and tumbled a few steps back. "Ichigo!" Rukia yelled, running as fast as she could to him. "Ichigo!" She repeated looking up at him, her big eyes questioning what was wrong. She slowly turned her gaze over and met a miniature image of Ichigo, with large violet eyed.
Ichiro, knowing his identity was found, let a large smile grace his features. The smile looked identical to one he had when he was younger, this didn't go unnoticed by either Rukia or Ichigo.
"I-Ichiro?"
Next chapter will be out Sunday!
Because I don't have school, or a life, I am always writing! Which is why I update pretty quickly. So prepare for a pretty weak chapter on Sunday…. I've been overly depressed lately and haven't been able to write. I actually finished this chapter on Wednesday (mwahhahahaa) and I still don't even have anything for the 8th chapter yet. SO next chapter will either be really weak, or really short. OR I'll suddenly get some crazy inspiration and write like a boss , coming out with a somewhat decent chapter.
ANYWAYS.
REVIEW!
Thanks :3