Hey, I'm back! Thanks for the reviews, it finally reached 50! Cheers! xD And~ Here's the revelation you all have been waiting for! And yeah, for the previous chapter, I gotta pull an I'm your brother, Luk—err… Ichigo xD Horay for cliché! I recently read a book about the conscious, subconscious and unconscious mind. And I should admit that I don't really understand about the subconscious mind; kinda made the whole things up here. So I'm sorry for any mistake later –the subconscious explanation- to any advanced psychiatrist (or simply anyone who understand such things)

Disclaimer: Bleach © Aizen Sousuke—wait, that must be wrong—Kubo Tite.


Ignorance was bliss. That's what peoples had been saying all the time. But it truly was; being ignorant for him was like a miracle.

But now he couldn't act ignorant, could he? He could no longer act oblivious to the truth when the truth had finally come face-to-face with him. Thus must he come to face it—the thing that stood in front of him a moment ago; something he feared to exist, because of an existence of something forgotten.

But why did he fear them? The truth? Where most peoples need to struggle first to reach it—when not even in death could they find such thing—when he could easily touch them as like they're flocking into you?

Because the truth always hurts.


Darkness was all he saw.

But, a small spot of light then popped up in the middle of the black, later growing wider and wider as he slowly opened his (strangely) tired eyes. Then, the darkness was completely devoured by a blinding light. The blinding light was actually the light of the sun –which he, strangely, could not find- Then he found and saw the sky, a quiet cheery blue one like the colour of a calm sea with drifting clouds hanging lazily above him. Such a sereneful time, he thought, nearly wanting to close his eyes once more, but it was all broken when a distorted chuckle echoed in his inner world.

His chuckle.

He got up (he seemed to be in a lying position before), eyes widening after hearing such a creepy laugh. The laugh that always unnerved him every time he heard such sound—something that his mind could quickly register whose voice it was by the creepiness. He turned his head, only to spot a white lump in the far-end of the building he was currently sitting on.

He could not forget that golden eyes covered in black.

Kurosaki Hichigo.

"Yo, King," Hichigo waved his hand with his perpetual smirk plastered on his face, slightly mocking much to Ichigo's chagrin. "How's yer nap? Wan' me ta sing ya a lullaby?"

Ichigo didn't reply, just giving his albino twin (which he still denied although the evidences clearly confirmed it) a vengeful scoff with his brows creased more than his usual frown. Hichigo just cackled into laughter while the redhead was still giving him the same kind of expression. And when his guffaw died down, Ichigo hadn't broken his perpetual frown for even once, which made him snickered looking at his twin's constant hatred.

Hichigo leapt into the air, making Ichigo dumbstrucked for a few moments and quickly got up from where he was lying before. But much to his confusion, instead attacking directly, the albino took a spot a few distances away from him, although was far closer than his former spot before.

Then, Hichigo's grin was suddenly broken, replaced by a far too pleasant smile, making Ichigo shuddered at how cute—no! His mind wouldn't allow such word to pass, especially against someone like that! No, no… He shook his head mentally, almost slapping himself. It's not that cut—that cursed word; this was more like—somehow…

Nostalgic?

"It's always tranquiling, you know," Hichigo started, looking at Ichigo with his smile still on his lip. Ichigo also noticed the change of accent, but decided to just shrug it off.

"Looking at your sleeping face, something I'd treasure more than anything else." The albino hugged himself, looking faintly pleased by a hint of red on his cheek. "Oh, you know that… I'd kill for that."

And that only word shattered the word of cut—nostalgic to pieces.

"You freak," Ichigo quickly retorted, growing uncomfortable by the sudden hint of indirect lusting shown by his white counterpart in one sickly way, much to make the hair on his back prickled. "Go comply your face-fetish somewhere else."

"Oh, you 'r so cold, King!" he laughed flippantly, returning to his usual mocking accent. "You 're one t' talk, aren't ya, Ichi? When ya practically had an ass-fetish back then! Ooh, c'mon! Jus' look at yer face when we took a bath t'gether!!"

"Shut up!! Stop spitting lies like that!!" Ichigo screamed indignantly, finally drawing Zangetsu from his back before lunging it forward right onto the albino's chest. But, much to the redhead's surprise, the albino successfully blocked his attack in ease by the blunt side of his newly drawn zanpakutō—which, surprisingly, was a color-swapped of his Zangetsu, with the iron in the bottom was tinted white while the top was black, contrary with Ichigo's. His brown eyes just widened at these shocking spectacles, making Hichigo's grin grew wider upon seeing his reactions.

"Ooh, bu' I didn't, Ichi." Hichigo said, swinging his sword to the side which forced Ichigo to take a few steps back in order to not get his body being slashed by his zanpakutō counterpart. "Wasn't mommy always saying tha' liar will go ta hell?"

One mention of his mother, Ichigo's brow twitched, even more annoyed by the albino's words. How dare he… How dare he spoke about his mother with that filthy mouth, a mouth of a hollow!

"I…," a soft moan resonated, wrapped by culminating hatred which caught the albino's attention. "…have said,"

'This is it,' Hichigo thought to himself while his white hand with black nails reached out, pointing his index finger in one way with Ichigo which then a sickeningly glow of red started to form at the tip of his finger. 'Man, the idiot still is very protective to mom, huh?'

"Don't you ever talk about my mother like that!!!"

'Oh, well,' he smirked. 'Ichigo sure hasn't changed at all, has he? Still my lovable brother…,' Then he looked at Ichigo who ran forward with Zangetsu being held by both of his hands over his head, attempting to chop him into a half. Unfortunately, the Cero Hichigo was charging had already finished, emanating a complete glowing ball coloured in blood-red at the tip of his finger

'My lovable, cute, hard-headed, and alive brother.'

And the blood-red Cero blasted from his finger.


When he saw the red Cero coming right to him, Ichigo's brown eyes widened, giving a look of agony in his face. 'Cero!' he shouted in his mind, remembering a certain blast of white energy a Gillian he fought a few months back released. But then, his fear was quickly replaced by confidence, smiling triumphantly as he placed Zangetsu in front of him.

'I can do this,' he said to himself confidently while he looked at the Cero. 'I have done this before; blocking this attack months back. Now I'm stronger, of course I can do this again!'

The light the Cero made had blinded Ichigo from sight, but he had charged his reiatsu into his zanpakutō, confident that he'd block the attack. But before the blood-red Cero collided with his sword, a sudden darkness gained his sight, although the light the Cero emanated could still creep into the darkness despite of its thickness.

Ichigo then noticed this darkness was none other than Zangetsu, the funky old man of personification of his sword, himself.

"Zangetsu ojii-san!" Ichigo shouted, although the sound of Cero clashing with something that sounded like a steel making it nearly inaudible it. He concluded then, that the Cero was blocked by Zangetsu jii-san's own sword.

"We must run, Ichigo." Zangetsu remarked with a calm voice, still facing his back to Ichigo in order to hold the Cero.

"But—!"

"No 'but' this time, Ichigo. We're leaving."

Exactly after the zanpakutō finished his saying, the black, ragged garments Zangetsu wore somehow, like a living thing, suddenly grew wider and wider, pressing itself into Ichigo's skin before wrapping him completely within its coldness and also endless darkness.


When the Cero died down, Hichigo could no longer see his target—Ichigo. It confused him first, thinking that it's impossible for the King to suddenly retreat back to the real world. But it didn't take him for long to guess where the redhead had gone—or who had taken him to God-knows-where.

"Che," his eyebrow twitched and he rubbed his white snowy hair. He was annoyed that he failed to do what he had planned to do. "Tha' old man, always interruptin' peoples' business. Guess Zangetsu-san was also bored in this one hell of mind, huh?"

Hichigo sighed heavily, stabbing the white Zangetsu into the building and rested his weary shoulder on its blunt side before siding slowly, sitting on the ground. He ran a hand again through his white hair, his glazy eyes now gazing at the countless buildings stood still in front of him.

He sighed wearily for a moment; he didn't want to go for Ichigo first. Too much work. Beside, he had already known the place where Zangetsu-san had taken him to. Aside from that reason, he, too, didn't want to go back to that place yet.

Because he loathed that place.

The place he called home for 4 years.

When he opened his eyes, what greeted him was darkness.

But, strangely, this darkness felt…different… He still could see his robust hand, still could differ his black robes from the perpetual darkness. It's just like some kind of light emanated from him. But…, how come?

And, just like someone had known his question by reading his mind, a voice in the dark said, "It's not dark, Ichigo. It's just black."

He turned around, only to find the human of Zangetsu in the middle of the 'black-ness' as he said so.

"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked, looking confused.

"It's just that." Zangetsu said, taking a step forward with the sound of 'tap' 'tap' 'tap' filled the dark abyss. "Black doesn't always mean it's dark. The same goes with white and light."

"Eerr, yeah…," Ichigo scratched his head, looking perplexed by the old zanpakutō's words. He was indeed a clever student (not in the same level of Ishida though, that guy was a total bookworm), but he didn't understand nor care about these kind of things. He needed a straight answer, and chose not to go for riddles and the likes.

But he needed to stop worrying about that kind of thing. There's a far more important thing to take care of.

"Zangetsu-san." Ichigo started, crossing his arm morosely and looked at the older man's face with a piercing gaze. "Why did you save me? I could have blocked the Cero!"

"Are you trying to attempat a suicide, Ichigo?" Zangetsu replied sternly, glaring at his wielder. "You'd be killed by a Cero of that level on the spot."

He was slightly taken aback by that statement; why, even his sword had doubted him! He even could block the Cero the Gillian shot at that time where he didn't even know what the hell Shikai and Bankai were! Was that imposer—liar—hollow—whatever—much more powerful than him, who had attained Bankai, to the point that he must be saved by others?!

"Do not feel embarassed of someone saving you, Ichigo. Sometimes it is the best option to retreat in an unwinable battle." Said Zangetsu, clearly knowing what his wielder was thinking at the time. "And as you know it: there's no 'another time' in a war. You'll simply die."

He frowned again, knowing that his sword was right after all. He just didn't want to admit it that he ran from a fight. To die in one-hit of a Cero would be a stupid death. Then, sighing in a feeling of defeat, Ichigo rubbed his nose, somehow feeling giddy of these unbelieveable truths and statement, he seriously needed some more sleep for later, and probably take a holiday from school.

"Fine," came the hoarse voice of Ichigo in an exasperated tone. "Guess I'm sorry then, jii-san." And the personification of the black sword gave a soft smile upon hearing his wielder's apology. But without giving Zangetsu any time to commend him by being (strangely) open-minded, Ichigo continued, "So, where the hell is here? And why did you never tell about him? Don't try to hide it anymore; I know you know."

The smile quickly dissapeared from the old man's face, replaced by a solemn expression. Zangetsu closed his eyes, ignoring the inquiring gaze from Ichigo; he had taken a vow to never tell Ichigo the truth about his brother until he was ready (and at first thought, he planned to tell Ichigo should he turn to twenty, that if his father hadn't told him first beforehand), and the zanpakutō feared that his wielder was not ready for it yet. Beside, Hichigo had told him to not let a soul know that he was having a residence in Ichigo's mind, saying that he feared his plan for his twin would fail.

But in the end, who was he stop his wielder to know the truth? As his zanpakutō, he knew that his wielder was one hard-headed adolescent boy, who not even his family and friends could stop him once he settled about something, even how reckless that something was. So Zangetsu smiled faintly, unseen by Ichigo who was still waiting to get a reply. He just hoped that everything would turn out to be alright after all of this mess and explaining.

"This is a place of your subconscious mind," Zangetsu finally talked. "Here is an invisible bridge between the real world and your inner world—or, as the people in your world say: your conscious and unconscious mind."

"Okay, so I am on a bridge now, right. And then?"

"As a matter of fact, this 'bridge' is, normally, cannot be reached in any way, and any one. I can't, and not even you, the holder of this inner world, can reach this place. Everything is prohibited to enter this place, only a select few-things can come naturally into here. To put it simply: altough this place exists, this subconscious place of your—and any other humans'—is also nowhere."

"And then, why am I now here?"

Silence was the first of the sword's reply, his aging face looking down at his non-existent feet, but at last he looked at his wielder's brown chocolate eyes once more, ready to spill all the truth.

"This place…has been messed up 4 years ago," said Zangetsu in a somewhat apologetic tone, earning an anxious glance from the teen before him.

"Messed up? By who?"

"For the time being, I do not know. But whoever this person was, whatever his doing that night 4 years ago has made a path to this most protective part of your mind, which we normally can't gain access to."

"What—but, why would he do that? And, what do you mean by 'the most protective part of my mind'?"

"Something that has fallen –or come naturally- here will never come back again in any normal circumstances. That's why people doesn't aware of their subconscious mind. But, all thing that has fallen here –mostly consisted of emotions and instinct- manifests in the conscious mind, like your desire to win, to succeed, to protect, anything. Any action you've done in the past that was driven by emotions were the results of this place, like a an unknown hidden desire. That's why, this it the best place of the mind for yourself—and intruders, to lock something up, resulting in a made-up amnesia."

"To…lock…something?" asked Ichigo, feeling much more bewildered than anything, where Zangetsu only nodded, knowing that his wielder would sooner or latter realize what was the meaning of his saying.

Putting his hand on his chin, Ichigo began to contemplate in order to decipher what his zanpakutō had said. The old man must had thrown some hints along with his long rants. But what could it be? What Ichigo could remember for now were: this place was a bridge ('Between my mind and the world,'); it's nowhere and also elsewhere ('Combine both and I'd get…, middlewhere?' Thought the redhead sarcastically); cannot be touched in normal circumstances, anything that was placed here could not come back ('Like a deep pit maybe?' ThoughtIchigo); peoples ('Including me I think,' thought Ichigo again) didn't aware this place existed; and was the best place to lock something up ('To lock who, really?').

And suddenly, everything was on its place when Ichigo coicidentally thought about who. Everything suddenly connected like a fiber intertwined with each others, resulting as a rope.

Of course, how it was very obvious! That every little words Zangetsu ojii-san had said to him was actually indirectly pointing towards him, and him only.

Towards his long lost brother.

"Hichigo…,"

Then he remembered everything.

He remembered that evening.


It was a very lovely evening, as Ichigo could hear countless shoutings of countless children rushing around him, holding what seemed to be big colorful balloons. Was he in a park or something? Seeing that there's also some parents along with their children and also some handful of couples walking around. But it was way too crowdy as a park (since when did couples walk around in a park anyway? Weren't they supposed to be sitting alone on a bench?). But realization dawned on him when he saw a big ferris wheel before his brown eyes, standing all high and mighty amidst the peoples. So he must be at an amusement park.

He glanced around, then concluded that this amusement park was the same one Karakura Town had today. Was he finally back to the real world, or was this just a figment of his memories?

That was his first though, when suddenly his (non-existent) body was brought into one of the ride of the big ferris wheel he saw earlier.

There, he saw two boys sitting on the same seat across him. Two nearly identical boys, with one of them having a bright orange colour of hair, while the other one have a snow white colour of hair, along with the rest of his body. It was him again. Him and Hichigo.

The albino boy –Hichigo- was resting his head on the lap of the little Ichigo (he thought they're about 12 years old in a rough guess), occasionally the younger boy giving him a stroke on his snowy hair with his finger.

"You're so warm, Ichi." Said Hichigo after some moment of stroking.

"It's not that I'm warm, you're just way too cold, silly." replied the little Ichigo still with his usual frown, although a small tint of red was clearly seen on his cheek. "Are you sure you're alright?"

The little albino didn't reply, but from his position, the real Ichigo could see a small smile crept onto the older twin's white face, looking content. 'Is this…, what we are used to be back in the day?' thought Ichigo while he settled his body on the seat across of his past-self.

A moment of silence once again went by, the real Ichigo still glanced in amusement on how his past-self could be so kind towards the past Hichigo, sometimes in a look of guilty accompanied with the soft sound of the ferris wheel rotating in the middle of sunset. He just couldn't believe it; how could he forget about his beloved twin? He who had shared all of his joy and sadness for the past 12 years before his death?

Wait, Ichigo thought again as he jolted from his seat. Something's wrong here…

Death? Whose death?

He shot a frightful look unto the pair seating across of him. He remembered now… Amusement park, ferris wheel, Hichigo resting his head on his lap, sunset in a blood-red sky…

Today was…

"Oi, Hichi? Wake up, will you? The ride is stopping."

The older twin was quiet.

"Hichigo?"

There was still no reply.

"Wake up, you dork. Wake up!" shouted Ichigo worried, now shaking his albino twin's body. Yet there's still no sound coming from Hichigo. Not even the sound of his breathing anymore.

"Hichigo!! Wake. UP!!"

Right.

Today was…

Kurosaki Hichigo's deathday.


When he opened his eyes, he met the worried face of his father, along with the other two pairs of worried glance of his sisters'.

No, his father didn't suddenly yell at him just like always, just looking at full-of-sweat face of his son in an eerily out of his usual goofy character glance.

"Are you alright, onii-chan?" asked Yuzu, while her small hand put a damp cloth on the forehead of her redhead brother. "You've been sweating all the time…,"

"And shouting someone's name that incredibly similar to yours." Added the other black-haired twin, looking as worriedly as her blonde twin. "What was it again… Hichigo?"

The oldest Kurosaki closed his eyes forcefully after hearing that name, sparing not even a glance to his only living-son. He was not prepared for this, certainly not prepared. Rising onto his feet, Isshin tried to make his way towards the outer corridor, just before his only son's hoarse voice stopped him in his track.

"Stop right there, father." Said Ichigo in an eerily calm tone, even calling his father without his usual 'goatface' nickname anymore. He knew, that his father knew about him.

"Why did you hide Hichigo from me?"

~To be continued


Actually this chapter was supposed to be a LOT longer (explaining Zangetsu's first meeting with Hichigo 4 years ago –or so he said- and a full detail of the amusement park event. Also tried to add some little naughty 'things' in the ferris wheel. Canceled due to my friend –a boy- feeling slightly uncomfortable on reading too much yaoi awesomeness xD But why do you read this on the first place? This is supposed to be light-incest as the summary says it all! –kicked-) but then it'd take about…15 pages plus plus and I decided to cut it down. It'll take longer for me to write it lol. And hopefully I'll update soon since my two freaking months in hell of exam are nearly over. Please wish my scores will suffice when I finally get to know it in May later!

Well, review peoples! Suggestions are welcome, some critics (just don't be too harsh) for my atrocious grammar are also welcome, and just a one-word review is welcome! :D