Man, I did a lot of typing tonight. Finished this chapter, helped a friend with her fan fiction, made progress on Rewind and Rift, and almost finished Ichigo, Meet Ichigo. I feel so on top of things.

Maybe it's because I'm not in school at the moment.


Part 7

Zangetsu and Ichigo sat next to the river. They hadn't been there for very long; five minutes at most. Even with everything that had been happening, they had made sure to come to the river as the sun was setting. It had become a tradition for them over the years that they had known each other to always come to the river during sunset.

Ichigo still didn't like sunsets.

Zangetsu still didn't care.

The orange-haired teen was sitting quietly, staring across the water with unfocused eyes and a neutral expression. His body was unmarked, but Zangetsu knew that Ichigo's soul was a different story. He was bruised, cut, and bandaged in countless places, especially his abdomen. Kisuke hadn't gone easy in the slightest for the ten days they had spent training, and Zangetsu's interference hadn't made Ichigo's life any easier. Zangetsu used far more Reiryoku than Ichigo in his attacks and defense, and though Zangetsu used his own, separate reserves that he had courtesy of his time travel fairly often, he still found himself automatically using Ichigo's Reiryoku as well. It left Ichigo feeling drained, but the orange-haired teen always continued to train even when he should have collapsed from exhaustion many times over.

His tenacity and determination, as always, filled Zangetsu with grudging respect.

At least Ichigo had become fairly proficient with his swords. Even though the teen still favored using just one blade at a time, he was more than capable of fighting with two, though he used that as a kind of trump card. Ichigo tended to keep the trench blade sheathed at his waist, hidden by white bandages that also acted as a convenient sheath. Zagnetsu knew that most unskilled opponents wouldn't notice Ichigo's second blade until it was far too late.

And as the teenager fought he would only get better; by the end of his trip to Soul Society, Ichigo would no doubt be a formidable opponent for any of the captains save Yamamoto, and possibly the oldest three. Captains Unohana, Ukitake, and Kyōraku were undoubtedly some of the most powerful Shinigami Soul Society had to offer. They had lived for hundreds of years and would likely find ways to counter Ichigo's abilities. Their bankai were extraordinarily powerful, and without luck on his side Ichigo would most likely fail against them.

Kenpachi Zaraki wouldn't be a problem. He hadn't developed his abilities to the point yet where he would be a major threat to Ichigo. Ichigo had beaten him the first time around and he was far stronger now than he had been before. Zangetsu had seen to that personally.

Zangetsu sighed, abandoning those lines of thinking. He hadn't come to the river just to think; he'd already spent his free time when Ichigo was training thinking, planning for every possible outcome of the Soul Society trip. He had even planned for after the Soul Society trip and what he was going to do about Aizen.

Even thinking about the man made Zangetsu want to punch the nearest convenient wall. Luckily, there were no convenient walls nearby, so Zangetsu settled on glaring at the water in front of him. The hollow didn't know what he would do when he saw Aizen; he couldn't even plan out possible outcomes because just thinking the traitorous bastard's name was enough to derail his thoughts and make Zangetsu rage.

The hollow reached to his right in an attempt to stop thinking about those kinds of things and his fingers closed around a smooth gray stone. He picked it up, pulled his arm back, and then shot it forward, letting the stone go as he did so. It flew through the air, bouncing off the shining water many times before clattering onto the other shore.

Ripples spread from where the rock had made contact with the water, eventually getting swallowed by the current.

"I guess I'm going to have to make it to the other shore now too," Ichigo said. His voice was oddly withdrawn, and Zangetsu glanced over, sensing that something was bothering his partner.

"Somethin' wrong, King?" Zangetsu didn't understand why Ichigo would be upset. He had finished his rudimentary training and had the skills to go save Rukia; shouldn't he be more . . . well, shouldn't he be happier? "Is this about that Kuchiki chick?"

"Rukia," Ichigo corrected, glancing over at his Zanpakutō with a scowl. "Her name hasn't changed; it's still Rukia."

"Whatever," Zangetsu replied dismissively, picking up another rock. He didn't throw it this time, instead choosing to hold it in his hands and run his fingers over its smooth surface. "Either way we're gonna be rescuin her in about half an hour. Her name doesn't really matter, anyway"

Ichigo sighed, leaning back and looking at the encroaching night sky. "Yeah, I know." His words were clearly meant for the first half of what Zangetsu had said; the substitute Shinigami appeared to be ignoring the rest of Zagnetsu's words.

Zangetsu eyed Ichigo for a few moments, thinking over the question he wanted to ask Ichigo, one he had never really asked before in this timeline or the one before it. The question had been indirectly answered several times, but Zangetsu had never been paying attention at the right moments.

Hell, knowing how he had been, he'd probably just dismissed Ichigo's words as a sign of being weak, even though Ichigo had proven to be anything but that.

He'd been such an idiot the first time around.

"Hey, King."

"What is it, Zangetsu?"

"Why are ya goin ta save Rukia?"

Ichigo blinked, turning to Zangetsu and frowning. "Why?" He repeated slowly. "That's a stupid question to ask. She saved my life."

Zangetsu frowned, the grip he had on the rock in his hands tightening. "That ain't it. Ya saved her life; yer debt's paid. So that ain't the reason yer goin all the way ta Soul Society and riskin yer life all over again just ta save her. Ya have another reason."

Ichigo was quiet for a minute before he reached forward, grabbing a rock from the small pile that he had collected earlier. He stared at it, clearly thinking, before he opened his mouth.

"It's hard to explain."

Zangetsu's nonplussed look indicated that the hollow wouldn't take that as an excuse for Ichigo not to speak. The orange-haired teen sighed and turned the rock over in his hands.

"It's not just that she saved my life. I mean, you've saved my life plenty of times; it feels like everyone is out to save me, even Kisuke and Uryū - in his own special way - and Orihime and Chad. But Rukia . . . she didn't have to save me. She didn't know me, and she was putting her life and her job on the line just to give me the possible ability to save myself and my family. If she hadn't, Yuzu and Karin would've died in that stupid hollow attack. I owe her for that, because it's not just my life that she saved. She also saved the lives of my family."

Zangetsu was quiet for a minute, absorbing that information. After a brief moment's hesitation, he threw the stone he had been holding. It sailed over the water, not bouncing, until it splashed into the reflection of the setting sun on the water. Both boys watched the ripples spread until they disappeared. Then Zangetsu spoke once more.

"That ain't it."

"What?"

"That ain't it," the hollow repeated, looking at Ichigo. "Yeah, the 'I owe you for savin me' thing is true, but it ain't yer entire set of reasons for goin ta Soul Society. There's somethin else."

"What are you, a therapist?" Ichigo asked rhetorically, though there was no real malice in his words. He let out a deep breath, staring at the stone in his hands once more. "It's just . . . It's similar to what you've done for me, especially at the start, I guess. Rukia didn't have a reason to stick around or track me down other than her job. She could've been distant like her status required, but instead we became . . . well, friends. We fought together, helped each other. She even trained me to help me grow stronger."

"And?" Zangetsu prodded, sensing that there was even more.

"And she's a good person. There's just something about her that I can't ignore; she's kind and caring and determined and strong and everything that someone should be."

"Strong except for the part where she got herself captured."

Ichigo shot Zangetsu a look. "Knowing her, she thought that would help things and that I'd stay behind. She thought it was the best possible option for her since Soul Society was apparently tracking her and watching Karakura Town this whole time."

Ichigo let out a dry laugh. "It's so stupid. She doesn't deserve to die. She was just doing her job and she did it a hell of a lot more thoroughly than what I bet is expected over there. There's no reason for her to be treated like a damn criminal, much less executed! Good people like her don't deserve to die!"

"So ya want ta help her because she saved yer life, the lives of yer family, and 'cause she's a good person," Zangetsu summarized, raising an eyebrow. Ichigo nodded absently.

"That, and she made me stronger. Now I can defend everyone I care about; that's all I wanted. Hell, it's still all I want."

"Yer satisfied with the power ya have?"

Ichigo scowled, looking at his free hand as he clenched and unclenched it. "I don't think I'll ever be. I know you know about how easily that captain took me down; there's probably more Shinigami like him in Soul Society. If I can't beat them and stop them from killing Rukia, what's going to stop them from hurting my friends? They seemed pretty stuck up and I bet that they won't like having more humans with Reiatsu and the ability to see souls and hollows."

"Uryū, Chad, and Orihime ain't weak," Zangetsu pointed out, grabbing another rock from his considerable pile.

"'Course not. They're some of the strongest people I know. That doesn't mean I don't want to keep them safe. Even that stuck-up, asshole Quincy." Ichigo muttered the last part under his breath, and Zangetsu had to suppress a small smile. If only Ichigo knew how close he and Uryū would become, and the trials they would face . . . but no, Zangetsu couldn't tell him. Ichigo wasn't ready for that information yet.

"Hey, Zangetsu?"

"What is it?"

"What do you think about Rukia?"

Zangetsu frowned. "What?"

"You know," Ichigo responded, throwing the rock he had been holding for the past few minutes and watching it skip several times across the water. "What do you think of her? As a person?"

The hollow blinked. He hadn't expected Ichigo to ask that question, and the hollow didn't have an answer on hand. Zangetsu stared at the shifting waters of the river and thought over the question.

What did he think of Rukia? In this timeline, she was a far cry from the powerful, stoic warrior she had become, but she was also far less burdened, far more . . . alive. She wasn't weak, and she still had plenty of room for growth.

She still had her odd sense of humor and that even weirder obsession with Chappy the rabbit. The little shrimp even had the audacity to kick Zangetsu whenever he commented offhandedly on her height or her horrible, horrible, absolutely terrible rabbit drawings. Somehow, Ichigo usually got away with slight irritation and the possibility of punishment, but Rukia had taken sadistic pleasure in drawing on Zangetsu's face for weeks after the hollow had gone slightly too far in his "constructive" criticism. She had always done it in front of Ichigo, too, relying on the substitute Shinigami's sense of humor to trap Zangetsu into being unable to get Rukia back right away. After all, Zangetsu wasn't a fan of outright refusing to listen to his king (he was the horse, after all), and Rukia seemed to have – at least unconsciously – realized that fact.

Overall, she wasn't the Rukia she would become, but the potential was there.

"She's nice," Zangetsu eventually said. "Kind, like ya said. She's got inner strength, too, somethin that isn't obvious right at the start of things. Her methods ain't that great, but her heart's in the right place. She just needs someone to bring her back inta line if she takes things a bit too far." Zangetsu paused for a second. "Like letting herself get kidnapped, for one."

Ichigo closed his eyes in pain at the memory. "If I had just been a little stronger," he muttered, letting the thought trail off. Zangetsu frowned.

"If ya had been a little bit stronger, ya would've given all of the Gotei Thirteen an excuse ta come ta Karakura Town, and things woulda gotten even messier than they already are. At leat this way, we have the element of surprise. No matter what ya coulda done, King, Rukia woulda gotten kidnapped. Trust me on that."

"I still don't like it."

"Good. Ya shouldn't. I'm sure Soul Society is filled with idiots, anyway."

Ichigo let out a crooked grin. "You're probably right. Why else would they go after Rukia, and Rukia alone?"

"Yoo-hoo! Ichigo!"

Both teenagers stiffened before twisting and looking at the man currently approaching them. The man wore an odd striped bucket had and clogs, topped with a cane that Zangetsu and Ichigo knew hid a powerful and deadly sword.

"Hat-n-Clogs," Ichigo acknowledged, getting to his feet. "Is it time to go, then?"

"You guessed it," Kisuke affirmed, his eyes shadowed beneath his hat. Zangetsu wasn't fooled; he knew that the shopkeeper was staring at him, silently asking if he was ready for this. Zangetsu nodded almost imperceptibly and then felt Kisuke's gaze shift away from him and onto Ichigo. "Are you ready, Ichigo?"

"Of course," Ichigo replied confidently, though Zangetsu noted the trepidation hidden in the substitute Shinigami's voice. "I'll get Rukia back no matter what!"

Zangetsu watched as the odd pair of shopkeeper and teenager walked away, their voices becoming quieter and quieter with each step they took. The hollow spent a minute putting the stone piles back where they had been gathered from and then paused. He glanced at the shifting golden waters of the river for a moment, his eyes flashing with a hidden pain before his expression closed and he turned to follow his allies.

Far above Karakura Town, the sky continued its descent into darkness.


A/N And that's it for this time. Next time, expect Soul Society and some fun non-canon stuff.

For clarification, let me reiterate/answer a few things:

1) Yes, Ichigo is going to become quite strong. Will he be godlike? No. Will he dominate his opponents? Not any more than canon (in Soul Society, at least; I haven't decided on the rest).

2) No, there will be no pairings in this story. It's purely Ichigo and Zangetsu getting to know each other. I don't like writing romance at all.

3) Will Ichigo find out that Zangetsu is from the future? Ichigo's not an idiot. Take a guess.

4) What happened in Zangetsu's future? Bad stuff. Very, very bad stuff. Suffice to say, it broke Ichigo to the point where Zangetsu was forced to separate from him and become his own being, the details of which I hope I never have to get into because explaining it would be a pain.

5) Speaking of that, Zangetsu and Ichigo do have two different reserves of Reiryoku. Zangetsu, however, can tap into Ichigo's Reiryoku while Ichigo cannot tap into Zangetsu's. Ichigo doesn't really even know about Zangetsu's power reserves, in fact. That reserve of Reiryoku that Zangetsu carried over from the future allows him to materialize whenever he wants and roam freely as though he were a complete soul and not just part of one.

Hope this helped anyone that was confused or just curious. Now, onto reviews. Because I'm lazy, I'm not going to be bolding your pen names anymore. It's a pain and fanfiction doesn't like it very much.

QueenKarin13: Already answered your question. I think.

Gacsam: Yeah, I've written 3 Bleach stories and one crossover between Bleach and Fairy Tail. I like to think that I'm a big deal. As for the other thing, I'm well aware of Ichigo's abysmal control over his Reiryoku and his constant leaking of Reiatsu. I probably just screwed up Reiatsu and Reiryoku at some point. Whoops.

WhoFeedYasuo: Did I answer you already? Meh, I'm too lazy to check. I think I did. Anyway, the Grand Fisher fight went as it did in canon. Ichigo's knowledge about his mother is the same as canon up to this point too.

Lord Necrotis II: I appreciate the compliment. As for the Rukia thing, I hope this chapter went into more depth concerning how Ichigo views Rukia.

Tovahchan: I can't wait to see where I'm going with this too.

Harbinger of Kaos: Ichigo's mask is going to be the one with the two vertical stripes going over each eye. Zangetsu won't let him use his full-out horned mask (Resurreccion, whatever) because that would mean that Ichigo would be able to access Zangetsu's full power and the pressure would kill Ichigo very quickly.

general zargon: I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Winter's Folly: Thank you!

10th Squad 3rd Seat: Man, you went through a lot of my stories. Your reviews are short, but I do appreciate that you review more than just the most recent chapter.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, and I hope to see you all here next time, which will probably be in a little over a week if all goes well.

Until we meet again,

-RoR

Please review.