O-kagi-dagi... XP, anyway, my foot's asleep...itai...itai...I can't move... Hey, I'm not much of an artist, new to Photoshop (just starting to get the hang of it), but if any of you are interested I did art for a part in chapter 3-4 ish (forget which it is). Here's the link if you wanted to check it out: http://xshirochanx. Deviant Art! My username, hohoho, who would've guessed? It's xShirochanx, of course, I simply had to use the same thing because I'm picky like that and it's the only name I haven't hated after a few days...I'm really sorry this chapter's so late, I started school again so I'll be a bit busier. Gomen ne!
Anyway, time for that disclaimer thing again...
hcaelB nwo ton od I :remialcsiD
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Yasutora Sado sat on the hard tatami mats of the Urahara shop, an untouched cup of green tea sitting on the table next to him, it had long since gotten dark. He looked up at Orihime who was sitting across the table from him, her head bent down, staring at the ground. Urahara had just told him everything that they'd figured out. Orihime seemd pretty upset about everything, but then again, who wouldn't be? Their little group had began to feel like a family, she probably felt this more than anyone, having no one left. The troubles they had been through had knotted them together and they grew closer and closer to each other, but now their "family" was crumbling away. For her the gap that was left was already filling up with that familiar loneliness. She never wanted this to end...
"He'll be okay." Sado comforted. Orihime gave him a half-hearted smile.
"...yeah...I just wish we could be with him right now...I hate sitting around here knowing that right now he's probably really sad..." She responed, holding her own half-empty, cup of tea with both her hands as they rested atop her knees. "We all liked Rukia...she was our Nakama...b-but...you've seen how Kurosaki-kun is with her. Just being around her cheered him up..." Sado nodded in agreement.
The Japanese-style door slid open and Urahara walked in the room.
"Okay, several Squad 13 and Squad 4 members will be coming in a little while..." He trailed of, catching their worrisome expressions. "He'll be fine. After I finish up here we can go find him, okay?" Suddenly, they all felt it, the rise in Ichigo's reiatsu, not a very big change in output level, hardly noticable. His reiatsu was pretty much at the same level, because he was hardly able control it, except for when he was battling it would change...especially recently, when he first battled the arrancar the fluctuation was quite large.
"Is he fighting?" Orihime asked fearfully, looking towards the overgrown zanpaktou that stood in the corner. Urahara lowered his head little bit and brought out his fan, flicking it open infront of his face. Surely the boy wasn't stupid enough to pick a fight? What was it, another arrancar?
"Remember, Yoruichi is with him. I have to stay here and take care of the shinigami, if you want you two may go ahead without me-" They instantly stood up, ready to go. "Okay, just remember, if there's an Arrancar try and avoid conflict with it. I'm sure Yoruichi will take care of it, just tell her I'll be there in a little while." Orihime bowed in gratitude as they left. Finally they'd be able to see him! Finally they'd be able to help him! Urahara's words from their previous conversation floated back to her, when they were getting ready to find him; Remember, it's best not to be alone with him. Stay alert and don't let you're gaurd down. It sadden her to think that they'd have to treat Ichigo in this way...would he be able to see this? Could she be around him now without being afraid?
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The arrancar laughed at the young shinigami's attempt. Certainly this kid couldn't be serious! GrimmJow ran his hand through his bushel of blue hair in thought. What should he do? In their previous battle he had, indeed, sensed potential in the boy...but maybe that was an empty hope, all he had in him. He had promised himself he'd kill the kid after the power he'd displayed...but trying to fight a strong opponent just after you've barely made it out of a battle alive was pretty foolish. At least it looked like the shinigami had been in a battle...his wounds were dressed but the bandages looked old...he sure had will power though, trying to take on GrimmJow JeaqurJaques, either that or he was just plain stupid.
"Come on! Ichigo! Get out of here! Stop trying to provoke him!" Tatsuki shouted. If he wasn't standing in the air too now she would've tried something more physical. Ichigo shook his arm a little, hoping to shake off the pain he had recieved from the punch. What else could he do? There really wasn't anyway to fight like this...he felt useless. He shunpo-ed behind Grimmjow, kicking him in the side.
"Stop! You're gonna get yourself killed!" Tatsuki screamed. GrimmJow turned, swinging his foot around, he kicked Ichigo in the head, sending him crashing into the street.
A lady, her long purple hair flowing behind her, appeared infront of Ichigo, standing between the two protectively. Tatsuki recognized the outfit she was wearing, that was her's...but how...and who in the world was that? The clothes hardly fit her... The lady glanced back at him only for a second, to make sure he was okay.
"Huh? Who are you?" GrimmJow asked.
"Shouhin Yoruichi, I'll be you're opponent." The lady said.
Yoruichi...wasn't that what Ichigo was calling the cat? Tatsuki wondered.
GrimmJow grinned again, this woman felt strong! This should be fun! Then he realized that the woman was no longer on the ground, she was in the air above him. He quickly dodged out of the way, shunpo-ing behind her. A little game of cat and mouse continued on for a little while, neither striking a blow to the other.
Tatsuki ran over to Ichigo who was almost to his feet again. She was about yell at him again but she felt something familiar...
"Kurosaki-kun!" The familiarness shouted. She turned around and watched, stunned as the two figures ran up to them; Orihime and Sado. Ichigo stared off to his side, not looking up at them. Orihime stopped, studying him slowly, ...it must hurt...he looks really bad...Kurosaki-kun...I'm so sorry we weren't there for you...
"...I'm sorry that I ran away from you." Orihime apologized out loud. Ichigo looked at her with an attempted, entirely fake, smile.
"Don't worry about it, Inoue." He looked up at GrimmJow, a bloodlusting fury burning deep inside him, he didn't remember feeling this way before...was it the hollow's influence? Or maybe it wasn't anger...maybe it was anticipation, the end? He knew he hardly stood a chance...maybe he wanted to fight so bad because if he could get GrimmJow pumped up enough GrimmJow would probably kill him. Then it would be over...finally over...when his life ended, so would the pain.
"Come on, Ichigo, let's leave the Arrancar to Yoruichi. Let's go back to Urahara's." Sado said. Everyone else seemed more then willing, but Ichigo shook his head.
"Let me take care of this guy." He was about to take off, back into the battle but Orihime ran forward and flung herself on him, hugging him. He winced as she came in contact with him. She began crying.
"Don't do this, Kurosaki-kun! I know what you're trying to do! Stop, please! We know what's going on! Urahara-san told us! You don't have to keep running, we can figure it out together-" His form was gone, she was holding onto air, she looked up shocked. He was standing a few feet back, trying hard to catch his breath. In this condition, even shunpo-ing a short distance had almost exhausted him completely. She had gotten so close to him...and then he had realized that he could feel it swellling up inside him. She tried to go towards him, -flash- he was couple more feet back, like a staticy marage. He was bent forward slightly, fighting it had almost paralyzed him. What's wrong! I thought you wanted to tear him to pieces!!!
GrimmJow flashed to were he had thought Yoruichi was, but she was already gone. He could feel the excitement bubbling inside him as he recognized her as a worthy opponent. Where was she...? She appeared far back but infront of him, he caught her expression as her eyes widened. He felt it...a strange feeling that came long before the pain, GrimmJow looked to his right, shocked to see the blood that for moments seemed to hover in the air next to him before splattering to the ground. His arm...his other arm...it was gone.
"Ha! You're slow!" Mocked a voice. Everyone turned up in the air to their right, there stood their beloved Ichigo, a smirk on his face, holding an unattached arm idly in his unbroken hand. It was hard to see, but Yoruichi saw it, a dark shroud slowly engulfing his eyes. Ichigo squeezed the arm, a light cracking sound filled the silence as he broke the bone to pieces before casually tossing it to the side. He seemed unphased from any of the exhaustion he had been struggling with a few moments before.
"Y-You! I'm going to killl you, Shinigami!" GrimmJow roared, appearing next to Ichigo, who simply blocked anything that was thrown at him.
"You're useless without you're arms, how pitiful!" Ichigo laughed, bit of white began forming the mask on his face. Yoruichi landed on the ground next to Sado.
"What's going on? What happened?" She asked, but before anyone answered she looked up at Ichigo, the mask now complete enough so she could tell what it was. No way! It can't be! That's the mask from before! That means...
It was done in seconds, nobody really saw what had happened, GrimmJow came crashing to the ground were he lay, unmoving. His body turned red and black, slowly disenigrating into the air. Ichigo turned to face Yoruichi and the rest of the little group standing, umoving, on the ground. The last little crack in his hollow mask filled up, it was complete.
"I didn't think I could crush you much more than I already have, but look it here, all these people are you're friends, right?! You need to realize that this love you humans treasure so much is the biggest weakness there is! As long as it exists you cannot truely be strong, as long as you hold the tinest speck of it in your heart I will always be the stronger one!" The Hollow snickered, landing on the ground. He froze, his features looked a little shocked, his hand slowly rose up and stopped infront of his masked face. The slight twitching movements were the only signs of the great, internal conflict inside the breaking vessel.
No chants or commands were heared but "Ichigo's" hands shot behind his back. Was it Bakidou? The appearance of greens entered their veiw; Urahara Kisuke. He walked up to the boy, grabbing him by the back of the neck, he stared deep into the hollows eyes.
"If you've noticed he's a lot weaker when the mask is broken. Use that moment to fight." He spoke through the hollow to the boy inside, hoping he could be heard. Swiftly, not wanting to give the hollow a chance to break the bakidou Urahara socked him as hard as he could in the face. The mask cracked and crumbled away, the darkness receding, Ichigo fell forward landing with a thump on the road. Urahara looked back at Yoruichi.
"With someone of his strength you can't hesitate, he could have easily killed all of you right then." He warned her, his voice was strict but she understood that he was concerned, she knew she should have done something but the fact that it was Ichigo...the boy she had trained, the boy she'd taken to Soul Society who was so insanely determined, the boy she'd repeatedly teased with her antics...maybe she'd developed some form of affection for him?
Chad and Orihime ran over to Ichigo's side, he seemed to be back to normal...but his eyes were glazed and the only movement he made was the heavey rise and fall of his chest as his body grasped at the air. With much built up courage Orihime reached forward, running her hand through his vibrant ray of orange. She intended it as a gesture of comfort but she couldn't deny that she'd always longed to do that.
Urahara looked down at Orihime. "You should heal him, with all that moving he'll die fairly shortly." She nodded, a little guilty. She looked down at her poor carrot-headed friend. Will he ever be the same? How can he even still be alive? When we saw him back there...I saw that look in his eyes...it was almost like he was silently begging someone to kill him. That- Orihime started trembling as the bright barrier formed around him. That's just...wrong...he must be in so much pain right now...how can he recover. No matter how much I can repair on the outside, I can't even begin to ease his heart.
"...w-what's all this...what happened...?" Tatsuki asked, finely regaining her composer but still slightly lost for words. Questioning looks were passed between Orihime, Chad, and Urahara. Yoruichi grunted a little in agreement, she, herself, was a little short on information.
"I'd suggest you come back to my shop with us in a moment. You can see him, for taking care of him well we took care of that other stuff you deserve an explanation." He turned to Yoruichi. "I'm not certain how much time we have, but It's not long. If they plan on killing us we should be prepared." Yoruichi was unsettled by this, she hadn't really thought about what the Soul Society would do to them now, Urahara was already banished, he'd already been found out as the creator of the Hyougoku, and this whole thing just reeked of him. If they sentenced him to execution would she, his accomplish, be punished as well? Could she live without her best friend? How were they supposed to get out of it this time? This was bad, really bad.
"Are you guys some sort of criminals or something? Why would they want to kill you?" Tatsuki asked, slightly freaking out. Everything was happening so fast she could hardly process. Urahara gazed at her, his eyes serious, full of mystery and wonder.
"I'm not sure about us but I think now that they definetly will kill Kurosaki-san." He said. Tatsuki literally looked like she had just seen a flying pig or something, the little bit of reality she thought she knew was crumbling away...what reason would they have to kill Ichigo? Is that why he was in such a hurry to leave? But...(she kept returning to the same question)...why?! What did he do?
Urahara continued. "After that it hasn't even been a period of 48 hours and after the inncident he's already lost control two times, at least that we've seen. Handling it only seems to be getting worse and worse, so no matter how valueable Kurosaki-san is to them I think that this will fully outrule anything thing they see in him."
Orihime's shoulder started shacking but no one could see if she was crying, huddled over Ichigo with her back to them. "B-but he helped then with Aizen didn't he, aren't they friends? Didn't we all fight the arrancar together? How could they turn their backs on him...aren't we commrades? Shouldn't they help him?! It just doesn't sound fair!" Tatsuki instinctively bent down to rub her back, trying to comfort her dispirited friend.
"Remember," Urahara said. "Soul Society only does what's best for you humans and the rest of the souls."
The rest of that time they sat in silence. Even though after a point it took a lot out of her to do so, Orihime healed him until he appeared brand new. She pulled off the old, used, bloody bandages, blushing slightly as she did so. She hadn't really ever seen him without his shirt on, at first no one would have ever guessed the strain he was going through. He was so...sculpted and handsome. Of course she would have loved him either way, but this part of him reflected the prince, to her, he'd always been, the prince she'd always dreamed of. But after one took a moment to study him, the tension in his muscles was obvious.
Orihime handed the bandages to Sado, stating that they were trash. Urahara peered over, seeing that she was done. He motioned to Yoruichi who bent down and lifted Ichigo's body onto her back. As of this point no one was sure how conscious he was, his eyes were opened and still sort of glazed, he didn't blink, but he was alive. As Yoruichi began walking, that signaled everyone to start moving out, Sado stood up from the set he had taken on the cold asphalt. Orihime and him followed Yoruichi and Urahara in a small procession back to the shop. Orihime turned around to see Tatsuki standed with a sort of left out and in awe expression.
She held out her hand in offer. "Come on, Tatsuki! It's your choice now if you want to open the door that has appeared before you!" She shouted, remembering what Urahara had said when they'd first gotten into this whole mess. She wasn't really sure if she wanted Tatsuki in on this, it was dangerous and she didn't want Tatsuki to get hurt. That must be why Ichigo didn't trust us to help him with this...he knew it was dangerous...he didn't want us to get hurt...but by turning his back he hurt both us and himself. I don't want to do that to Tatsuki, I'll leave it up to her to decide. Sado looked at her skeptically.
Tatsuki hesitated for one second. It will be dangerous. But by her better judgement she continued after them.
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Waa, I hope that that was a decent chapter! OMG, so late...I'm so sorry...Shiro hasn't been feeling very well recently, Shiro's Grandparents were visiting this week, started school again, and to top it all off about three-fourths through Shiro suffered from a terrible case of writers block (Sudden urge to speak in third person...). I'd like to thank my Dei-chan (My step-sister, her deviant art account is UchihaHikari) who helped me get past my writers block! Thanks to her it didn't take a month to finish. Hopefully things will start settling down again and I'll be able to get the chapters out more quickly like I had been doing. Thank you for being patient with me, I appreciate it.
- Shiro, Ore wa sakidatta!!!
