Ch 10: Blade of the Heart

-AFT-AFT-AFT-

-(Later the same day.)-

Byakuya and Toshiro ended up finding Ichigo in Urahara's training grounds, his spirits on either side of him. The opposite twins appeared to be resting, while the one he knew as Zangetsu Ossan turned to look at them.

"I see you have brought company with you." Kurogetsu stated.

"Yes. He stirred things up in the Soul Society this morning, and I decided to come along when he made his escape." Toshiro replied.

Ichigo came over with a grin and said, "Really? Byakuya did? I would have liked to see that. How did it go?"

"It's not important." Byakuya immediately said.

Toshiro replied, ignoring Byakuya's attempt to divert the question. "He blew it in the Captain's meeting, and I'm pretty sure Seireitei is going to be a huge mess right now. He brought up a bunch of stuff they're pretty sore over." Ichigo had to hide his smirk as Byakuya's face got red.

"I thought you were all about the rules, Byakuya. What changed?" Ichigo asked. When he got no response, he gave up and switched topics. "So, what are we going to do now? I'm sure it's not going to be long before they come after us. I've spent the day training with Zangetsu. That's probably all I can do for now, is to try and be ready."

"Training is good, but it can only do so much in such a short time unless you are learning new techniques." Toshiro said.

"As a matter of fact, that is exactly what we were doing. I need to practice using them though, and one of my powers is exhausted from both of us using his power." Ichigo stated, gesturing towards the waking Shirogetsu.

"And the other is unable to use the Hollow abilities that we have. So we can't really go all out." He gestured towards Kurogetsu this time.

"I see. How about we train with you then?" Toshiro suggested.

"Fine by me." Ichigo agreed. Shirogetsu had come over to listen, and by the end of the conversation he had a sadistic grin. Ichigo noticed too late to stop whatever he had in mind.

"Ya know what would make this even more interestin? If ev'ryone had their Zanpakuto's join in the fight. I'm not gonna pass up a fight between capt'n level opponents. And that'll just add to the fun!" Shirogetsu said enthusiastically.

There was an unanimous "No." from the Shinigami.

Shirogetsu pouted, "Why not?" then grinned again. "It would help our training a lot. And you can always learn something from them."

Kurogetsu rejoined the conversation saying, "He has a point."

"I'm interested." Toshiro agreed.

Byakuya still refused. "There is no need to. I will not join in."

"Are you sure? Even you could use some teaching from your Zanpakuto now and then. Remember I was on the same level as you as soon as I got bankai, and almost won too. When was the last time you had a training session with Senbonzakura's help?" Ichigo pressed.

At the lack of reply, Kurogetsu moved forward and swiftly pulled Senbonzakura from its sheath, and Shirogetsu stepped in front to stop anyone from reclaiming the sword. The Shinigami watched as Kurogetsu stabbed the sword into the ground and it began to glow the color of Byakuya's reiatsu. A brief flash of reiatsu and Senbonzakura stood next to the sword, who pulled the sword out and tossed it to his wielder. Byakuya glared at the dark Zanpakuto spirit through narrowed eyes.

"What did you do?"

"He extracted my soul from your Zanpakuto. Unlike voluntary manifestation, you are not able to use any of my abilities. Currently, you are powerless against your own power." Senbonzakura stated.

All Byakuya had time for was a brief, 'Oh crap' moment as the fight began.

-AFT-AFT-AFT-

Off to the side, Ichigo watched with interest as Byakuya was fighting a losing battle. He turned to Toshiro though, and said,

"Let's leave him to train, and we can go train over there." As the group turned to go to the other side of the cavern, they heard Senbonzakura release, and could've sworn they heard a curse from Byakuya. The sound faded though as they made their way to the other side.

"So. Wanna get our Zanpakuto involved too?" Ichigo asked.

"Of course. Let's do this." Toshiro summoned Hyorinmaru, a large blue dragon made of ice. A cold chill spread throughout the area, though Toshiro didn't seem to notice. The dragon curled around him protectively, and his face turned red in embarrassment.

"Is someone's Zanpakuto overprotective, Toshiro?" Ichigo asked in amusement.

"Shut up! Hyorinmaru, attack!" The dragon flew forward with its fangs shining in the light, and the two were quickly out of sight. It attempted to bite Ichigo, but he shunpo'd to the side, throwing a Getsuga from his small blade. It impacted the dragon's head, but only caused some chipped ice that was quickly repaired. He faintly noticed both Zangetsu taking on Toshiro, but ignored it as Hyorinmaru circled back around. It maneuvered Ichigo up against a wall before flapping it's wings, sending dozens of icicles at him. They were blasted away by a larger getsuga, but some still managed to get by and cut him, one creating a large wound on his shoulder. He tried to heal it while charging a Cero, but it was too much power with too little control, and the Cero exploded in front of him.

Using the resulting smoke as a cover, he moved out of the way right as the dragon snapped at him again. Ichigo tried again to charge a Cero, and managed to fire it at the dragon's head, causing the side of it to shatter. Once again, the ice started to regenerate, but it was slower this time.

'The more damage there is, the slower it seems to regenerate. Let's try something different.' Ichigo thought. He pointed his swords forward, blades out, and started charging a Getsuga in both of them, with a Cero between the points. He fired the Cero at the head again, once more shattering it, then threw a small Getsuga at it's wings, and the larger Getsuga along the length of its body. Shattered ice flew everywhere as the attacks connected. The dust cleared just in time for him to see the dragon severely wounded, and swinging his splintered tail at him. Ichigo flew across the training area and crashed into a large pile of rocks. He got up to late to avoid the freezing cloud that spewed from the dragon's mouth, and was frozen for several seconds before he surged his reiatsu and broke free.

'This isn't going well. At this rate, I might have to use ban-kai.' Ichigo attacked directly, Shunpo'ing behind Hyorinmaru and stabbing his blades between the dragon's wings. A massive bubble Getsuga formed, breaking apart the wings and damaging the rest of the dragon even more. He shundo'd away when he saw the glow, and Hyorinmaru shrank down to a more human shape with ice wings.

"Ban-kai. Daiguren Hyorinmaru." The zanpakuto announced.

'Dang. My turn then!' Ichigo thought. "Ban-kai!" His reiatsu surged briefly, before settling back to it's usual state. 'Nothing happened! Why can't I use Ban-kai?!' Ichigo panicked. He looked back at Hyorinmaru as dozens of icicles formed around him on all sides.

"Crap." He pulled in and hardened his reiatsu as much as he could as they all shot towards him and impacted. Ichigo fell to the ground, barely conscious, and severely wounded. Hyorinmaru had dropped out of ban-kai, and come over to see how injured he was. Seeing that he was not going to get back up, he gently picked him up in his mouth. Ichigo felt himself being lifted up, but was to exhausted from regenerating to fight, and simply hung in the dragon's jaws as he was carried. A minute later, he felt himself get dropped into someone's arms, comfortable and warm after the dragon's icy grip. It was just enough for him to relax and black out from exhaustion of the long day.

-AFT-AFT-AFT-

As Hyorinmaru flew at Ichigo, Shirogetsu lunged at Toshiro, who barely blocked in time. Sparks flew as the blades ground against each other, each trying to push the other back. 'That sword's different. I thought Kurosaki's zanpakuto was a giant black and white cleaver, not this thing!' His thoughts were interrupted by Shirogetsu flinging him away with a powerful swing. As Toshiro regained his footing and charged up his reiatsu for an attack, Kurogetsu came in from the side for a close attack with a smaller blade forcing him to dodge.

He moved to retaliate and scored a shallow hit, but was forced to dodge again when Shirogetsu closed in. Toshiro Shunpo'd out from between them to behind Shirogetsu, and slashed his sword down, sending a blast of ice into his back. Shirogetsu went down, and a Getsuga passed over his head, crashing into Toshiro, who was unable to bring his sword back up in time. As the explosion cleared, it revealed Toshiro to have several burns on his chest and arms, and his sword having flown off to the side.

Before Kurogetsu could attack again, Toshiro threw out his hands and shouted, "Sajo Sabaku!" Chains flew from his hands and tangled around Kurogetsu, temporarily immobilizing him as moved to grab his sword and turn to block Shirogetsu, who had recovered and attacked. Toshiro pushed him away before Shunpo'ing above him and putting as much force as he could into a downward swing. The ground cracked from the force both fighters were using. Toshiro managed to overpower Shirogetsu and knock him down on his back.

Shitogetsu didn't recover fast enough as Toshiro quickly drew a triangle in the air. "Shitotsu Sansen!" Light exploded from the three points and hit Shirogetsu head on, pinning him to the ground, then threw a reiatsu suppressing kido on top of it. He turned back to Kurogetsu who was just about free. He quickly charged up another ice attack and fired it, just as Kurogetsu broke free and fired another Getsuga. The attacks collided, producing a massive explosion of dust. Through the dust, Toshiro and Kurogetsu exchanged a flurry of high speed blows then separated, assessing the situation. Both were badly cut up.

Kurogetsu spoke, saying, "If this had been a one on one fight, I'm sure either half of Zangetsu would have lost. We admit defeat." He sheathed his sword in his black cloak, and it seemed as though the sword simply disappeared. Toshiro turned to Shirogetsu who was still pinned and glaring at him.

"Let me up." Shirogetsu demanded.

Toshiro raised an eyebrow at him. "Why? You could be a bit nicer about it, considering you lost." He retorted. There was a long silence where they just stared at each other, daring the other to look away first. Shirogetsu looked conflicted before looking away.

"..."

"What was that? I couldn't quite catch that." Toshiro said.

"I lost will you let me up?" Shirogetsu repeated. And with that, the kidō broke. He got up and sheathed his sword on his back. They heard a loud explosion in the background and turned to see a fading ice attack, a wounded Ichigo falling out of the air. Shirogetsu used his instant regeneration as he watched Hyorinmaru pick Ichigo up and carry him over. Reaching up to take a barely awake Ichigo, he had no idea what to do when Ichigo went limp in his hold. He looked to Kurogetsu with a 'What do I do now' expression, who simply responded with a small smile and shake of his head, before returning to the inner world to rest. He looked around to see that Hyorinmaru had also left, and across the cavern, so had Senbonzakura.

Shifting Ichigo to carry him on his back, Shirogetsu and Toshiro made their way over to Byakuya, who was sitting on a large rock, all cut up and lost in thought.

"Looks like ya lost." Shirogetsu stated. "How does it feel to be beat down by yer own Zanpakuto?"

Byakuya's reply was very quiet. "I angered my power with my own arrogance. It will not happen again." He had a look that they found difficult to describe. Somewhere between frustration and disappointment in himself, and determination to not let it happen again. He finally looked at them and seemed somewhat surprised to see all of them except Shirogetsu injured, Ichigo carried on Shirogetsu's back.

"What happened?" Byakuya asked.

Toshiro replied, "I won, but he-" He pointed at Shirogetsu "-has instant regeneration, so he just healed himself after the fight, and his other half left."

"I see."

Toshiro sat down on the ground, happy to have a chance to rest. He looked over to see Shirogetsu set Ichigo down, lean him against a rock, and walk away, only to return a minute later with a box.

"Here." Shirogetsu dropped the box in Toshiro's lap. "We were usin' it earlier, but there's still some left." He went back to Ichigo and started healing him with regeneration.

Toshiro opened the box and pulled out a couple rolls of bandages. He tossed one over to Byakuya, who glared at it before unrolling it to treat his wounds. They seemed somewhat surprised that the Hollow was actually helping them. The little Captain voiced the question first.

Shirogetsu gave a short laugh at it before responding, "Ya may be capt'n class Shinigami, but I won't have ya draggin' my partner down, whether it be power wise, or being injured. Ya know he'll try to protect ya now that he sees ya as allies, if he has even the slightest thought ya need help. That is his greatest weakness, and why I'd even go as far as to take control. Ta me, Ichigo is more important than anything else. Ya got that?"

Then his tone got significantly darker. "And I will not hesitate to remove anything that threatens him. That's why I'm making him as strong as possible before we fight against Soul Society. I'm more than willing to wipe them out if they continue to show harmful intent, and I want to make sure he can easily beat them into the ground without getting hurt."

"I really mean that much to you?"

Everyone startled at the soft-spoken sentence.'I didn't mean for him to hear that!' Shirogetsu silently panicked. He looked at Ichigo, who was looking right back at him in a way he couldn't identify.

"Is that why you were always trying to take over when it seemed I was at my limit, until I proved I was strong enough?"

The Captains silently got up and moved farther away, so as not to intrude on a personal moment that would usually be entirely internal. As Ichigo continued talking, a touch of hurt entered his voice. "Did you not trust me enough to take care of myself? Did I really have to prove my strength to you so many times?"

There as a long silence from Shirogetsu's hesitance to answer. Finally, the silence was broken as the Zanpakuto Spirit looked down and said, "Yeah. I'll admit is definitely wasn't the best way, but I'm not gonna say I'm sorry for it either. In the end, you did get stronger, even though you hated me for what I was doing. Do you still hate me for it now?"

"No, I won't say I hate you for it. At the time, yes, I did, but now, things are changing. While I understand now, and don't hate you for it anymore, I most certainly don't approve of your methods. However," he cut Shirogetsu off as he tried to speak, "I'm willing to put that behind us, now that we're beginning to understand each other more. As long as you never try to take over again, unless there is absolutely no other way, or we both agree to switch control."

Shirogetsu didn't say anything, merely nodded in acceptance. Even though they had only been talking, he felt as though he had just got badly beaten down. Ichigo got up and moved over to his Zanpakuto Spirit, putting a hand on his shoulder as they stood face to face.

"Things will work out, we'll just have to keep working on the trust between us."

'Trust.' Shirogetsu gave a small smile. If only his wielder understood how much weight that single word held. "Alright. In time, things will work." He agreed. And when that trust is restored, so too would the true bond between wielder and sword. For now though, they would just have to work with what they had.

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