Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach
Rating T (I guess)
Mini author note:
"Hollow" – normal talking in the outside world and shinigami talking inside inner world
'Hollow' – thinking
'Hollow'– Inner hollow/zanpakutou talking to shinigami while shinigami is in the outside world. Inner hollow/zanpakutou thinking in the inner world.
"Hollow" –Inner hollow/zanpakutou talking inside the inner world.
… – Short pauses that couldn't be described otherwise. (Only when used in an empty line)
A/N: Huge thanks to Zaralann, Asezuna, Laluzi, flakeshake07, ShiroHichi891, and FinalReason for reviewing.
O-O-O
Chapter ten – Hollow victory
O-O-O
Previously on "Choose your fate"
He could see the black holes inside the masks sockets, and knew, without a doubt, that before him was the same being he fought a month ago. He recognized that same, mindless gaze, the beastly posture, the heavy, bloodthirsty breathing. But the monster now had a month-full of training in it. Vaizard training – and therefore also, in other words – Hollow training.
It seemed that Muguruma Kensei had a really big problem on his hands.
O-O-O
'Oh god!'was more or less the entirety of Kensei's thoughts at the moment.
'Leave it to Ichigo to lose it at a time like this…' He braced himself for impact. Didn't need to wait for long. Like a freight train, the large, lizard like Hollow slammed into him, crushing Kensei into the concrete pavement beneath him. 'Shit! Need to get him away from a populated area like this!'
Right. Get away.
From that thing?
The large humanoid lizard that was once the young Kurosaki slammed his bare fist into Kensei's solar plexus, forcing him to bend over, out of breath. The punch was immediately followed up by a knee kick to the chin, making the vaizard fall over on his back. Upon falling, he coughed blood.
The humanoid lizard stretched out his hand his three fingers joined together, as a sphere power formed.
'Point blank…' it flashed through Kensei's thoughts, '…Gotta move!' He tried to roll out of the way, get some distance between them.
The cero fired.
An explosion followed.
As the cloud of debris slowly settled, the Hollow monstrosity let out a low growl. It had recognized that the foe it intended to kill was still living. Still breathing. Its growl deepened. Its nailed fingers gripped the hilt of the black zanpakutou tightly. Its prey was moving.
"Not yet… I won't die… just yet!" Kensei charged forward, Tachikaze glowing, the bone mask downing his face. "Not to a goddamn animal like you!"
O-O-O
"So… We cool on this?" Shiro asked.
"To sum it up, our body is on a rampage – because of you; our – my" he immediately corrected himself "friends are in danger – because of you; and you can't do shit about it because you got your mask sliced off – again, something probably your fault; and you want me to fix it by following this ludicrous plan of yours?"
Shiro nodded.
"You're friggin' insane!"
"I qualify." Shiro said with a shrug, only to suddenly freeze up. "Did you sense that?"
"Sense what? I'm stuck in here with you, you damn imbecile!" Ichigo said, turning to face the same direction as the Hollow.
Shiro bit his lip. "Something's moving in the dangai again. Best get moving."
"And, I'm supposed to go where, exactly?" But Shiro simply pushed him in the back, shoving him forward. As black streaks seemed to explode horizontally around him, Ichigo felt a jerkin sensation in his abdomen, as if someone attached him to a meat-hook and pulled. In less than a second, he found himself staring at the vaizard, Muguruma Kensei, wounded and bloody, preparing to attack.
"Wait!" Ichigo tried to yell, only to realize his lips failed to move. He tried to move his hands to… Eh, that didn't work either. 'What the hell is going on here! ?' He mentally shouted at his Hollow. At the same time, the vaizard propelled himself forward, in a powerful jump. He stabbed at Ichigo with his knife-like zanpakutou and, just like that, without any conscious contempt from his side, Ichigo's hollowfied body began to move, dodging each strike with surreal easiness. Time seemed to stand frozen still, and Ichigo could see clearly, the glimmer of light reflected of the small blade, as he looked down, followed by slow splatter of crimson, as its edge bit into his flesh, ever so effortlessly.
"Get going numbnuts!" the voice of his Hollow exploded within his thoughts.
'What do you want me to do, damn it! ?'
"You've seen me do it a million times, so stop cocking about!" And in the Hollow's voice, Ichigo could clearly hear the aggravation, and hints of humiliation of having to ask for help in the first place.
'A shitty day indeed…' Ichigo remarked, remembering the words of his Hollow. 'Well, best get down to business, then…' In the light of the current situation, he had no doubt that he was doing the right thing, lending aid – if he had to chose between handing his body to the hollow that might kill everything Ichigo held dear, or to an animal that would definitely kill anything and everything in its wake, it was no choice at all.
'And after all, if I can wrestle control from this thing… than maybe there's some hope left.' Focusing, he began to move his imaginary hands in sync with those of his hollowfied body. Every time it would pull to the left, he would yank a hard right and, little by little, through humongous effort, the mindless beast his body had become began to bend to his will.
'Now, just to get out alive…'
O-O-O
Jumping up into the air, Yoruichi dodged another swing of Yammy's massive broadsword.
"What's the matter, big boy?" She taunted the giant. "Having trouble swinging that little toy of yours, aren't we?"
Huffing and puffing, Yammy swung again, but the damn woman managed to jump off his friggin' sword! 'No one should be that fast!' Soaring through the air, Yoruichi pointed her fingers at her foe bellow, as it began crackling with energy of an oncoming kidō.
"Sajō Sabaku!" And immediately, from the tip of her index finger, a chain of light sprung, coiling itself around Yammy, restricting his movements.
"You think this can hold me! I'll show you my strength you little-!"
But she landed on the ground and, in a burst of speed, literally streaked across the ground with both open palms pointing outward. Yammy found the grin on her face… unsettling.
The surge of power in her palms was so intense, that they began to glow.
"Get the fuck away from me!" Yammy roared, and tried to sonido away, only to find that the chain light binding him into place.
"Hadō no nana jū san, Sōren Sōkatsui!"
In the last moment, right before the kidō struck, Yammy's face darkened with rage, as he opened his jaw as wide as he could, forming a bright red sphere of energy in between his lips.
The resulting explosion of red and blue sent shockwaves throughout the Karakura city park, as well as its surrounding neighborhood. When the dust, dirt and smoke finally cleared out, Yammy was down on his knee, his shirt blown off, and his torso suffering many burns and several shallow lacerations, due to the high-speed debris blown into the air from the force of the explosion. On the upside for the giant, it seemed that Yoruichi, having underestimated his Cero capabilities, barely managed to avoid being hit by that same explosion. In fact, the moment she realized what was happening, she quickly changed direction skyward, digging her heels into the ground and jumping as fast and high as she could while propelling herself away from the blast.
Despite the fact that she still touched down gracefully, she instantly bent forward and began to cough violently, until her palms were colored red.
"Can't outrun the shockwave, can you, bitch?" Yammy asked provocatively, while grinning through bloody lips.
"Sorry big guy, seems I got careless for a second." She wiped her hands against her black pants, leaving red stains on her thighs. "It won't happen again." Pulling her hair behind her ears, she flashed a quick grin, as she shunpoed behind her enemy. Twisting his huge bulk faster that it would seem physically possible, Yammy swung his giant broadsword in a horizontal slash, and immediately encountered a serious problem. Because of all the pummeling, blasting, and what not, it seemed that whatever held his right hand in place since it had been cut off began to fall apart, making dodging that much easier for Yoruichi, as he missed, slashing nothing but air.
She of course, failed to notice none of it and, grinning devilishly as the flaring of her Shunko reignited, struck. From a swift kick to Yammy's right biceps, she heard the bone beneath the muscle snap like a twig, immediately followed by the giant's roar of agony. No longer capable to hold the sword, Yammy released his grip, allowing the large blade to fall to the ground, hitting the bloodstained dirt with an empty thud.
"What's the matter big guy?" She said with a smug smirk. "You don't look so good." For an instance, she saw Yammy looking disoriented.
No hesitation.
In a flash of speed, she rushed to him, spinning to add momentum to her kick and slamming her heel into his right template. Like a deflated sack, Yammy toppled over to the side, unconscious.
Standing next to him, triumphant, she looked over her shoulder, in the direction of HItsugaya went to aid the others, only to see a set of massive ice pillars rise from the ground, and had began rotating around the new sexta espada, drawing ever closer to the boy. In a final scream of defiance, Lupi tried to force his way out of the icy deathtrap, but the massive pillars held firm. As they got closer and closer, even from her distance, Yoruichi could still see how the fury bleed from the boy's face, only to be replaced by sheer, animalistic terror, as he made his final, futile attempts at escape. In seconds, the massive pillars closed, sealing his fate forever.
Yoruichi looked away, and glanced back at her own enemy. Despite suffering injuries herself, she managed to smirk, only for her face to disfigure under the strain caused by the pain she felt in her chest. She began coughing violently, coloring her palms red, to the point where the precious liquid began to pour down her wrists, all the way to her elbows and from there, drip to the ground.
'This isn't good… Seems like my lungs took one massive beating in that explosion,' her thoughts suddenly came to a halt, as she began to cough uncontrollably once more. 'One lung must have collapsed… this is bad.' Her mind quickly raced, trying to find some solution. And more and more, she found herself wondering: 'When will that girl get here?' In a quick scan of her surroundings, she realized that there were no remaining arrancar to be fought, and somehow half walking, half stumbling, she walked over to the others.
O-O-O
To say that Ichigo was having a good time, would most definitely true – no less than he would be having at the dentist's. Yes, it was by no means any less exciting then, let's say – falling down an up-going escalator.
He ducked beneath one of Kensei's fierce blows, well not in ducking willingly, but rather, just going with the flow, following the autonomous movements of his body. In an awkward instant, he saw Kensei appear before him, ready to skewer him onto that deceptively tiny pocket knife of a zanpakutou and, in that moment, Ichigo saw an opening in Kensei's guard – an opening to which his body immediately reacted.
'Heck no!' He instantly began pulling against his own arm, causing the black blade of Tensa Zangetsu to just graze Kensei's abdomen, as it slid past the left side of his body, rather than impale the vaizard. Realizing how closely he came to death, Kensei wisely pulled back. To Muguruma's infinite amazement, it seemed that, for reasons unknown to him, the hollowfied body of Kurosaki Ichigo suddenly decided to run for his life.
'At least he's heading out of town…'
…
'At least it looks like I'm heading out of town…' Ichigo mussed, though unlike Kensei he, having his own senses connected to this hollowfied exterior, knew that heading out of town was less of a goal by itself, and more of a… well, a coincidence. The truth was by far something a lot less innocent. The hollowfied husk of a body had smelled it's new target, and was already racing towards it.
And the target?
One Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez.
'Crap.'
O-O-O
Somewhere in the fields outside of Karakura, the aforementioned Arrancar regained consciousness with a sneeze.
"What hit me?" He wondered as he got on his feet. That was when the pain kicked in, as the neural receptors started functioning again.
"I don't feel so good…"
O-O-O
Meanwhile, the Hollow's mind was racing to find a solution to his newfound dilemma. Holding one half of his broken mask in his left hand, and the other half in his right, Shiro sat down on the glassy surface of the sideways skyscraper, assuming the meditative form very similar to that of a shinigami Jinzen, as he began to focus on repairing the damage, as well as finding a way to keep this debilitative flaw from being exploited by his enemies in the future. Wrinkles formed on his forehead, and a deep line between his eyes from his frown. He wasn't used to this type of concentration. Most often, there was no need to. However, this was not one of those times.
Suffering from a failure, yet again, he tossed the two pieces of the mask to the ground.
"A little bit of help here would be really appreciated!" The Hollow snarled in annoyance, once he came to the realization that his idea wasn't going to cut it. 'Where is the old goat when I need him?'
"Zangetsu!" he shouted the name of his zanpakutou.
None bothered to reply.
'Oh for crying out loud…'
"ZANGETSU!"
"What?" he heard the echoing voice of the black garbed man, as he appeared from within a black mist that formed behind the Hollow's back.
"Tookyoubloodylongenough" the Hollow snapped at him in a single breath. He grabbed one of the broken mask pieces and tossed it to Zangetsu, who in turn dodged it like it was poisonous. "You were supposed to catch that, damn it!"
"I'd prefer not to."
"Why – oh, never mind, just… help me out here, will ya?"
"How?"
"What do you mean how? I can't friggin' fight when, things go to hell every time my mask gets scratched."
"The Hollow's mask is your kind's weakness." Zangetsusaid monotonously. "Perhaps something of opposite nature would…?"
"That's it!" Shiro shouted as he jumped back to his feet and moved get the fragment of the mask. He ran pass the zanpakutou, and picked it up. "Ha! It's shit like this that makes me want to kiss…" he looked back at Zangetsu over his shoulder with a deadpan expression, "Nah, the feeling's gone."
O-O-O
(At the same time, away from the battles, inside Urahara Shoten)
The sleazy merchant sat on his pillow, sipping hot tea. His eyes were closed, the lines of his face so uncommonly serious. There was no trace of the mocking smile. The door to the outside slid open, and a sudden gust of wind blew off his trademark striped bucket hat, but he made no effort to catch it, instead allowing it to fall to the floor. A figure of a large man appeared on the doorframe. It was his assistant, Tessai. The kids were there too. Urahara sighed in relief.
"So…"
"We made it boss." Tesai spoke with a proud, calm voice, though it was clear that he was tired. The kids behind him, Jinta and Ururu, were red in the face, and were almost on the verge of hyperventilating. "We set up your new prototype barriers."Tesai explained. When he saw the unspoken question on Urahara's face, he quickly added: "They held. Most of the city didn't notice a thing… and neither did the fighters, I might add."
"Excelent."
"There was, however, one incident I should mention. It would appear as if Kurosaki Ichigo, as well as his opponent, are no longer within the city. And his reiatsu… Sir, it wasn't shinigami's."
Urahara frowned.
"He's trained with the vaizard. He must have-" But the look on Tessai's face made him stop talking.
"Not like this boss. Not like this."
Urahara jumped to his feet, grabbing his cane. "Tessai, get Ururu and Jinta inside. We're going out there, now!" Just as he pulled the sword from his cane, he heard a familiar voice from behind his assistant.
"I'm going with you. You can fill me in on the details on the way there." Tessai moved out of the way, revealing a very worried Kuchiki.
"Ready for one more run, Tessai?" Urahara said as he walked past his assistant. Tessai only nodded, but in his mind, he silently voiced his opinion.
'…$#!'
O-O-O
"Are you sure this is alright?" Orihime asked her shinigami escort that walked a few feet ahead with uncertainty. They have entered the Dangai passageway only minutes after Rukia, who went on ahead first.
"Of course it is." The man answered without hesitation, and looked to his partner, who nodded to confirm his words. "With the Jigokuchō leading the way, there's really no need to worry about the flow of the Kōryū currents."
"Twelfth Division already shut down the Kōtotsu, too." His partner added.
"My point exactly!" The first continued. "We have everything handled here." He said with a confident smile, as he put his arms behind his head.
Orihime smiled back at them. "Okay."
At that moment, she felt a faint pulse of reiatsu.
It was too fine. Too focused. Projected. By the time realization struck her, all she could see was the black butterfly that lead the way disintegrated before her eyes.
The shinigami in front of her chuckled nervously. "Well… that changes things."
She felt the hand of the other one on her shoulder. "Best get ready to fight, missy."
"What? ! Why?"
Looking in his eyes, she saw her own worry and fear reflected back at her, as the massive wave of reiatsu washed over them.
"Because we are going to die."
O-O-O
"Is that the last of…" Yoruichi paused to cough, then repeated her question. "Is that the last of them?"
"No." Toshiro replied laconically, while trying to put himself into a more comfortable position next to Matsumoto, who was busy trying to stop the bleeding from a large gash on Yumichika's left arm. For the young captain of the Tenth Division it was definitely not a good day.
"There were two more, actually." Ikkaku informed her as he walked towards them, wiping the trail of blood from his forehead. "You guys okay?"
"We'll manage." Yumichika said, than inhaled sharply as Matsumoto poured the content of a small bottle on the wound before wrapping the arm in makeshift bandages made from the sleeve of her Shihakushō.
"All's well then." He said and sat down on the ground, only to again wipe away the blood from his forehead. "Can't believe I forgot to refill my healing ointment before I got here." They heard him mumbling to himself.
"The other kid arrancar's gone." Matsumoto finally said. "I've seen him slip into a Garganta right before Hitsugaya-taicho managed to turn the fight around against the espada we fought."
"And the last one?" Yoruichi asked.
"That way." Ikkaku nodded in the general direction. "Guess Ichigo's handling it." He added with a shrug. There was no way he would budge to help. Interfering in other people's fights was not his style.
O-O-O
But if what Ichigo was doing could be called 'handling it', that the definition of that phrase had most definitely changed, because the way he saw it, the past ten minutes that he was out trying to pry control over his body back into his hands were as far away from 'handled' as possible.
On the plus side, he was hot on the arrancar's trail.
The downside? Remember the whole 'get-body-back-under-control' thing?
'Really not working out like it should…' Ichigo thought to himself as he once again focused on visualizing his hands where the bone-white Hollow claws were. He imagined his left palm clenching, and then tried to project that image into movement. Though it was only mere seconds, to Ichigo it felt like an eternity had passed before he felt his palm closing.
"Finally!" He yelled in relief, only to be shocked that his body instinctively responded to his urge to shout, transforming his thoughts into a physical form. But there really was no time to be surprised. "Now for the next step."
'Stop.'
Nothing happened. His body continued to run at breakneck speed through the open fields that surrounded Karakura city.
"Stop!"
Nothing. Didn't even slow down. By now, he could feel Grimmjow's presence, even with his almost nonexistent sensing skills. That just showed how close he was.
The sound of a Bala shooting over his shoulder confirmed that.
What little control he had managed to wrestle back began slipping away. He could see the arrancar charging towards him. In a last, desperate attempt, Ichigo gathered his will, foricing the rampaging freak of nature to a stumbling halt. He heard the arrancar's voice appear somewhere behind him.
"Geez… What the hell did you do to yourself?" Ichigo turned his head to look over his shoulder, his body moving in sync with his thoughts, as he blocked the ex-espada's attack with his zanpakutou.
"Nothing that you need to know, Grimmjow." His voice seemed to be followed by an immediate echo, like his Hollow spoke at the same time. With a powerful shove, he pushed him away. Grimmjow landed on his feet and shrugged, and raised his zanpakutou, ready to attack again.
"Fair enough." He charged forward, stabbing Ichigo through the chest. The teen didn't even move. Didn't even seem to notice the wound. Grimmjow's instincts screamed to get away, but it already became too late. Ichigo's hollowfied left hand grabbed his forearm in a bone crushing grip. He looked into the teenager's eyes, noticing how the oddly white sclera disappeared in the flood of darkness.
O-O-O
(At the same moment, inside Ichigo's inner world)
"It's done" The Hollow said with a satisfied look on his face, as he held the repaired mask in his hands. Lifting his eyes towards his black-garbed partner, he saw Zangetsu nod in agreement. Shiro smirked evilishly. "Time to break shit." He put the mask on his face. The red fang-like stripes on the left side of the mask seemed to be thicker, and more numerous than before.
O-O-O
Grimmjow's eyes grew wide as he realized that he couldn't break free of Ichigo's grip. He growled and yanked back as strong as he could, to no avail, then suddenly snapping forward head-butting the Hollow. He could hear a faint, threatening hiss from the Hollow's throat. The jaws of the mask opened, and small traces of vapor escaped.
"What are you-" and then he realized exactly 'what' his enemy was doing, as swirling energies formed a crimson sphere. The explosion sent him flying back, with most of his top clothing burnt away, and with heavy burn marks on his arm. Grimmjow struggled to his feet and shot a glare at his enemy. In turn, the Hollow chuckled, the sound of his distorted voice echoing over the scorched land that just mere seconds ago was a sea of golden whet.
"Trying to blast away my cero with your own… That trick won't save you again, Grimmjow!" TheHollow's insane laughter thundered across scorched earth, as he made another charge at the arrancar. Grimmjow could feel his bones crack from the weight of each blow when their blades connected.
'Where the hell does he get that stamina?' He quickly ducked beneath the black blade, feeling the heat of a charged Getsuga singe the top strands of his hair when the sword nearly scalped him. He tried to fire off a close range Bala, but the Hollow kneed him in the chin, knocking him back.
'T'hell with this!' he sonido-ed away to make some distance between him and his enemy.
"Kishire! Panter-"
It came out of nowhere.
A single, thin, blood colored crescent moon…
Grimmjow watched, wide-eyed, as his sword clenching fist fell to the ground. His only remaining fist.
…
"YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!"
That was when the pain receptors in his arm began working again.
O-O-O
At the edge of the field, Urahara wanted to sigh in relief. But, alas, it was not to be. Not with Kurosaki-san in such a state. Behind him, Tessai appeared.
"Boss?"
Urahara pulled out his paper fan.
"Bag 'im."
"Aye." Tessai clasped his hands together, as five small yellow orbs with skinny tails emerged from between his intertwined fingers, floating up above his hands . "Walls of iron sand… a priestly pagoda… glowing ironclad fireflies…" He raised his hands into the sky. Standing upright, silent to the end." He swung down, sending those orbs to the ground. Above the battlefield, a flash of bright light appeared.
Imagine Shiro's surprise when five giant iron pillars fell on him.
"Bakudō no nana jū go. Gochūtekkan." Tessai finished the incantation.
Ignoring the grievously wounded arrancar, Urahara strolled over to where Shiro lay on the ground.
"What is the meaning of this, bucket-hat?" Shiro hissed through his mask.
"Funny of you to ask. I was just about to say the same thing, Kurosaki-san. So… What is the meaning of this?"
O-O-O
END of chapter 10
A/N: DAAAAMN! It took me a long time to write this. (To all of you who just face-palmed, thinking: "We knooooow!" I face-palmed too. lol) I'm very sorry if the scenes involving Shiro and Ichigo seemed a bit dry, my muse was on a holiday/strike. Still, I'm quite satisfied with how this came out in the end. The only thing bugging me is that I had to leave out two things in order to improve the flow of this chapter, and those are the moment Ichigo realizes he's been duped, plus what happened later to Kensei. That'll be in the next chapter.
Translation segment:
Sajō Sabaku – Chain-link Chain Bond(s).
Hadō no nana jū san, Sōren Sōkatsui – way of destruction #73, Twin-Wake Blue Firefall
Jigokuchō – hell butterfly
Kōryū currents – Wresting Flow (it's the current that is constantly flowing through the Dangai, in order to prevent enemies such as Hollows from using it, a.k.a. the sticky stuff)
Kōtotsu - Wresting-Surge (The cleaner, a.k.a. the yellow thing that goes through dangai like a train through a tunnel)
Kishire – Grind (Grimmjow's release command)
Bakudō no nana jū go. Gochūtekkan – way of binding #75. Five-Post Iron Weights