Authors are supposed to warn the readers about stuff that happens in chapters, right? Then again, authors are supposed to put disclaimers in stories, and I've never seen any point in doing that, considering it's pretty obvious that I don't own Bleach, just like every other Bleach FanFiction author.

Anyway, so uh... mild gore (I say mild because if I wanted to go into full detail, this story would be an M), kind of Hollow Ichigo bashing (because the more I like a character, the more I bully them. And I know I'm not the only author who does that) and... meh, I guess that's just it.

Well, that seemed fairly pointless.

Allons-y!

Ten

'This isn't good. Just let them continue with their lives. It's over now…'

'I can't, Renji,' Rukia replies, gazing through the window of a newly bought house, staring down at Orihime Inoue, who sits on the sofa next to her husband, the two watching a movie. Rukia understands that she and Uryu are not only forced to watch the illusion, but also to take part in it. So, in a way, she's not in control of the things she says, but at the same time they are the words that she wants to say, as if the voice is somehow compelling her to utter them. She currently sits on the branch of a nearby tree, moonlight shining down on violet eyes still glistening with tears. The Renji in the vision does not know that she is crying. She won't show him.

'They look so happy,' Renji murmurs, and he sounds almost wistful. When Rukia turns to look at him, she sees him looking intently at her. He looks away quickly, a shade darker than his skin colour entering his cheeks, but it's too dark to tell whether he's actually blushing.

Rukia has been suspecting it for a while, but it still hits her quite hard emotionally. She's not as ignorant or as obtuse as Ichigo, and she knows when someone harbours feeling for her. Or at least, she's pretty sure she can always be aware, because to her it seems rather obvious that Renji's feelings for her are stronger than just a simple friendship.

'Renji…' What to say? Does it even matter if she doesn't know? The words will somehow find their way out of her mouth anyway, thanks to the voice. '… I don't… I'm not…'

'I get it,' he murmurs, now focused on Ichigo and Orihime. 'It's the reason you come and watch them every night. He means too much to you. But he has her now, doesn't he? You should at least try to move on…'

'I can't,' Rukia whispers, her eyes finding the swollen belly of Orihime which the orange-haired girl has covered with one hand.

'He's going to be a father,' Renji says matter-of-factly. 'He's got a happy life. Shouldn't that make you happy?'

'I… I wish…'

The scene dissolves in an ocean of tears cascading down Rukia's pale cheeks. It must be years later, now. Ichigo and Orihime are with Uryu and Chad. They're all adults now, Chad not looking much different because he was always quite big anyway, Uryu having had his hair cut so it is styled more like how it was when they first met him. Ichigo's hair is longer, similar to the length it was when he defeated Aizen, and Orihime's hair has actually grown even longer than it already was, trailing on the picnic blanket the four of them sit on, parts of it even reaching the grass.

'The four of us, together again. It's been so long,' Orihime beams.

'If only Rukia was here too,' Uryu brings up, and Rukia is glad that at least someone remembers her.

Ichigo's eyes dull over a little at the mention of the small Kuchiki. Rukia holds her breath, silence washing over the scene for a moment.

Ichigo? Do you know I'm here? Do you know how much I miss you…?

'Well, she is here in a way, isn't she?' Ichigo says finally, and Rukia's heart skips a beat.

'You're right,' Orihime smiles. 'Come on, everyone! Time for lunch!' she calls, and out from under a clump of trees come three children. The two oldest, a girl and a boy, both have the orange hair inherited from both their parents, the shade somewhere in between Ichigo's and Orihime's. They reach the adults first, yelling at each other.

'See?! I win!'

'No fair, Hikari! You had a head start!' the boy complains, and Orihime ruffles his hair affectionately.

'Calm down, Wataru,' she says good-naturedly. 'Look, I bought you your favourite ice cream.'

'Yay!' the boy exclaims, bouncing up and down in excitement.

But Rukia isn't focused on Hikari and Wataru. She's waiting patiently for Ichigo to elaborate on how he knows that she's still here.

Can you sense me, Ichigo? Or am I invisible? But you said I'm still here, in a way. You know I'm here, don't you, Ichigo?

'Daddy!' the youngest child squeals, a little girl of about four or five with black hair that she must have inherited from Isshin, her grandfather. She launches herself at her father, laughing in delight.

Ichigo holds the little girl close and whisper something in her ear. Rukia leans closer, but somehow she can already hear it.

'Hello, darling. Did you have fun playing?' Ichigo asks.

'Yeah! I love you, Daddy!' the child exclaims.

Ichigo closes his eyes and kisses his daughter's forehead. 'I love you too, Rukia.'

XOXOXOX

'SHIT!' Hollow Ichigo yells as another explosion sounds above his head. Somewhere behind the smoke, he hears Kenpachi Zaraki laughing like a maniac.

Okay, so under normal circumstances, this would be, like, the Hollow's ideal fight. Another happy fighting, psychotic killing machine? Bring it on! But not this time, because thanks to a certain voice, he has no damn powers.

Oi, Idiot! Now would be a good time to help me!

'Are you talking to me?' the voice said, sounding falsely bewildered.

No, of course I'm not talking to you, shithead! Hollow Ichigo replies. King! Ichigo! Whatever the hell you want me to call you!

Okay, okay, cool it. Is Chad there?

He's fighting some captain… Kyoraku or something.

Are you fighting someone?

Yep. Remember Kenpachi?

Shit. What do I do?

Get your ass over here.

We don't know where you are! Orihime thinks she can sense Rukia's spiritual pressure, and she's pretty sure Uryu's there too.

Maybe you should- Hollow Ichigo is broken off as he swerves to avoid Kenpachi shooting out of the fog.

'Hey, come on! You've got no fight in you at all!' Kenpachi declares, looking unamused.

Hollow Ichigo bites his lip, swallowing his pride. He hopes that no one will ever remember what he is about to say. 'I thought you didn't fight the… weak.'

Kenpachi laughs. 'Who cares what I usually do?! I'm just here to kill you!'

'Well, to be fair you are an illusion,' Hollow Ichigo mutters. 'Guess you're a little out of character or whatever…'

In a flash a strict vertical line of pain appears on his face, causing blood to squirt everywhere. The Hollow clutches the area over his eye, hissing in anger. He's thankful that the blade didn't catch the eye itself, or he would have lost it for sure. But how he's got a huge gash running down his face, and the blood is already pouring into his eye.

'Hurry up and fight properly!' Kenpachi orders, grabbing the front of the Hollow's white shihakushô. 'Fight!' he adds as he slams the Hollow into the building beside them.

Rage flares up inside the Hollow. 'Fine,' he growls, 'if that's what you want…' He clutches the hilt of his sword even tighter and swings it up, making a diagonal line of blood appear on Kenpachi's chest. The captain grins like a complete maniac.

'Now, that's more like it!'

Hollow Ichigo slashes his enemy again, creating a line travelling in the opposite direction. 'About time,' he grins, glad that he's finally able to deal blows on Kenpachi.

Kenpachi is overjoyed. He jabs his sword straight forwards at the Hollow's chest, and the albino only just manages to dodge it. He grabs the blade of Kenpachi's sword and tries pulling him forward. But Kenpachi is so much bigger and the Hollow does not currently posses the strength to do anything effective. He can feel pain searing through his hands and as he looks down he can see blood dripping from between his fingers.

'Got no powers, huh?' Kenpachi says, his smile no longer apparent.

Eyes wide in shock, the Hollow attempts to punch Kenpachi. The blow reaches his face and Kenpachi doesn't move an inch, as if it was a mere fly that hit his face. The Hollow tries kicking Kenpachi's legs to trip him up, and he gets the same result.

Kenpachi sighs, then he pulls his sword out of the Hollow's grip and thrusts it forwards, directly into the Hollow's chest, exactly where the heart should be.

'Sh… shit…' the Hollow gasps, agony flaring through his body. Being as weak as a human comes with so many human restrictions. This shouldn't hurt as much, if he still had his strength… he'd be able to continue fighting.

'Hrmph. Pathetic,' Kenpachi mutters as he draws the sword out of Hollow Ichigo's body, chucking the Hollow to the side of a bulding where he slides down to the bottom, motionless, his eyes closing.

Behind the pain, the Hollow finally becomes aware of someone yelling at him.

… Ho… llow… Hollow… What's… go… ing… on…?

Hey… Idiot…

What's happening? Is Kenpachi still there?

I… think so… The Hollow forces one of his eyes to open, and everything is blurry but he can still make out the shape of Kenpachi standing over him.

Have you lost? Ichigo asks finally.

Well… duh… The Hollow chuckles a little. The motion causes his body to convulse in pain, and he coughs out blood.

'Oh, is this the end?' the voice says in a falsely sad voice. 'Such a pity.'

Gimme… the fucking… power… already… the Hollow growls at Ichigo.

How do I do that?

Use your brain… stupid…

'Huh? How come you're still alive?' Kenpachi says. Then he grins. 'Oh yeah. I stabbed you in the heart, but Hollows don't have hearts. You got any more fight in you?'

'Just… you… wait…' the Hollow rasps.

'Doesn't look like it,' Kenpachi grunts. 'You're finished.'

XOXOXOX

'I… I think my Hollow's in trouble,' Ichigo says, clutching his head as if the telepathic conversation has given him a headache.

'In trouble?' Orihime questions.

'He's fighting Kenpachi Zaraki,' Ichigo mutters. 'And he's got no powers whatsoever.'

'But… that's a good thing… isn't it?'

Ichigo stares at her.

'I mean,' Orihime continues, looking nervous at the look Ichigo's giving her, 'that thing is… nothing but a burden to you… right?'

'Where's this coming from?' Ichigo says, feeling both angry and rather suspicious now. 'I thought you didn't hate anyone or anything. You have something against him?'

'He… It… I used to have nightmares about that thing…' Orihime says, looking as if she is about to burst into tears. 'And the voice used that against me… it's dangerous. Look what it did to Ulquiorra.'

'He's still a part of me,' Ichigo growls, disgusted with Orihime's attitude. Since when does she harbour grudges and hate anything?

Not the real Orihime… he thinks to himself.

No. He can't be sure of that yet. She's scared, very scared, and maybe that's changed her over the course of the night.

'Tick tock…'

'What?' he snaps, and because Orihime doesn't look and him confusedly, he can only assume she can hear the voice right now as well.

'You've only got so long left,' the voice trills.

'Yeah, that's great,' Ichigo says sarcastically. 'We've got more pressing matters right now. Get lost.'

With the sickening remnants of laughter ringing in their ears, Ichigo and Orihime continue with their conversation.

'He saved Rukia from a Hollow,' Ichigo continues. 'He's been helping us all night. Damn, and I never thought I'd be defending him like this,' he mutters under his breath, smiling slightly.

This… isn't the… real world… the Hollow forces himself to say down the other end of the line.

Yeah. You're just realising that? I thought that had already been established.

No… I mean… it's a combination… of inner worlds…

So… this means that me and Rukia and the others are in a comatose state in the real world?

We'll get to that… later. I think… Kenpachi's about to… finish me off.

That's not like him-

It doesn't… matter…! Just send me… the power… already…

How do I do that?

I… The Hollow hesitates. You're not gonna like it.

Just tell me.

You… I think you need to let me become… King.

Ichigo freezes. … What?

It will automatically transfer the power you have to me, and that will help me win the fight.

Yeah, and it will leave me powerless.

Are you fighting Kenpachi? No. So in terms of who's powerless, rather you than me right now.

Ichigo makes a 'tsk' noise aloud, his frown deepening. Fine, but that power comes straight back to me afterwards. So, what? I just concentrate on flowing it into you or something?

I'm a part of you. It's not gonna be rocket science.

Ichigo closes his eyes. Somewhere next to him, he hears Orihime ask, 'What are you doing?'

'Helping him,' comes the reply.

Ichigo imagines the state of his Hollow at this exact time. And through doing it, plus the telepathic connection, he is able to see through his Hollow's eyes. Kenpachi is raising his sword, ready to bring it down on the defenceless Hollow. Ichigo pictures him flowing all of his powers into the Hollow, letting go of every last drop of spirit energy, until he feels completely drained.

'Your powers-' Orihime gasps.

'I know,' Ichigo interrupts. 'I'm just gonna have to manage without them. For now.'

XOXOXOX

'Oh yeah!' the Hollow says, pushing himself to his feet, beginning to laugh. 'Now, this is more like it!'

'Hey!' Kenpachi yells, eyes glowing in anticipation. 'You can fight again. Excellent!'

'Get ready, 'cause I'm not holding back!' Hollow Ichigo says. He wonders briefly if he'll be able to do Bankai yet- after all, spirit energy has only just re-entered him and he was unable to perform it earlier in the night when Muramasa took the ability away from him.

Well, it's worth a shot.

'Bankai,' he tries. Zilch. 'Oh well. I won't need Bankai in order to defeat you.'

'Che. Another opponent who steals power from a zanpakutô,' Kenpachi growls. 'You're just like Ichigo. I bet you both rely on that Zangetsu of yours.'

'Technically I am Zangetsu, so Bankai probably should work,' Hollow Ichigo says. 'But if the one who created all of this doesn't want me using it, then so be it.' He grins menacingly. 'I won't need it, anyway.'

Kenpachi also grins. 'That's better.' He starts forward but in a flash of red, so quick that he barely registers it, his left arm is detached and completely incinerated. He stares down at the spot where is limb once was, eyes wide in surprise, while Hollow Ichigo laughs hysterically.

'Ha ha! Didn't see a cero coming, did you?!'

Kenpachi looks really excited as if pain means nothing to him. 'Great! You're different from Ichigo! He'd have never done that!'

'More where that came from,' the Hollow replies, overjoyed. He leaps towards his enemy, sword pointing straight forwards, ready to jab it straight into Kenpachi. The captain dodges it and brings his own sword down towards the Hollow's head. The Hollow lifts up his left hand to catch the blade, and this time no blood squirts from his palm. This time when he pulls the sword forwards, it works and he uses his own sword to mutilate the hand of Kenpachi resting on the hilt. Instead of letting go to scream about missing fingers like any normal person would do, Kenpachi roars with laughter and tries kicking the Hollow's feet to trip him up.

Hollow Ichigo leaps into the air to dodge the attack, still clutching onto Kenpachi's blade, and with a simple squeeze, the blade shatters and Kenpachi is left with a broken weapon. The Hollow laughs triumphantly.

'It isn't over until one of us is dead,' Kenpachi reminds him.

'Naturally,' the Hollow agrees. 'You seem to like grinning a lot, like me. Maybe you need a bigger mouth.'

'Huh-?' Kenpachi begins, but over the course of the next second Hollow Ichigo sonidos right in front of the captain and cuts deeply into one of his cheeks, making a huge gaping hole there which he quickly extends to join the mouth. The sword reaches inside the mouth too, slicing off the tip of Kenpachi's tongue.

Kenpachi makes a gurgling noise, which is apparently him trying to laugh while he's choking on his blood.

'That better?' Hollow Ichigo asks him, his grin wide. He has no plan of ending the fight quickly. This is very fun, watching Kenpachi struggle to continue fighting despite the fact that it looks pretty hopeless for the captain.

Reaching up with a mutilated hand, Kenpachi pulls the eye patch off his face and a burst of spirit energy is released in an instant. The Hollow watches, plastering a bored expression on his face to show that he is completely unaffected.

Kenpachi throws a punch at the Hollow which the albino counters easily just by simply raising his hand to catch the fist.

'Ah. You've got nothing in you anymore, have you?' the Hollow sighs. 'Oh well. This was very fun, but there's no point to it now.' He gives one last taunting smile. 'Adios.'

In a huge flash of crimson, all that can be seen afterwards is the Hollow still standing there, facing a blackened Kenpachi. The captain takes a wobbly step forwards before his head slides off his neck and smacks against the ground, his body crumbling next to it.

The Hollow decides not to send the power back to Ichigo yet. He's been thinking hard about what he needs to do, and he's pretty sure he doesn't want to let go of this power yet.

Listening to motivational Doctor Who music helps write battle scenes. I have totally got to remember that for later.

We should be reaching the end of the story soon. I'm pretty certain it hasn't got long to go.

Would it kill any of you to review?