+_+_+--------
"….lucky Soul Society didn't get him first…."
Ichigo groaned. His head hurt.
"Well…nearly lost ….. become a full hollow!"
Not the normal thinking too hard hurt, or even the 'ouch I shouldn't have run headlong into that brick wall' hurt; no this pain threatening to split his head was much worst.
"Don't worry… hollow repellant."
Through the haze of pain he noticed that his hands were bound behind his back. He vainly wriggled his fingers testing how sturdy the knots were. Damn, the person who tied them must have been a boy scout.
"…have to fight …barrier ….eight minutes each."
Thumping sounds approached, and Ichigo was mostly certain that it wasn't the pounding in his head making them.
A loud slap followed by some indistinguishable high-pitched shouting and a cry of pain, then the footsteps stopped.
He blindly turned his face to the sounds. They were close, maybe even right outside his door.
"Hey, that hurt! Look Hiyori it's the only way, he's already been partially taken over by his hollow! Didn't you see him go after his family back there? And according to our sources in Soul Society he nearly killed a captain before escaping to Hueco Mundo! We have to do this now before he really does go full hollow. We're just lucky he hasn't yet."
The door was thrown open spilling forth a wave of light. Even through his closed eyelids the brightness burned. Ichigo reflexively curled up trying to shield his face, but as his hands were tied up it didn't really work.
"Shit, he's awake!"
The voice came closer, as Ichigo tried to squirm away. He felt a hand on his face, then the world fell into merciful blackness once again.
"Hiyori, have Hachi put up a double dislocation barrier, we can't afford to waste any more time."
+____+__+_---
Someone was poking him.
"Hey are you alive in there?"
Well, to be more accurate, someone was kicking him rather painfully between his ribs and his stomach.
Blearily Ichigo shoved aside the offending foot and sat up, one hand supporting his head, in which his migraine was thankfully lessening, and the other keeping his body upright.
"Gee, don't have to be so pushy! I was just checking to see if you were all right! Sheesh, last time I do that!"
The carrot topped teen cracked open his eyes, and surveyed a landscape of blue cloudy skies swirling with rain.
It took a moment for his brain to find what was wrong with this picture,
'Wait clouds are generally…up… right?'
He craned his head back and saw a field of skyscrapers that disappeared far above him.
He blinked slowly several times. This was important he knew it…he just couldn't place exactly why.
A white face with sunken black eyes leaned over him.
"Hichigo!" Ichigo threw himself away from the white hollow, who wore a bemused expression on its face as it straightened up.
"Good to see ya too, King."
The teen frantically searched the buildings around him for his sword, while the hollow stood off to the side watching him curiously.
Finally at length he said, "What are you doing?"
Not abandoning his fruitless search the teen answered, "I'm trying to find Zangetsu! 'Cuz you're here and you tried to kill me, and I killed you so now you want revenge, and here I am without a weapon, and…."
By this point the hollow began inspecting his black nails, arms folded, clearly uninterested in the crazed teen's ramblings.
At length Ichigo realized that he was still unharmed, despite Hichigo standing right behind him, so he turned to him and blinked a couple of times clearly befuddled.
"Um, aren't you going to try and kill me or something?"
The hollow looked at him over his nails, polished the black digits on his white robes, then made a great show of pulling out a day planar (from where Ichigo had no idea) flipping through a couple pages, sighing, and saying, "So sorry, not this time, but I may be able to squeeze you in some time next week."
Ichigo just stared at him.
Hichigo obviously took his silence as something other than sheer confusion, as he tossed the planar over the side of the building and folded his arms across his chest pouting.
"Look are you still angry about the whole trying to kill you thing? I don't see you angry at that rusty sword! Was it because he asked permission before he tried to kill you?"
This question was apparently meant to be answered as the hollow was looking expectantly at Ichigo for an answer.
The teen was at this moment thoroughly confused.
"Um, what? When did Zangetsu try and kill me?"
Hichigo let lose a loud growl that could have been related to a sigh, and raised his eyes to the heavens praying for patience.
At last he took a calming breath and said in forced calm, "Ok, let's start at the beginning. How did you get your shikai?"
Ichigo's expression remained stuck somewhere between 'is he stupid' and 'am I going crazy' when he answered, "Um, I was fighting Urahara and I called Zangetsu's name."
"Yes you were in need of help and he gave you his power without a fight. Good, now how did you get bankai?"
"Yoruichi had this doll thing, and we fought…" a look of dawning crossed the teen's face.
Hichigo clapped in mock applause, "So you understand now?"
Ichigo nodded hesitantly, "So since I fought you for your shikai, you'll give me you're bankai?"
The hollow sighed again, "Almost, but not quite there. However since I can see all your tiny brain cells working past their limit to find the answer, I'll take pity on you and explain it to you in terms you can understand."
He cleared his throat importantly.
"Alright, like you so eloquently put it I will 'give you my bankai' but only when I choose to, and the way things are going it won't be for a while so don't get your hopes up. As to what I was talking about while trying to kill you, think of the relationship between a shinigami and its zanpakuto. It's a partner based relationship, so for the rare case of a shinigami with a hollow it would be a hierarchy based one."
He adopted a thoughtful look on his face, "Well for all hollows actually. Hierarchy's of power are the only thing they listen to."
He shook himself from his train of thought before it ran over some poor damsel in distress tied to the tracks and continued.
"Well, anyway, so now you're the king here and I'll give you my power till I decide to test you again to make sure that you haven't gone soft. Zangetsu was being a real bitch about this whole thing, kept saying that you shouldn't trust me or take my power."
He scoffed, "He was just angry because I was totally ok with you getting his bankai. The more power the merrier I say! But he had to go sight some arcane rule about limiting a shinigami's power till they were more responsible or something…."
He trailed off into dark mutterings.
Ichigo meanwhile decided that to preserve his remaining sanity ( or at least what he had so far been able to pass off as sanity) moved his mind away from the complexities of his inner world and into the outer one.
"So Hichigo, who're these guys who caught me?"
The hollow looked up from his mutterings and shrugged, "Dunno, they look like shinigami, maybe they're with soul society?"
The teen shook his head, "No, if they were I think we'd be dead right now."
He shook his head, "Right, I don't care who they are, all I know is we've got to get away before those shinigami realize we're here. I was stupid to come here in the first place, my family…" he trailed off looking lost.
The hollow smiled teasingly. "Well king, where will we run to? Back to the desert?"
Ichigo smirked matching his white twin's," Where else?"
+_+_+_+_+____++++
Ichigo gasped, something heavy was crushing his back into the dirt below him. He flailed his limbs trying to push himself up, but the …towers, there was no better description, wouldn't budge.
'I could use a little help here!'
'Just call out my mask and shatter those things, stupid. I cant open up a portal here for some reason, It's like there's a barrier or something, so we have to get out of here before we escape.'
Ichigo nodded and concentrated on his mask, which soon appeared on his face.
Grinning, the skull masked boy stood, pillars turning to dust behind him. He could see a strange orange dome surrounding him. It flickered with power, then a door seemed to open in it and one of the shinigami stepped through.
A woman with glasses stepped through muttering something about being 'offed'.
"Pleased to meet you, " she said, not sounding very pleased at all, "I'm Lisa Yadoumaru."
+_+_+_+_+_+_____
sorry for the late update. I hate school, it kills my motivation for useless creativity.
Now things get interesting.
With luck next chapter hell be back in hueco mundo.
Ja ne!