I'm not dead. Sorry for not updating for a while. But hey, vacation called and I went. Philadelphia was nice, if anyone was wondering. So regardless here's my update, I wrote it on the way to Philadelphia and typed it up when I got home. Hope you enjoy.
DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN BLEACH ONLY THE PLOT AND MY OWN CHARACTERS
Ichigo was somewhere, he wasn't entirely sure about it. He looked around, it was a snowstorm, but it looked like it was in his inner world. He couldn't figure it out, and he couldn't sense Zangetsu or Hichigo. It was disconcerting. He wandered around but everything looked the same. He was chilled. Unfortunately there was no place that he could go to get out of the snowstorm.
Most of the time when he got tired he would get as close to the bottom of the skyscraper that he could, it provided some cover, so he wasn't completely being pelted by snow. But when he started to sleep he would get strange dreams. But they didn't seem so much dreams, but more of repressed memories.
Yet he didn't know who any of these people were. They were all living different lives, but he knew them. There would always be two that would get together. One had his amber eyes and the other was a turquoise looking color. That did not change, so he had a feeling that they were all connected somehow.
He shook his head. It'd do him no good to dwell on things that his mind created. He needed to figure out a way to leave this place. Ichigo felt like he was going in circles. The snowstorm would cover his tracks and he wouldn't know where he had been and where he hadn't. Everything looked the same. He blew air out of his nose.
He wasn't tired but he also didn't want to push himself. He was sitting in one of the random areas that was sheltered. They were few and far between and he would lose them once he moved on. It got annoying, but at least this way he'd be protected for the night. He curled into himself, a habit he had gotten into. He was sure that it had something to do with how often he had curled in that position to protect him from pain when he had been beaten.
His mind was somewhere between being awake and being asleep. He thought about when Enyo pushed him into the pit. The band had chased after him, he didn't know if it caught him or not. He didn't think it caught him because he was pretty sure that he wouldn't be in this endless world if it did. He still thought about how it felt, and how it was familiar.
The band was colder than his soul, but it was more of a protective coolness instead of a bitter one such as this snowstorm. It had reiatsu, he figured there was no other way for it to be circling his soul like it was. It seemed to have its own nature, stubborn yet friendly, selfish and sacrificing. It had several others, and most of them were contradictions. He shook his head. He needed to know how it was familiar to him. He felt like he knew it and knows it all at the same time. Like an old friend that you hadn't seen for ages but then wrote to everyday. He couldn't find the word for the oddity.
He closed his eyes fully, but tonight sleep was hard to come by. His thoughts were jumping from place to place. From his friends to his family and back. he wondered how his disappearance would be explained. He missed his little sisters, he desperately hoped that his friends didn't tell his family about how he vanished but that he just did. Yuzu would be in hysterics if she knew what had happened, and Karin would try to calm her while worrying herself.
His dad was another interesting problem. If his father found out, what would he do. He was a former captain after all. Something he had yet to get the full story on by he didn't care, well he did but he'd wait until his father told him. Surely his father wouldn't be so stupid to leave his daughters alone and go after him. He was able to take care of himself. He smiled grimly as he thought of the past however long he was captive, he wasn't taking care of himself then.
Ichigo wondered if his friends were even still alive. He knew Yuna had gone to the world of the living and she was hinting at deaths that occurred but he wasn't sure. He desperately hoped that it wasn't Rukia, Renji, or Toshiro. His train of thought stopped. He didn't want anyone to die on his behalf but why was Ichigo one of his tops to think about not dying? He couldn't really place the tightness he got in his heart when he remembered one of his dreams he had in captivity.
They all started the same way. He had whoever the dream was about was walking next to him. The one of the five would show up and attack him and the other person. Ichigo would find himself unable to attack as he was rooted to the spot in fear. The other person would jump and fight to protect him but the captor would be to strong and end up killing Ichigo's dream companion.
Against his will his mind drifted to the dream he had about Toshiro, who was, oddly enough, the only person that he dreamed about in this situation more than once.
Ichigo and Toshiro were walking around in some random field. They were silent but the silence wasn't strained it was companionable. The two young shinigami would occasionally bump hands but both were to inexperienced too do something about it. They stopped in the middle of the field, no particular reason except for that it felt weird.
Suddenly a strong reiatsu flared up behind them. The two teenagers spun around to face whoever it was. Ichigo felt himself freeze in fear, this time not due to Yuna's axe. He had thought he had gotten away from them. Yet standing in all of her 5' 6'' glory was Yuna, she looked bored and she was swinging her sword around to give her something to do.
She tilted her head towards him. Her russet gaze met the amber one of Ichigo. She smiled cruelly and leapt into strike him down where he stood. Ichigo wasn't able to defend himself, he was too afraid to incase of what she could do to him if she ended up capturing him once more. He was scarcely breathing. Toshiro watched him to see if he would defend himself. Yuna was drawing closer, in a split second decision the white haired boy jumped in front of Ichigo brandishing his blade.
The two battled it out, each landing their own strikes. Both had several minor wounds on them. It was a fierce battle. Ichigo couldn't figure out why the young captain looked so angry, the turquoise flashed with something Ichigo could only describe as vengeance but the permanent gleam in the eyes screamed protectiveness. Ichigo felt something warm inside of him.
He watched as Yuna got in a particularly lucky strike that sent the tenth's captain flying. The orange haired teen watched with bated breath. Thankfully Toshiro seemed to not be that injured. Yuna took advantage of both of the teen's distractedness. She appeared next to Ichigo holding her sword to his throat. Toshiro got up looking vicious. He glared at Yuna, the captive she had in her arms decided that if looks could kill she'd already be dead. A chuckled bubbled through her lips.
"Release him!" Toshiro growled. "He's got nothing to do with our fight."
Yuna paused inclining her head and chewing her lip. "He's got nothing to do with it? He's got everything to do with it. Without him we would have never met. A tragedy itself."
Toshiro remained defiant. Yuna pouted a long sigh drawn out of her. " Honestly. Set your blade down and then we'll talk. That way I won't her your pet."
She pushed the blade into his throat. A thin line of blood started to trickle down his next, staining his shirt. He saw something snap inside of Toshiro his face went from furious to grim in a matter of seconds. The captain straightened himself. Ichigo's eyes widened as he realized what the young captain was about to do. He wanted to scream at Toshiro that he would be fine, to not do it, or don't do anything reckless his life didn't mean anything. But the word were frozen in his throat. Even swallowing he felt the blade pierce his throat deeper.
The white haired captain dug the tip of his blade into the dirt. Ichigo felt Yuna's face stretch out into a grin. She shoved the substitute shinigami to the side and the teen was sprawled out into the dirt. She lunged towards the defenseless captain. Ichigo was praying that the captain would do something, use kido at the very least. But there was a fire in the captain that he hadn't seen.
Yuna plunged her blade into the captain's torso, pushing in until the hilt was touching Toshiro's body and the tip of the blade was through the other side. This time Ichigo did scream. Whatever fear he had evaporated when he watched the blood of Toshiro stain the grass. The teen summoned Zangetsu and sent perhaps his strongest getsuga tensho yet. The ex-shinigami didn't have time to react as the wave came at her at a blinding speed.
Ichigo couldn't care less about what happened to the blue haired shinigami and bolted over to the all to still form of Toshiro. The captain was still alive thankfully. Ichigo applied pressure to the bleeding wound but both know that it was a mute point to do so. Ichigo just needed to try.
Toshiro watched the frantic teen above him. His amber eyes filled his panic and other things he couldn't bother about deciphering. It was just the look that was in Ichigo's eyes. At the moment Toshiro was certain that the only two people in the world were him and Ichigo.
The icy captain raised a pale hand and set it on top of Ichigo's slightly tanned one. Ichigo stopped whatever it was he was doing and stared at the captain, confused. Toshiro sent him a smile, Ichigo's breath caught in his throat. Then the captain went slack, the turquoise eyes were closing, and finally they closed.
Ichigo screamed in grief, unwanted tears sprung to his eyes. He clutched the cooling body to his chest not caring that he was getting even more bloody. He continued to sob uncontrollably, he hadn't cried this hard since his mother died. The feeling in his heart was similar to what it had felt when his mother died. He let a howl of grief. The sky had clouded over and he saw tiny flakes of snow start to fall.
Ichigo awoke slowly. He lifted his hand to his face and felt the wetness there. He was crying at the memory of the dream. It was incredibly sappy of him and he wondered when he had become a sappy person. He never was before. He shrugged. Standing up he looked around and saw that the snow storm was blowing just the same as it was before he had fallen asleep.
Drying his eyes, he waited a few more minutes, waiting to see if the snowstorm died down any, which it didn't. He was loathe to leave the small shelter but he needed to find away out of this place. He wished that it wasn't alone, that he had someone to talk to, even if it was his hollow half, it be more welcoming that the whistling of the wind as his only companion. He took of in a direction, he was pretty sure he had never come this way. He pulled himself tighter around himself in order to shield out the cold.
He trudged his way through the foot of snow, it was bizarre that no matter how much it snowed that the buildup was never more than a foot. From this he assumed that it was an unnatural place. Though he could've assumed if because he fell through the pit his soul was hanging over. He shook out the snow that was landing in his hair, it did him no good but it was something other than trudging around someplace that he had no idea where he was going.
The snow blew fiercer all of the sudden, knocking the orange-haired teen off of his feet and sending him toppled over on the ground. He looked around, trying to spot if anything would've caused the wind to shift so violently. Naturally there was nothing. Ichigo continued to look in the distance a while longer, there was a feeling nostalgia. He felt like there should be someone emerging from the cold.
Who the person was he didn't know but he had the feeling that the person would come bursting out of the snow and hold onto him like his life depended on him. He didn't see a complete face but he knew that the figure should have turquoise eyes. It was another one of those things he knew without knowing. He ponder on those eyes however, there was only one person he knew with eyes that color. Toshiro.
Ichigo's eyebrow arched. Maybe he was brain was using the power of suggestion because he knew that the young captain was an ice wielder. Ichigo nodded in satisfaction, that seemed to be the most logical thing in this situation. Well, its the only logical thing. His brain supplied.
He told his brain to shut up and started walking once more. It was a lot colder since he had fallen in the snow and his ShihakushÅ was soaking wet. He dried to dust off what snow he could to keep himself from getting anymore wetter and retain what little body heat he had left. His feet were frozen, but surprisingly that's all they were, there was no signs of frostbite which he should have be now. Not that he was complaining, he just wished he could figure out where he was.
He thought that several more hours had passed when he felt himself get tired. His feet hurt from walking all day and he was still freezing. He would need to find a shelter soon otherwise he'd be colder and more miserable tomorrow than he was today. He glanced around once more, nothing within his sights he could see. He would continue on however, he still had some energy left so he would expend it before turning in for the night.
Some time later Ichigo was panting heavily, he still hadn't found a shelter for the night and walking around was starting to take its toll on him. He gritted his teeth and pressed on. His legs were sore from being used some much in such a short time. They were feeling like heavy blocks of lead. Sighing the young teenager started to dig himself an alcove. He built it so that the raised area would be against wind giving him protection from it. It wasn't the most comfortable sleeping arrangements, but at least it was better than sleeping with no shelter.
The young teenager curled up into a ball, it was warmer than if he laid spread eagle and he hadn't been able to break that habit as of yet. He closed his eyes and waited for sleep to claim him. There were two things that he liked about the situation. One of them was he had time to think without being interrupted something he was finding he needed and he wasn't around other people. Zangetsu and Hichigo didn't count, they were technically a part of them. He knew they wouldn't hurt him, his good hollow seemed to not want to kill him last time he met him and Zangetsu, he never tried to truly hurt the young shinigami.
Toshiro was pacing. He was told that Urahara had an announcement and had called the group of shinigami together. It was officially 17 days since Ichigo was missing and the icy captain was getting antsier by the day. The others could tell it as well, and they were all anxious to see what Urahara had been working on.
Urahara walked into the room Yoruichi following behind him, both looked a lot more relaxed, seemed the most fitting words. Urahara carried a box in his hands. The shinigami stilled and watched as he set the box down on the table. There was a silence that engulfed the entirety of the room, waiting to see what Urahara's box had in it.
After a few moments, allowing the tension to build, Urahara opened the box. Inside of it where six cell phones. The shinigami crowded around it, they all wore differing faces of confusion.
Urahara shrugged to the woman beside him, he figured that he would have to explain it anyway, so it wasn't a disappointment that that the group were utterly confused. He took a step foreward and removed one from the box.
"This." He shook the phone in his hand. "Is our way of finding Ichigo."
The shinigami suddenly perked. The looked at the phones with awe and a lingering trace of confusion. Yoruichi sniggered at their faces, conveniently forgetting that she had been at a lost about the phone not twenty minutes ago.
"This phones are tapped into the wave-length of the anomaly in Hueco Mundo. All you have to do is reach the highest points in Hueco Mundo and you should be able to find it from there. You'll get right on top of the anomaly and then you'll return back." Urahara explained.
"From there I'll build a portal to get you into our enemy's base of operation, where they more than likely have Ichigo. Any other objectives will be decided by Captain Hitsugaya or Head-Captain Yamamoto." The candy store owner concluded.
Renji scoffed slightly. "You make it sound easy."
"The mission itself is easy, but its whatever obstacles you encounter on your way." Yoruichi said gravely.
Everyone looked at the young captain who was holding a phone in his hand, evaluating it. He looked straight at the former captain. A fire burning in his normally cold eyes. "How do these things work?"
Urahara smiled, all too happy to explain his devices to the group.
Yikes, short chapter I know... :( I just wasn't sure where to leave off and this seems to be the best way. I'll make it up to you by writing chapter 12 quickly and updating it.
So anyway~ Leave your thoughts below and all that jazz. Its starting to get interesting, ne? Whelp, I'm off to the land of writing chapter 12. Later! ~IF
