So….

I am in pain…

Working out is a pain but the pain the day after is even bigger…

Anyway here is chapter 25 for ya all.

Remember to vote on the poll if you haven't yet!

Chapter 25: Kendo, chaos and acceptance

Renji walked down the hallways with his group in tow, some seniors in Kendo have heard about the match and agreed to let the match take place in the dojo with them being there to judge the winner. Now school was out and Ichigo would be on his way to the kendo dojo.

The group was proven right as when they got there Ichigo was leaning against the doorframe talking to a fellow senior. Ichigo was naming things off on his fingers while the senior just stared in what looked like awe.

They got closer just as Ichigo named off the last thing leaving the senior stunned. "Um… yes well it seems you know the rules of a kendo match but I don't see a sword, I assume you don't have one?" Ichigo gave a single lazy nod.

"Yup."

The senior nodded and walked into the dojo, Ichigo remained where he was leaning against the doorframe, his eyes were closed as he tilted his head up. Renji coughed and watched as golden eyes open up lazily and blink at them before opening fully looking more awake.

"Ah you're here good now we can get this thing over with. I have homework to do." Ichigo said and pushed himself off the doorframe and into the room without a second glance, Sado came quickly to the red head's side. Neither man said anything but a mutual understanding was there.

No words were needed.

The senior who talked to Ichigo before was the captain of the kendo club and handed Ichigo a wooden sword that was his training sword. Ichigo bowed and thanked him surprising the lot who saw at how… formal and sincere the bow was.

Ichigo placed his bag to the one corner where Sado would keep watch over his things and took off his white button up school shirt showing he had a white t-shirt underneath, he also removed his shoes and did a few stretches to warm up.

Renji did the same and got into his kendo uniform so he could train afterwards. The rest of the kendo club went to the other end of the room where there was more space and sat down with the rest of the group of friends.

Tatsuki and the other girls watched as Ichigo looked down at his t-shirt and grimace with a shrug before placing the wood sword on the ground, then he removed the white shirt form his torso. Not just the girls but some boys too were surprised by the physic of a fellow student. Ichigo was ripped and clean cut to near perfection.

The raven haired female champion noticed a scar on the man's side that was a pale white showing that it was old, on his chest he had a scar as well that was pale as well. This just showed Tatsuki that Ichigo could fight and saw his own share of fights and hospitals as she saw that the scars were well cared for.

Ichigo then grabbed something that was in his pant pocket. He moved both hands to his head and tied his hair into a tail the middle of his head at the back, short jagged pieces fell into his face never the less but the mass of orange hair was now out of the way.

Renji finished getting dressed and came out of the bathroom to see Ichigo spinning the sword around with a loose hand making it look oh so easy. The way the other male handled the wooden sword made Renji firmly believe that he had training.

Then Renji saw Ichigo was shirtless staring off onto the distance all the while spinning the sword as if it was nothing, his fingers twisted, loosened and tightened to allow the hilt of the wooden sword to move in a circle.

Gold eyes flicked his way when he stepped onto the mat without a sound. 'How did he know I was close?' Renji asked to himself. It was as if the red head could sense him.

"You're going to get hurt being shirtless you know." Renji said and got into stance. Ichigo mirrored the stance and shrugged. "I trained a lot without a shirt."

What no human knew was that Ichigo's gigai was unlike that of a shinigami gigai, Ichigo's fast reiatsu and already tough body had to go somewhere. So Urahara made the gigai a lot tougher than the normal gigai, Ichigo was still very much stronger and resilient than a mere human, some of his arrancar traits still came through. Tough skin and slightly faster speed and strength, most would just shrug it off to being trained form a young age which would in all honesty be the full truth about Ichigo.

Renji huffed and bolted forward with a standard frontal attack with speed that impressed Ichigo somewhat but it was still too slow for Ichigo's trained eye. After all he was use to his spars with people who could vanish with the blink of an eye.

So with remarkable ease Ichigo blocked and shoved Renji away without much facial expression. He did look a little bored at that just irked Renji all the more.

With a growl Renji sped up his attacks making the clank of wood meeting wood echo louder in the deathly quiet room. Sado was impressed, Renji was good he beat his captain the other day. He was the kendo club's ace and here he was failing again and again to get through the older teen's defences which looked pretty solid to the bigger teen.

Rukia had a brow arched as she and the rest of the girls watch nervously as Renji went at it again and again. Orihime, Chizuru and Michiru flinched at every clank of wood. Keigo and Mizuiro watched with fascination, Renji was like their idol and yet he couldn't seem to get a hit on Ichigo.

Ishida walked past the kendo hall on his way to his sewing club and heard Renji's loud curse, wondering what the reason could be he peaked in and was surprised to see Renji and Ichigo having a match. Deciding that this was more interesting he leaned against the doorframe and watched.

Renji was now really annoyed. "Can you just block or something?! Fuck it attack or something!" he yelled and was momentarily surprised when he was suddenly hit on the side of his arm.

That was fast!

Ichigo was now a hop or so away looking at him with a smirk. Ichigo loved riling up his opponents so they become annoyed or angry, that was when they made mistakes.

Now finding it entertaining Ichigo decided to go on the offence for the first time. He moved with grace and muscle memory from all his training and started to plunder Renji with well timed swings and volley of stabs that were near impossible to dodge fully.

Grunting Renji was assaulted by the pain of the attacks that managed to hit him. 'Shit this guy packs a punch!' Renji thought through gritted teeth.

One swing with more force than Ichigo intended sent Renji off balance and flailing. He went backwards while throwing both arms in white circles to try and find balance not noticing he was falling closer to his friends or more closely to the girls.

Seeing that one of the girls were about to get hurt Ichigo moved quickly and dropped the wooden sword and blocked the wild swing with his forearm while grabbing Renji's shirt at the front, the wooden sword shattered upon impact with Ichigo's forearm.

The impact hurt his gigai a whole lot more than it would have hurt his spirit form, he hissed and threw Renji back onto the mat with a thud. He looked down at his forearm, a bruise already starting to form slightly. He tsked and looked down at the shattered piece of kendo sword.

Shrugging he picked up the borrowed sword and walked back to the owner before giving it back. "Thank you for the sword." Ichigo said with a slight smile.

The kendo captain stuttered an 'It's okay.' As he watched Ichigo along with everyone even Renji were he was laying on the floor looking up as Ichigo went to Sado's side to get his shirt so he could get back to Urahara's. He looked around and asked in a curious tone. "What?"

Renji scampered up and walked to Ichigo before shacking him a little by the shoulders. "You just took a hit to the arm hard enough to break my damn wooden sword how can you be fine?" he said the last part softly. Yeah he was a hard ass and sometimes an obnoxious ass but he still had compassion for those who were hurt or his friends.

Ichigo looked down at his arm again and shrugged again while probing it gently to see if he broke anything. He looked back up into red brown eyes. "At most I bruised the bone, I have had worse." Ichigo said and pointed to his side where the massive white scar sat. Renji now noticing it gawked and got closer.

Nobody had such a big scar so he never seen one up so close. At the look Renji gave the scar Ichigo lifted his arm to show the scar better all with an amused smile.

"What the hell happened?" Renji breathed out, bruised forearm all but forgotten. The rest of the room's occupants came closer. Ishida huffed and walked away towards his club activities.

Shrugging it off Ichigo looked to the side but jumped and tensed when he felt fingers on his side. He glanced down to see Renji touching the scar where the scarred tissue met his unmarred skin, the scarred tissue was sunken in against the normal skin. The pale skin was also far softer than Ichigo's unscarred skin.

Ichigo inched away and yanked his shirt over his head. He sighed and picked up his other shirt and bag stuffing the shirt into it. "I got it by sparing with a friend with real swords." Ichigo said as if he was talking about the weather.

"Oh a real sword fight?" came a friendly voice.

All teens and one otherworldly being in hiding looked over to see what Ichigo assumed was the teacher of the kendo club. Ichigo nodded and flung his bag over his head to rest on his shoulder. "Yeah, he wanted to spar with me so I agreed." Ichigo said knowing full well that fighting with real swords in today's times was unheard of.

The teacher being a middle aged man with dark hair and eyes arched a brow now a little worried seeing that the red head wasn't kidding.

"Isn't that a little dangerous?" he asked and stepped onto the mat walking towards Renji and Ichigo. Ichigo however scratched his head with a thoughtful look on his face. "I guess it can be dangerous but we both ended that match with bruises and scars, heh I passed out." Ichigo chuckled and shook his head.

Everyone excluding Sado gawked. Okay Sado was shocked but he didn't show it to such extent. His eyes did go big.

Seeing this Ichigo snickered and started to walk to the door to go home. "Hey!" Renji yelled and ran after him. Ichigo looked back with an arched brow. "Yes?"

Renji frowned but then smiled. "You should join, at least till exams start." Ichigo frowned and shook his head. "I'm sorry but I won't have enough time to join any club. I might not even finish this year." Ichigo said and walked away no looking back as people called his name. Sado frowned and got up, he walked after Ichigo till he reached the man when he stopped at a crossing.

Sado didn't ask as he knew it would be rude to ask now, he would wait till they were friends longer.

Inside Ichigo's mind he was conversing with Zangetsu and Hogyoku about what they would do for training when Ichigo go back home. Ichigo looked to the side to see Sado walking beside him.

"So where do you live?" He asked to know a little more about the male next to him. Ichigo somehow knew that being friends with this teen would make school a little more bearable.

The giant pointed to the general direction where they both were heading. Ichigo smiled at this. "Cool so we can walk home together. Sado liked this and nodded once, he would see where Ichigo's path diverged from his and then wait for the other male the next day so they could walk to school.

To both men's surprise Ichigo's stop was very near Sado's apartment.

The moment Ichigo stopped at the front of the Shōten the door slid open and a gigai wearing Nel ran out and jumped into Ichigo's arms as he bent to catch her. Sado watched as the small girl started to babble some nonsense of how someone called Yoruichi helped her pick her clothes.

His eyes went to Ichigo's face expecting it to be annoyed or something along those lines but nothing of the sort was. In fact there was a fond look on the red head's face, a small smile as he spoke when he needed to. Gold eyes looked his way, like Renji Sado could have sworn that the man had brown eyes not gold but it could have been the light.

"Nel this is Sado." Ichigo introduced the two.

Two large wheat grey eyes looked up at him.

Sado's weakness being cute this was immediately taken in by the small cute girl about the age of five.

Gin opened the door slowly and unsurely.

Oh Aizen threw a fit when they returned, most arrancar and Espada looked to Starkk to fill them in on what happened.

While Aizen went into a small killing spree killing lesser arrancars without much effort in the throne room Starkk filled the others in. There was a deathly silence in the room when he finished, he leaned back against the wall in the large room they were in.

This was unsettling to them all as Ichigo was a powerhouse and with the fire to kill running in his veins he was even more powerful.

Having such an enemy was worrisome.

Grimmjow rubbed the back of his head where he sat against the wall. "It was bound to happen, I mean that shitty Shinigami bastard had to fucking at least think of the chances that Ichigo would remember, and if he did what the results would be. I highly doubt that the Cero would just shrug and kill his shinigami friends I mean… duh…" Grimmjow grumbled showing that he was indeed not stupid and could think at least.

Nnoitra looked down at the head of blue and cocked an eyebrow. "But he's more hollow now isn't he? Shouldn't he have the urge to kill shinigami on sight?" He asked and scratched his cheek. Harribel looked up from where she was standing.

"Remember Nnoitra that Ichigo was a shinigami before he was hollow unlike us who were hollow before we gained shinigami powers." Nnoitra gave a nod all the while glaring at the woman. He knew better than to attack Harribel, she unlike Nel wouldn't hesitate to kill him.

Szayel nodded and placed a hand on his glasses and crossed his arms while the hand still remained on the frame on the side of his face. "I agree with Harribel-sama. Ichigo-sama never fully felt more hollow nor did he ever feel like a full shinigami." He recalled once where he studied Ichigo from afar.

Now Aizen had killed a massive portion of weaker arrancars to sate his ire but most had a feeling that the man was actually worried that Ichigo was now against him and what it would do to his plans.

That was a few weeks ago, Aizen hadn't shown his face in all that time just allowing Gin and Kaname entrance. In said room it was dark with the bodies of slain arrancars. Gin still couldn't get over the pure chaos that was once the pristine throne room, in hand he had a tray with food.

Aizen had seated himself at the head of the table and was looking off to the side.

In his head he tried to come up with a plan but nothing came, all he could do was make his own Hogyoku and activate it with enough souls, he will find Urahara and in turn he knew he would find Ichigo and then he would kill the blonde and force the red head into submission by any means necessary.

Killing Ichigo would be too difficult he knew this, that man had a will of titanium and a heart strong enough to bare great loss if what he had seen so far was any indication. He also had a magnetic aura that just made you want to get close.

And let's not forget the outer shell of the red head.

Oh how he wanted the red head in his bed. That body was mouth-watering, Ichigo looked even better when he got changed. He was now paler and those eyes…

The way Ichigo could stare at someone with such defiant eyes was… spellbinding.

That defiant look was made as if it was solely for Ichigo, it suited him far better than the emotionless guarded stare he got the first day.

But now Ichigo openly hated him, so now he had to go about this far more delicately.

He nodded to Gin who placed the tray on the table.

"Send Ulquiorra to the world of the living to spy on Ichigo, I want information."

Gin said nothing and just nodded.

He walked out the room stiffly, he sensed that all the Espada were at the same place and went there in a flurry of shunpo.

He stopped suddenly in the middle of the group surprising them as they weren't expecting Gin to appear out of nowhere. Gin looked around though you couldn't see it, his gaze landed on the ever silent Espada. "Ah Cuatro-san Aizen-sama has a mission fer yeh." He said with a growing grin.

Ulquiorra nodded and stepped closer and stood straight waiting for his orders to be. Gin swayed a bit making his loose folds flap around. "Aizen-sama wants ya ta go an' spy on our previous Cero, be careful now." Gin said and waved as he walked out the door.

The group stood there shocked.

Ulquiorra frowned inside, this was starting to get confusing to him. Why did he have to go and spy on the previous Cero who could probably sniff him out easily? Taking a deep breath that still remained near silent he opened a Garganta. Without a backward glance he stepped through and a few seconds later he appeared in the world of the living.

He sonído'd to the location of the barely there reiatsu he sensed. He lowered himself and went to the shrubs in hopes he could hide there.

His emerald green eyes watched a normal looking Ichigo talk with a bigger human walking towards a building. Ichigo and the bigger male made it to the house and a small girl came out running, Ulquiorra soon realised it was the previous Tres Espada Nel. The two talked a bit and that was when Ulquiorra noticed the door open again and a tallish blonde with a chopped bob and piano grin stood to watch the scene as well.

"Yo Ichigo-san looking a little pale there." The moment the blonde spoke Ichigo's head snapped his way with surprise in his eyes clearly written.

"Shinji…" Ichigo lowered Nel and looked to the bigger teen. "I'll see you tomorrow kay?" Ichigo said to the taller male who nodded and waved to the small girl and walked away. Ulquiorra watched as Ichigo and small Nel go back into the house but not before the blonde called Shinji gave the taller Ichigo a friendly hug.

Seeing that there was nothing more to see he made his way back to Las Noches and to the throne room with the remaining Espada, the throne room was a little bit cleaner but the stench of rotten carcases were still there.

"Ah Ulquiorra I see you have returned." Aizen spoke from his throne in his normal pose with chin resting on his palm. Ulquiorra nodded and removed his eye without being ordered and crushed the orb in his hand allowing everyone to see what he saw.

As the rest watched green apathetic eyes regarded Aizen. The man's eyes glazed over with lust as he saw Ichigo, a frown when he saw someone next to Ichigo, the frown deepened when he saw Nel and when the brunette saw Shinji his eyes went wide before he frowned heavily.

"Ah thank you Ulquiorra you're all dismissed." Aizen said and watched as the others left the room.

The Visards were now involved.

This made things all the more hard.

What he didn't know was that he was losing the faith of his most loyal Espada.

Back in Soul Society people were training to get stronger, knowing that a war was soon coming. Now knowing that Ichigo was back on their side made things a little less tense as the information that the red head was still alive… sort of.

The fact that he had been turned into an arrancar made many a blood boil. To see Ichigo looking so broken and in pain was more than enough to convince those that Ichigo was not to be killed even if the central 46 demanded it.

Everyone in the Gotei 13 refused.

The Shiba family where in shambles but were getting better now that they knew Ichigo wasn't dead. Ganju looked a little more like his normal self.

Byakuya was now standing in front of the head captain finally having the time on both sides to meet up. Yamamoto knew what this was about and was more than happy to set the noble's mind at ease.

"Sir." Byakuya said his eyes ever more guarded after Ichigo was taken from him, the pain was there and nothing could hide that.

"Yes captain Kuchiki?" the old man's gruff voice spoke as he sat at his desk and looked at Byakuya, he had small dark rings under his eyes that showed he struggled to sleep.

"On what Ichigo said before he left… do you really plan on going through with it?" he asked finally showing a little emotion that was not much for the average person but for Byakuya it was a lot. The pure hurt in those eyes made something in Yamamoto pang.

"No I don't." he answered truthfully and watched as Byakuya's eyes do wide and his neck stiffen along with his whole body as he looked at his head captain with shock in his eyes.

"But…" he didn't know what to say.

"I only agreed because I knew from previous happenings involving the red head that if I didn't agree he would have likely gone and got himself killed if we refused. I am hoping that you would be able to change his mind." The elder spoke and drew his crane closer.

He stood and walked to Byakuya's side.

"Why don't you take some time off? Clear you head." The underlining message was there.

"Go see Ichigo."

And with permission given he nodded and walked off.

The old man smiled knowing that this is what both men needed.

Ichigo sat in front of the group of nine and stared. They stared back.

Hiyori growled and sprang up startling everyone as she threw her shoe at Ichigo who just merely dodged it with ease. He frowned and leaned forward.

"What the fuck was that for!?" he growled.

The small blonde shook her fist at Ichigo. "How could you let yourself get caught?" She yelled not caring if she hurt Ichigo's feelings at that moment.

The room went still as Ichigo regarded the smaller blonde. Urahara was about to speak as he and the other occupants were to the one side but Ichigo just stood with an unreadable face. He stalked towards Hiyori, once he was in front of her he looked down.

In a painfully familiar monotone voice that had a cold bite at the end Ichigo spoke.

"I'm so sorry that they held people hostage and shit, I am so sorry I 'allowed' myself to get caught. I am so sorry I 'allowed' Aizen to change me into a monster. I am so sorry that because of the pain I lost my memories for a while. I am so sorry I am a fucking disappointment." Ichigo said and turned away and walked out of the room with his head hung low.

After a few minutes there was the sound of the underground latch opening and closing.

Isshin stood and walked to the door with a worried look on his face, he turned an angry glare to the big mouth blonde. "I am very disappointed in you, you who have been through something similar. Speak like that to my son again and I will maim you." With that the concerned father went after his son.

Shinji crossed his arms and glared at the other blonde as well before hissing out. "Why the fuck did you do that?" Hiyori huffed and crossed her arms. "It's not my fault he's so touchy." She grumbled.

Urahara having heard more than enough was about to say his own say when he felt the small tremble of the ground. He arched a brown and stood quickly, the Visards followed behind him. They haven't been told that Ichigo wasn't a Visard like them but an arrancar.

When the last of the whole group, the two teens included got to the bottom of the ladder they all stared in awe at the mess the once rocky ground once was. There were mile long gashes where some were deep groves on the ground. Urahara looked around and saw Isshin sitting on a nearby rock with Ichigo's gigai next to him. His arms were crossed and he didn't even look their way, his eyes were focused on something a little distance away from him.

They all looked over and saw that Ichigo was in his spirit form breathing heavily as if he had screamed, for all they knew he could have as the room was soundproof and reiatsu proof.

Ichigo gripped his horns and made a sneer that was filled with more pain than annoyance, he released his horns and screamed as he released a low level cero that blew up another chuck of ground. Ichigo's voice was on the hoarse side due to emotions wanting to flow over.

He breathed deeply through his nose and tried to calm himself down but it was useless. He still wore the white uniform that Aizen had issued to him but now he just wanted out of it. He wanted to wear black again, to feel like he wasn't a freak but he knew.

He knew he was forever changed.

Looking up at the painted roof that looked like the sky Ichigo uttered the words to release his resurrection

"Devour the moon, Tensa Zangetsu."

There was a burst of energy, once the dust settled Ichigo faced the group with a sad and broken look in his eyes. "So can you do this?" he asked the smaller blonde raising his hands to show himself fully. His mouth wasn't in view, only the two rows of teeth.

Hiyori and the rest were shocked, they thought that Ichigo was changed into a Visard not a hollow himself. Suddenly her words' weight crashed onto her shoulders but before she could say a word Ichigo turned around and jumped into the air and vanished with a slight buzz noise. After a few minutes another crashing noise was heard further into the large room.

Everyone was speechless, even Urahara and Isshin didn't know what to do. Knowing about it was one thing but seeing it?

It was different.

Isshin stood and shed his gigai, now in his shinigami form he used shunpo to get to his son sword draw. He saw Ichigo using his fists to punch large holes into massive rocks breaking some into pieces. Building up courage Isshin jumped into the fray and blocked one of Ichigo's incredibly powerful punches.

Ichigo's eyes went wide with shock as he regarded his father.

Isshin gave a lopsided grin.

"Sparing is more fun with a partner ne?" he said and shook Ichigo away to gain distance. Ichigo huffed but it was mostly muted due to the rows of teeth.

The two men started to get serious with their spar, Ichigo didn't use his hollow abilities such as cero and bala but he couldn't help with the hierro and instant regeneration. Those where automatic. The rest of the group watched in awe as Ichigo fought with natural ease as if he had been a hollow all of his afterlife.

Urahara sensed a reiatsu that made a smile crawl onto his face, reiatsu couldn't get out of the room but they could get in. he chuckled and told the Visards that they had a guest and went up the ladder. When he got to the front of the shop there stood Byakuya Kuchiki.

Byakuya saw Urahara and bowed his head to the man.

"Please I need to see him."

The tone the noble used swiped the smile right off Urahara's face, this was a man who's heart was barely holding it together just like Ichigo. Seeing that the old man was probably behind this he chuckled softly, it wasn't mocking or even humours. It was a chuckle one gave when they finally understood a dire matter.

"Go to his room, he's busy blowing off steam, I'll bring some tea. There are some things you need to know."

The raven captain nodded and walked to the room Urahara pointed to.

Inside it was plain and bland but the smell of Ichigo was there as well as the feel of his reiatsu.

Byakuya moved to where the futon laid, he gently picked up the sheet that was rumpled up and brought it too his nose. There he smelled the smell he had missed.

The smell of Ichigo had faded to nothingness and how he missed the smell and warmth of the other man.

He lowered the blanket and went to sit in the middle of the room and wait for tea. Once Urahara came with tea tray in hand he sat down and poured them both a steaming cup. Blowing onto his Urahara wondered how to bring this to the captain.

"Remember captain Isshin Shiba?" the blonde asked and received a nod, Urahara sighed and began to tell Isshin story, at first Byakuya didn't see why this mattered till the blonde ex-shinigami came to the child that was born of a human and shinigami.

"That child is Ichigo."

Byakuya was shocked yet it made sense when Urahara went on about how Isshin trained Ichigo since he was young. Then it all made sense even more when Urahara went on to how Ichigo died and then his times at the lower levels of soul society, he retold most of the tales Ichigo told him about the life he lived. Ichigo never told anyone other than him about the hardships he faced there.

Hearing this just made Byakuya gain more respect for his lover, yes Ichigo was still his lover and he was going to prove that to the man now.

The door slid open to show Ichigo back in his gigai, gold clashed with steel grey.

Urahara sighed and stood with his tea tray, he lightly kicked Ichigo into the room when he passed through the door sliding it close when he was over the threshold.

Ichigo looked awkwardly at Byakuya. The noble stood and slowly made his way over to Ichigo, seeing the face of his beloved so close both men had to hold back on jumping one another.

"Bya-" Ichigo was cut off when he was suddenly dragged down into a kiss so filled with love that Ichigo could only grab onto the shorter male and deepen the kiss showing his own emotions back. Ichigo felt himself being dragged into the room till Byakuya suddenly lowered and took Ichigo with him. He released the paler lips of his lover and looked to see them kneeling on his futon, he wrapped his arms around the other man and looked him in the eye.

He gazed into gun metal eyes for any sign of this being forced.

Finding none he released a shuddering breath and fell backwards taking Byakuya along with him so both men were laying side by side just holding the other. Ichigo pulled Byakuya closer and kissed the man's very breath out of his lungs.

When they separated for air Byakuya said the very words Ichigo wanted to hear.

"Show me you still love me."

I have to say I am surprised by the poll thus far, a three way tie 0_0

And I am sooooooooo behind on bleach isn't not even remotely funny…

Sigh…

Oh well…