I'm so sorry I disappeared and took forever to get this chapter out and ended the last chapter on a cliffhanger besides D:

It's really my fault but I blame Aizen because he didn't help at all.

The problem is that I might not be able to update for the next month either. I'll be working on another fic and if everything goes according to plan hopefully it'll be out for UraIchi Week. Look forward!

I hope there aren't any typoes.

Ichigo's eyes snap open. "Zangetsu! Zangetsu, help—"

He doubles over in a coughing fit that racks his whole body, and the sudden movement sends a sickening pulse of pain through his head, like hot metal being jabbed into his skull through his eye socket. He slumps against the stone floor, trying to breathe.

'Ichigo!' his zanpakutou says, for a moment sounding genuinely worried. He hides it quickly. 'Stop freaking out. Yeah, what do you want?'

Ichigo lets his cheek rest against the cool stone, closing his eyes. "Zan," he mutters, reaching for the spirit's presence, which is weaker in his mind than he's used to.

Zangetsu sighs. 'You're a real mess, Ichigo.'

Ichigo's eyes snap open. "Where am I?" Gingerly, he pushes himself off the ground, blinking at his surroundings in the dim light.

'Aw, take your wildest guess,' his zanpakutou says.

He sees featureless walls around him of rough black stone, barren except for a heavy metal door with bars built into it, the only source of light. The room isn't even big enough to pace in comfortably, barren and suffused with a deep chill that sinks into his bones.

He scrubs at his eyes, then lifts a hand to see heavy manacles around his wrists, chaining them to the wall. He blinks. "Fuck."

'No shit,' Zangetsu says.

Ichigo hisses in frustration and smashes one of his shackles against the wall. It leaves a scuff mark on the stone and not a scratch on the metal. He glances around for his sword to break the chains, and panic seizes his throat when he realizes it's not with him. He's weaponless. He's defenseless and trapped.

'They separated me from you,' Zangetsu says, a snarl underlying his voice. 'I can't help you.'

Ichigo stares at his hands. He can't stop his fingers from faintly trembling. He's noticed that since he woke up.

"How am I supposed to get out of here?" he mutters. He draws his knees to his chest and rests his forehead against them. "Zan. I can't remember what happened last night…"

'You can't remember?' the spirit says. He turns the sarcasm up to max. 'Yeah, that'd be the brain damage, wouldn't it?'

Ichigo blinks. He raises a hand to his right eye, which had been covered in bandages at some point. His face around it still feels numb, which is better than the pounding agony of the eye socket itself.

He presses the heel of a palm against his forehead. "Byakuya…"

'Yeah,' Zangetsu says. 'He did a number on you.'

"It hurt," Ichigo mumbles. "I remember the pain. There was a flash of light… I couldn't see…"

'Calm down,' Zangetsu says tensely.

Ichigo's eyes slip shut, his breathing uneven. They snap open half a second later, and his hand goes to his bandaged eye. "Why aren't I healed?"

'The shackles on your wrists,' Zangetsu says, a growl entering his voice. 'They seal reiatsu. Haven't noticed?'

Ichigo raises his hand and curls his fingers, trying to charge a Getsuga within his palm. Nothing happens. He lets his hand drop and rests his head back against the wall, heedless of the uneven surface digging into his skull. What is he supposed to do?

'If we can get out of these restraints for a few seconds,' Zangetsu says, 'if they let us out for a few seconds, we can use reiatsu to heal. We can fight.'

"They won't," Ichigo mumbles.

'Well, haven't you gotten really annoying since you had your brains fried!' Zangetsu snaps. 'Sit there and wait for your friends to rescue you then, if you can't do anything else!'

Ichigo cringes. "I don't want them to be here."

Zan rolls his eyes. 'What's it now?'

Ichigo jerks his head up. "I don't want them to be in danger because of me! I could get them killed! Don't you get that?"

'You know, I wasn't gonna comment on it,' his hollow says, 'but you have some sort of complex about that whole issue.'

"Your comments are unnecessary," Ichigo snarls.

Zangetsu makes a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. 'Haven't I told you before? If you wanna protect your friends, then make sure you don't lose!'

Ichigo clenches his teeth. His hand digs trembling fingers into his forearm, to the point of pain. "Am I not strong enough?" he mutters. "I just want—"

A metallic clang comes from the cell door, mechanisms turning inside. Ichigo jerks bolt upright like he's been electrocuted. He reaches for a sword and finds none, tries to gather his reiatsu but finds he can't. As the door swings open, he cringes away from the bright light outside.

A man in a captain's haori with brown hair and glasses pokes his head through the doorway and blinks at Ichigo. "Oh? Are you awake?"

Ichigo tenses, the reality of the situation becoming all too clear in his mind. A captain. He's captured—he's powerless—a captain is—

He'll finally find out what the Gotei 13 wants from him, he guesses.

The man beams at him. "Ah, how fortuitous! Good morning, Kurosaki Ichigo."

Zan hisses, bristling in his mind. Ichigo resists the urge to rub his forehead. Nothing going on here is helping his headache.

"How do you know my name?" Ichigo croaks when he finally processes the captain's words.

The man keeps smiling. "Ah, I suppose you don't remember me from the past night. I am Captain Aizen Sousuke. I'm pleased to meet you."

The past night? Aizen… does that name sound familiar? Like he heard someone say it? Ichigo presses his fingers against his temple, trying to think through his headache.

He glances up. "You saved my life," he says hesitantly.

"Think nothing of it," Aizen says. "I don't agree with killing children."

Ichigo scowls at him.

"Well, how are you feeling?" Aizen says. "You seem to be doing surprisingly well, all things considered."

Ichigo scowls harder, and he'd tune out the captain's words if not for the next thing he says.

"It's your regenerative powers, is it not? It truly is quite remarkable. The power of a hollow?"

Ichigo stares at him, tense with his heart hammering. How does he know? What does he know? Last night… Ichigo had used hollow powers last night. He hadn't tried to hide them. There were witnesses.

Damn it, damn it.

So the shinigami know what he is now. And what's with this guy? Is that interest that his placid expression and pointed questions disguise?

"I have nothing to tell you," Ichigo rasps, then cringes inwardly. His choice of words didn't exactly make him less suspicious.

Aizen kneels down in front of him. "Is that so?" he says, and his smile now seems like an ingratiating one you'd give to a pitifully ignorant child. "Nothing about Urahara Kisuke?"

Ichigo recoils. He realizes belatedly that Aizen can read him like a book.

"Nothing about Hirako Shinji?"

Ichigo's blood chills. He knows the Visored are exiles, fugitives. Could Soul Society still be looking for them? Ichigo has to pretend to not know them—but can he pull that off in front of this man's worryingly sharp eyes?

Zangetsu lets out a long low hiss in his mind. 'Get away from him. That man's dangerous. Get rid of him.'

'Really?' Ichigo thinks, studying Aizen and thinking how he doesn't have the energy to play mind games this early in the morning. And why is it that almost everything about this man rubs him the wrong way, even though he hadn't really done anything?

'Listen to your instincts, dumbass,' Zangetsu says.

Ichigo frowns. But he's too tired to think hard. He jerks his chin up at Aizen. "What's it you want?"

Aizen widens his eyes in an affected manner. "Why, not much. Just to talk. I think there's a great deal we could learn from each other, after all."

"Don't give me that," Ichigo snaps. "Like I'll say anything to you while you've got me locked up in prison."

"Is that so?" Aizen says mildly. "I can remedy that."

Ichigo chokes on his next words and stares incredulously at him. He narrows his eyes. "If you want something from me, just spit it out."

Aizen sighs. "You're a tragically suspicious child, but I suppose it's to be expected, considering our current positions. Very well. I think you'd appreciate if I got to the point."

"So," The smile slips from his face, leaving only a cold, intense attention. "How much did Urahara Kisuke tell you?"

"Tell me?" Ichigo says, then hides his confusion behind a glare. "What? What do you want to know about him?"

"Why, don't you have things you want to know as well?" Aizen says, with a patronizing smile. "Did he ever tell you of the circumstances behind his exile? His relation to the Visored?"

Ichigo stares at Aizen. He breaks eye contact, afraid of the man reading him.

"You don't know who I am," Aizen says, sounding almost disappointed. "So he really has told you nothing. And Hirako Shinji has told you nothing."

Ichigo growls under his breath. "What does that mean?"

"Simple," Aizen says. "They're all using you. I think you knew that, though you may be surprised at just how and what for." He regards Ichigo, glasses gleaming in the dim light and hiding his thoughts. "Have you even been told the real reason you're here? The hougyoku? Urahara Kisuke's greatest mistake?"

"Why do you think you were sent here?" he presses when Ichigo doesn't give an answer.

"Nobody sent me here," Ichigo growls. "I came because I wanted to."

"To save the young Kuchiki girl, is that so? An admirable sentiment." Aizen shakes his head. "Yet, it's tragic. Well, I do have another request."

Ichigo glares at the man. Aizen tilts his head toward him, almost conspiratorially. "Won't you show me those other powers of yours, those of a hollow?"

Ichigo recoils and finds himself backed against the wall. Zangetsu snarls in his mind, urging him to violence. Ichigo grits his teeth through a wave of visceral fury that doesn't belong to him, hands curled into fists at his sides.

"Why?" he gasps. "What do you want from me?"

"Why, nothing," Aizen says. "But won't you do me the favor of satisfying an idle curiosity?" He gestures at Ichigo's wrists. "I could let you out of those restraints. You must be in pain. You can't heal your wounds left like this, can you?"

He reaches out toward Ichigo's bandaged eye, the palm of his hand flaring with green light. "I think you would benefit more than I, isn't that right?"

Ichigo's not prepared for Zangetsu seizing control from him without warning. His hand snaps up and snatches Aizen's wrist in midair, stopping it dead. He snarls at Aizen, teeth bared. "Don't you fucking—"

Aizen flicks his wrist with a crackle of kidou, and Zangetsu yanks his hand away with a hiss, just as Ichigo feels pain like fire flare to life within it.

"How interesting," Aizen says, and now his expression has lost all traces of the genial politeness from earlier, studying Ichigo with a cold intensity like an experiment that had proven its value. "It's good to see you, White."

Zangetsu freezes. Ichigo doesn't understand the tangle of emotions he senses from him—disbelief and panic and terror and shut up, make him shut up—

Aizen stands, taking a step back as Zangetsu lunges with a howl, lashing out at him with fingers curled as if he had claws, or any power to launch an attack whatsoever. The chains draw taut and hold them back, inches from reaching the man. A satisfied smile plays on Aizen's lips. Zan stays crouching on the floor, frozen like prey before a predator, staring up at him and breathing raggedly.

"Well," Aizen says, mild tone in contrast with the hard light in his eyes, "One way or another, it seems I've gotten what I came for today." He turns away. "Farewell, White. Though you call yourself Zangetsu nowadays, don't you? Farewell, Kurosaki Ichigo. I look forward to meeting you again."

Zan's breath hitches. He throws himself forward, clawing at the ground against the chains holding him. "Wait!" he howls. "Who are you—"

The door slams shut behind Aizen, entombing them in scarcely-lit darkness and silence again. Zangetsu stares after him, breathing fast and shallow. His fingers dig into cracks in the ground, trembling. "What?" he rasps. "What did he call me?"

Ichigo can't find words to say anything. Zangetsu pushes himself up and slumps back against the wall, one hand pressing against his temple, then entangling in his hair. "How does he know that name?" he mutters. His fingers dig in to the point of pain. "I remember him! I know I remember him!"

'Zangetsu!' Ichigo shouts, but he doesn't know if the hollow hears.

"What did he call me?" Zangetsu whispers in a shaky voice under his breath. "What does it mean?" He winces and presses the heel of his palm against his forehead. "I don't… remember…"

'Zangetsu!' Ichigo cries. 'Get a grip!'

The spirit's head jerks up, eyes wide and searching. "Ichigo?" His eyes narrow into slits, as his fingers dig into the ground hard enough to break nails. "Ichigo, we have to kill him."

'What… are you saying?' Ichigo says, suddenly afraid.

"It's him," Zangetsu whispers. "I swore to kill…" He leans back against the wall behind him and closes his eyes. "Ichigo. You're with me, right?"

'Of course I—' Ichigo falls silent. What is he agreeing to? What does Zangetsu know that he doesn't, who is Aizen, why does Zangetsu know more about him than Ichigo? Why does his own zanpakutou have so many secrets?

Zangetsu's eyes widen. "How could you doubt me? He's our enemy! Just let me kill him! Just listen to me for once—"

'You sound really reasonable, what with the hijacking my body and whatnot,' Ichigo snaps.

Zangetsu blinks. He raises a hand to his face and stares at the torn skin and dried blood on their fingertips, apparently puzzled. "My bad," he mutters.

'Forget it,' Ichigo says. 'Are you going to give me answers—'

Ichigo blinks, finding himself shoved back into control of his body. Zangetsu makes to retreat to the depths of his subconscious—fully intent on ignoring Ichigo, isn't he?

"Wait!" Ichigo says. "Don't just—" He closes his eyes and follows his unresponsive zanpakutou to wherever he hides to sulk in the depths of his soul.

He opens his eyes to biting wind howling through the spaces between skyscrapers, lit in dull grey light that filters through the heavy clouds covering the sky. It's the same city of identical sideways skyscrapers that he'd awoken in back in the shattered shaft. Intact this time, but the heaviness in the air hints at rain. The world that represents his soul, is what he remembers Zangetsu calling it back then, during their first face-to-face meeting.

He whirls around to see the spirit standing behind him, hair being blown by the wind, eyes narrowed into cold shards of gold pinned on him. His mouth cracks into a smile with clenched teeth.

"Here to demand answers? You get more troublesome every day."

Ichigo shifts on his feet. When he opens his mouth, he doesn't end up saying what he thought he would.

"I trust you."

"Right now?"

"Of course."

The hollow turns away.

Ichigo steps forward. "Who is White?"

"Not me," Zangetsu hisses. "If you trust me, King, you don't need to beg answers. Do what I say for once."

"I do trust you," Ichigo says. He pauses and blurts out, "But you look at that Aizen guy like you're scared, so I want to know why."

The hollow turns around and sneers at him. "That's not true."

"You act like he's hurt you," Ichigo presses.

Zangetsu lets out a feral hiss. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

"Look," Ichigo says, "I won't ask you to spill right now."

"Good," the hollow snaps, interrupting him. "I'm tired of you."

Ichigo takes a step forward. "But you'll tell me someday, right? Swear it. It doesn't have to be now. But before it's too late, right?"

Zangetsu turns his back. Ichigo moves to take another step toward him, hand rising. "I just want to understand! You never tell—"

Zangetsu glances back and Ichigo can identify something like weariness in his eyes and the set of his shoulders, making him look hauntingly like himself in a mirror. "Stupid trusting king. I swear, then. Now give me a break."

He turns toward Ichigo and pushes out a hand. Ichigo's senses are overwhelmed by a flash of light and a crushing force, then his eyes snap open to find himself back in his body, sitting in a cold jail cell without even the presence of his sword spirit for company.

"I bet other people's swords don't get like this," Ichigo mutters.

He sighs and draws his knees to his chest, picking at the blood on his fingers

Ichigo must've sunk into a doze, because he snaps awake with a start when a clatter of metal fills the whole cell. He looks around wildly with his heart jumpstarted into panic mode, then winces and clutches his head. His eyes settle on the open doorway with the heavy metal door flung open as a small woman with a haori and sharp eyes marches in, looking furious.

Ichigo starts looking around for escape routes. Outside the door, he sees the shadows of two larger burlier shinigami, flanking it. His eyes snap back to the captain as she walks toward him.

She stops in front of him, fingers tapping idly on the hilt of her shortsword. "Explain your plan. Tell me how they got in."

Ichigo blinks. "Huh?"

"Don't play dumb," the woman says, each word fiercely articulated, "Do you think it'll work on me? We were attacked. I know it's related to you, so tell me what you know."

"Attacked," Ichigo mutters. He ducks his head down and presses his forehead against his knees, pretending to have a headache, to try and hide his reaction. Now he's glad he was too out of it to figure out what she was talking about at first. He couldn't bluff his way through a poker match at a hundred percent. Now an interrogation?

Because he's come to the same conclusion as the captain. It must be his friends. They've found a way into Seireitei. Into danger, for him. His only consolation is they must not have been found yet, if this captain is resorting to squeezing him for information.

He peers up. "I wouldn't know anything. I came alone."

Good thing that, however hard she tries, Ichigo has no information to give her. He doesn't know how Yoruichi got into Seireitei and the werecat'll probably keep her secrets.

The woman's eyes narrow. "A likely story. I came here for answers and I won't leave without them. Make this easy on yourself, brat."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ichigo admits.

"A gang of ryoka attacked riding in some sort of reiryoku cannonball!" she snaps. "It fell from the sky and broke through the shakonmaku barrier! I know you have something to do with this!"

Ichigo stares at her, then bursts into faint wheezes of laughter. Almost immediately, he winces and clutches his head again. "Oh fuck. Ow."

The captain looks bewildered. She narrows her eyes at Ichigo, willing him to die from her glare alone. "Are you mocking me?"

"What?" Ichigo gasps, still out of breath. "Um. No! Look, I really don't have any information to tell you. Sorry."

The captain stares at him for what drags out into a long time, until Ichigo's fighting the urge to look away or fidget. Abruptly, she turns away, her haori flapping behind her. "Our hands are too tied to deal with you right now. I'll be back, ryoka. Count on it."

She matches out the door which slams shut behind her, another sound that makes Ichigo jump. Locks click on the other side. Ichigo slumps against the wall, staring at it as the cell falls into silence again.

He looks up at the ceiling. "A cannonball through the sky? What the heck, Yoruichi?"

"It's almost a shame you weren't with us, Ichigo," a voice says from a corner of the cell.

You're the most popular prisoner today, Ichigo.

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