*said in mulan's voice when she spilled the rice and the others were after her* Hey, guys...
so... it's been a bit. sorry about that. life and all that rot and stuff. plus, i guess with getting older, my fanfictions haven't been coming to me as flowingly as i would like them to. but i have NOT abandoned them! that being said, here's a new chapter.(⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄) since it's been a bit, please be reminded that the hollows in this au are not quite the same as the ones in canon. and due to the nature of the thousand year blood war arc, i'm not as familiar with the sternritter as i probably should be so... please be kind. maybe when the anime reboots it'll do a little better explaining.
anyhow, enjoy and i promise that i will try to update more often (￣▽￣)
Renji opened his eyes and looked around, his head feeling like it was floating away from his body and his eyes hazy. He didn't recognize anything about where he was, but he knew he was bound and he knew he was in deep trouble.
"Are you alright?" he heard someone ask him.
He turned to the voice and saw Yumichika sitting close to him, looking at him with a worried expression.
"I'm fine… what happened?"
"Quincies." Ikkaku growled, his voice seething with anger. "An elite group of them called Sternritter or something. Apparently they are marauders that patrol the higher levels of the Rukongai. They are spread out and capture unsuspecting travelers."
"You had said there was something ahead of us on the road and left the carriage to see what it was. You seemed to have come in contact with a small band called The Black Buzzards, led by some mohawked guy."
"Then some weird skinny dude with a curly piece of hair shot out some small little bubbles and knocked everyone out cold. I assume it must have happened to you too…"
"Where's Ichigo?"
Ikkaku and Yumichika looked at each other and Ikkaku seemed upset. Renji frowned, narrowing his eyes at him.
"Ikkaku, where's Ichigo?"
"He got angry and tried to fight to protect the girls… they activated the virus and… well…"
"Last I heard, they were going to sell him." Yumichika said, looking away. "We failed as his guards. We couldn't keep him from turning and we couldn't keep him from being captured. The Shibas will kill us."
"And we deserve whatever punishment they want to inflict on us."
"Are you telling me that Ichigo is in Hollow form?" Renji said, still in disbelief.
The two nodded. "I don't know if the hole is completely through his chest yet, but the longer they provoke him and keep him a Hollow, the deeper the hole will get and the farther he will get from being saved."
Renji moved a little, gauging the tightness of the binds.
"We have to save him."
"We can't. These ropes are bound with small bits of reishi sapping strands. The more we fight, the weaker we get."
"Are you going to let some little strands keep you from saving our friends? If that's the case, you really are pathetic."
Renji began to focus on the binds and how to get out of them.
Orihime, Tatsuki, and Rukia all huddled together as they tried to keep their distance from Ichigo in his Hollow form. The leader of the marauder band, the Black Buzzards, was behind Ichigo, sending small streams of flames towards him to keep him anxious and angry.
"We'll catch a pretty penny for this one. Not only is it a true-blue Contaminate, but it's also a son of a Great House. Wait until they hear about this…" The red mohawked man looked over at the three girls. "You all seem quite calm about all of this… You must have known."
The girls didn't answer and the man sighed, stepping away from Ichigo as he tried to strike him. He knelt in front of the girls and looked at them one by one.
"Which one of you girls would like to tell me why you're traveling with a known Contaminate? If I actually cared, I'd say you were planning on using him for something."
"You- you've got the wrong idea." Orihime said.
"Do I? Please elaborate."
"You tell us who you are first." Tatsuki growled angrily. "You knock us out, take us captive, torture us and our friend, and now you want to ask questions?"
"Ah, yes, how uncouth of me. My name is Bazzard Black, but most everyone calls me Bazz-B. I'm the leader of the Black Buzzards. Regarding why you're here, well, three pretty ladies of nobility, three Soul Reapers with interesting zanpakutos and a nobleman who is a Contaminate; I think that's enough money to gain in a lifetime."
"You keep saying 'Contaminate'; why are you calling him that?"
"Well… I guess the poor people term is I-Hollow or something to that effect? The I means 'infected' if I'm not mistaken. The problem with that explanation is that it indicates a Hollow was infected, not that a person was infected. Contaminate is the name we use to describe those contaminated by people who have turned into Hollows regarding the virus from long ago. But the slow progression of this one indicates that he was infected a long time ago… possibly direct contact."
Ichigo growled and Bazz-B smiled at him as he stood just inches away from him. Ichigo was pulling the chains to the brink of their length, his arms bulging with taut muscle and although he was mostly Hollow, his face had a bit of humanity left in him for an angry glare to be seen. Bazz-B smiled a little.
"Either way, I can fetch a pretty penny for everyone here. In the meantime, please don't try to escape. If you do, I'll set your friend lose and make him hunt you down."
Bazz-B left and everyone watched Ichigo as he angrily screamed at the loss of his prey. Rukia looked over at Orihime, who looked the most distraught.
"You knew, didn't you?" she asked.
Orihime turned to her and sighed, nodding. "I did. I'm sorry to have kept it from you, Rukia-sama."
"But why?" she asked. "Why wouldn't you say anything?"
"It wasn't my place and I figured that he would tell you when he felt it ready. He knew you were stressed about everything that had already happened, adding his own ailment to the mix just wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to get to the Great Doctors without too much trouble, help to get you and Renji-san together and find a cure for himself in the process."
Rukia looked at Ichigo as he screamed one more time before falling to his knees. He leaned forward on the chains, using the tightness to just hang. He was breathing heavily and seemed like he was losing strength. Rukia moved and stood up, walking towards her betrothed.
"Rukia!" both Orihime and Tatsuki yelled.
Hearing their yells, Ichigo looked up just as Rukia got close to him. He looked at her, his face quite human even though there was a thin mask on it that distorted his features. His eyes were jarring, black sclera with bright yellow irises like a wolf, but they were still human, giving emotion. Rukia stood inches from him, knowing he couldn't get to her.
"I'm disappointed in you, Shiba Ichigo. Not only did you deceive me, you also lied to me and took advantage of me. Now look at you… I can't believe you didn't trust me enough to tell me this." She fell to her knees in front of him. "Oh, Ichigo, look what's become of you…"
Ichigo was still breathing heavily and opened his mouth, a low rumble escaping. Rukia looked up at him as he stared at her, the humanity in his eyes trying to come through to her. He could feel trickles of his intelligence seeping through the frenzy. He could fight it… he knew he could… he just needed a little help…
Orihime got up and walked over to Rukia, kneeling down next to her gracefully. Sensing Orihime, Ichigo turned to her and Orihime smiled nervously.
"I'm sorry, Ichigo-sama…"
"Is there any way to get him back to normal?"
"There's a tea that the Shibas were giving him that the doctors of their clan had made to counteract the episodes, but from what I gathered, it's starting to get more and more difficult for the tea to do its job."
"Oh, I know what you're talking about. I saw it before…"
"I haven't had many dealings directly with Ichigo-sama regarding the tea, but I remember seeing him have a pretty bad spell. His father poured the tea on the mask itself to break it and then he drank to tea to help from the inside. That's all I know so far."
"I assume Ikkaku and Yumichika knew about this?"
"Yes, they usually made sure there was always tea on hand."
"Then we have to trick these guys into giving Ichigo the tea so that he can turn back."
"I think if you don't provoke him anymore he'll turn back by himself." Tatsuki said. "I mean, the I-Hollow is activated due to extreme physical or emotional turmoil. If we leave him alone, he might go back to normal."
"The issue isn't us, it's the Quincies. You saw how that guy was provoking Ichigo with his little sprits of fire. Even if we don't do anything, that guy will come back and screw with Ichigo. We need that medicine and we have to figure out how to get someone to give it to us."
"Well, we've got plenty of time." Tatsuki said, leaning on the wall.
Rukia made a face as she tried to figure out how she was going to save her friend. Stupid Ichigo! I can't believe he didn't tell me this!
After hours or twisting and working, Renji thought he was going to pass out from losing so much energy, but finally, his hands came unbound and he pulled them out to look at them. He smiled tiredly and stood up, stretching his arms. Ikkaku and Yumichika had fallen asleep and Renji looked around at where they were. It looked like a holding cell of some sort but there was a barred window a few feet above him. Renji worked his muscles, getting ready to do shunpo, which he hadn't done in a good minute and the space was quite tight. He launched into the air and jumped, catching the bars and looked outside. There wasn't much around to tell him where he was and he sighed, falling back to the ground.
Ikkaku woke up and looked up at Renji with a startled look.
"But how…"
"Perseverance. We need to find Ichigo now."
"That's all well and done but we need our zanpakutos to fight. These guys aren't just normal marauders."
"When I get back to the Seireitei, I'm going to tell Kenpachi how sad his members are and he'll set your asses straight! What is with you two? You act like you've never fought without your zanpakutos before! I know for a fact that the captain wouldn't let you not know how to fight barehanded. Did you get too comfortable at the Shibas?"
Ikkaku made a face. "No, that's not it at all."
"Then what's the problem?" Ikkaku seemed on edge, which was unusual for the man. "What are you not telling me?"
"When I said they weren't normal marauders, I didn't mean just because they were Quincy. When you didn't come back, Yumichika and I went to see what the issue was and we met up with two of their members. We started fighting to try and keep them away from the others and Yumichika activated his bankai… It was stolen."
"Stolen? What? That makes no sense."
"I'm telling you, it's true. The man held up a medallion and started chanting. When Yumichika used his bankai, it looked like it was sucked up into the medallion."
Renji watched him for a moment. "Then why are you trying to get back your zanpakuto?"
"Because I don't use my bankai, it takes too long; I use my shikai, but with powers like that, I don't think a good fist-to-cuffs is going to do anything. Ichigo isn't any help, Yumichika doesn't have a weapon, and the girls have been captured."
"And what about me?"
"You're a ticking time bomb yourself. If you get too riled up, you'll end up just like Ichigo and then that just leaves me to defend everyone. I'm up to the challenge, but I can't do it to the best of my ability without Hozukimaru."
Renji made a face, knowing that Ikkaku was right. Zabimaru had been taken as well, but if he got into a good fight and it activated the virus, he wouldn't be of any help. Everyone else that was capable of fighting was down for the count… well… almost everyone.
"I think you'll be fine for the time being, Ikkaku."
"What do you mean?"
"I forgot about something."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't worry about it. Let's focus on getting out of here and finding everyone else. The girls can take care of themselves."
"What the- Where did they all go?!" Bazz-B yelled, walking into the cell that Ichigo and the others had been in. "You, girl, where is everyone?"
Rukia sat up from the ground and rubbed her eyes.
"What?"
"Where is everyone? Those two other girls and the Contaminate!"
Rukia looked around and made a face. "Did they escape without me?" she said in disbelief.
"If that Contaminate escaped then that means he's wreaking havoc! But if he had escaped, then that means you would have been eaten… What's going on here?"
"I'm just as confused as you are!" Rukia yelled, seeming lost. "I was tired so I took a little rest and the next thing I know, you're yelling and no one's here."
"This is a disaster!"
Bazz-B started pacing and talking to himself as Rukia watched Tatsuki and Orihime leave the cell. Ichigo was oddly cooperative to her scheme and was quiet, not moving a muscle. Once Tatsuki and Orihime were out, Rukia sighed, but she still had to keep Ichigo hidden from Bazz-B.
"You know something and you're not telling me." Bazz-B said, turning to her with narrowed green eyes. "Spill it, girly."
"I don't know what you're talking about." She said, looking innocent.
Bazz-B stared at her for a second and made a dissatisfied noise, throwing his hands in the air as he left the cell. Once he was gone, Rukia seemed to deflate, Ichigo's form coming back into view. She breathed heavily from having to use her kido for such a long time.
"I haven't used bakudo in such a long time and for such a wide range… I'm losing my touch." Ichigo just stared at her, strangely attentive. "I'm starting to worry about you, Ichigo." Rukia looked up at the window and sighed. "I hope Tatsuki and Orihime can find the others… I hope Renji is alright… When we get you back to normal, you've got a lot of explaining to do Shiba Ichigo. I'm not going to let you get away from skirting around the issue, either."
"Hmm."
Rukia looked back at Ichigo but he was still in his Hollow form. She made a face at him.
"Did you just 'hmm' me?"
He did nothing and Rukia got up, walking towards him. Instead of lunging at her, he was still, letting her get close to his range. She didn't do anything and Ichigo raised his head to look up at her. Even though the mask was still there and his eyes were still so strange, there was humanity there; control.
"Are you in there, Ichigo?" Rukia asked.
so now everyone is on the same page with the i-hollow (or contaminates). poor rukia is always the last to know.
anyone wanna guess which bakudo she used?