So, here goes chapter 2, I hope everything is clear. I've been doing all the editing myself so here we are. A fair warning, it becomes more cannon divergent here. Just about some things. It should be clear by the end.
xXx
Hueco Mundo was cold and dark. Ichigo sighed and rose from the cold white sand. The desolate wasteland stretched out infinitely before him under the cold crescent moon. It took him a moment to realize the hollows in his area quickly scrambled away due to his entrance
Ichigo flexed his hands as he felt himself relax. He had forgotten what it felt like to not have the constant pain of his body tearing itself apart, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
Ichigo began his exploration of the desert plane. Any hollow he even drew near felt his presence and avoided him. As his senses expanded to the area, he was saddened. He hardly remembered what happened, but he deeply regretted what happened the last time he was in Hueco Mundo.
"Hey Shiro, what exactly happened the last time we were here, I mean with Ulquiora." Ichigo began. That question had been gnawing on him for some time, but he never asked for fear of the answer.
"It was your pure desire to protect. Neither one of us had control. It was definitely my power, the Old Man's too, but none of us were in control. It was something deeper than that," Shiro said, oldy serious about this.
"What could be deeper than my Zanpaktou and inner hollow?" Ichigo asked.
"Beats me."
Ichigo's soul quieted down after this interaction. He wandered for hours, alone. It gave him time to reflect on what had happened in his life. Part of him felt like the soul society, becoming a shinigami, and discovering his inner hollow was all a dream, but it felt more real than anything else.
After his several hours of wandering. Ichigo felt an uncomfortable buzzing in the back of his head. The vibrations slowly began turning into words, then an identifiable voice.
The voice was unfamiliar and choppy at first. Slowly it morphed into Yoruichi's clear words. "Ich…Ichig…in. Can you hea…are you there? Tell me if you…hear me."
"Yeah, I can hear you now," Ichigo replied back.
"Great! How is it out there? Have you encountered any troublesome hollows?"
"No. They all stay far away from me. I can't tell why," Ichigo joked. "Is Gueta-boshi with you?"
Urahara's voice came through clearly, cocky as ever. "I am indeed, Ichigo."
Ichigo could almost hear Yoruichi's eyeroll as she pushed him away from the device. "Anyway, if everything is good now, I wan't to give you your first practice assignment. I assume your control is as bad as ever?"
"You would guess correctly," Ichigo replied.
"Great. I want you to reel in your power as much as possible and try to approach hollows without them noticing you. Easy enough right?"
"I guess so…" Ichigo said unhappily.
xXx
The training was hard. Ichigo had a very hard time with the exercises from Yoruichi. On top of that, Shiro was egging him on to use his hollow powers only now that he was in Hueco Mundo, the home of hollows. Being in Hueco Mundo for a solid month with Shiro as his only company was also starting to pull on his sanity.
"Yess Ichigo! They don't notice a thing! GET IT! GET IT BEFORE IT GETS AWAY AHAHAHAHAHA!" Shiro screamed through the mental connection as Ichigo approached a low level hollow.
Ichigo growled to himself as Shiro broke his concentration and he let a little bit of his power slip through. Even though the hollow was a good 30 meters away, it immediately startled and ran away from Ichigo.
"SHIRO!" Ichigo yelled out loud.
"Sorry Kingy. You gotta learn ta concentrate. It's not my fault you suck," Shiro said, clearly not sorry.
"So now that it ran away, what am I supposed to do?" Ichigo said with irritation.
"I dunno, try again?"
Ichigo rolled his eyes and reached out his now more refined senses to find his next prey, what appeared to be an adjuchas hollow trying to catch its own prey 200 meters to Ichigo's left. He approached with a clumsy sonido and hovered above the stalking hollow, trying his best to use the least amount of riatsu as possible. The adjuchas sensed Ichigo surprisingly quickly and jumped at him, aiming to bite off a piece of his shoulder. He restrained himself from reaching for a sword that wasn't there, as his instincts told him to, and instead pulled his mask over his face. Without the stabilizer of his shinigami powers, Ichigo found it much harder to control his hollow powers. As Shiro instructed, Ichigo held his hand up to begin making a cero.
It was much harder to concentrate his energy while trying to avoid an attack by the hollow, and took Ichigo a good ten seconds for the small sphere to reach the desired size. It wobbled in his hand. Ichigo planted himself in a stance and released the power.
The cero was much different than a guetsuga. It was small and meant to be a controlled release of pure power, and while a guetsuga was also a release of pure power, it was uncontrolled and more instinctive. As always, Ichigo struggled with control, and the cero split like a stream of water that had been misguided.
The hollow was definitely dead and the sand dunes in the path of Ichigo's clumsy cero exploded as the power hit them. It rained sand as Ichigo approached the deceased adjuchas. Ichigo's hollow instincts in the back of his head told him to eat the hollow's mask, but Ichigo had decided on his first day in Hueco Mundo that was too far for him. Instead, he watched the hollow dissolve slowly.
Ichigo continued his wandering of Hueco Mundo. There were many times when he wondered if he should look for Nel and her friends, but he was worried he would be found by the Soul Society if he went near them. As a powerful Arrancar who fought in the war, Urahara had no doubts she was being monitored, as Ichigo found out one day when he asked the shopkeeper. He was saddened by this, but there was no way around it.
Ichigo let himself collapse on a dune and gripped the sand below his hand, letting it fall. It was carried by gravity to the ground and then down the slant of the dune, knocking other grains to also fall down. Then they didn't go down anymore; they went sideways along with the other loose grains of sand. Ichigo turned in the direction of the wind, shielding his face from the blowing wind.
There, Ichigo saw a figure clad in black robes embroidered with gold. Black rietsu, tinted with blues and whites circled him and concealed most of his form and face. The figure approached Ichigo leisurely.
Ichigo, on the other hand, rose to his feet and slowly and entered a defensive stance. His senses were going wild trying to comprehend the possible threat in front of him. Somehow, instinctually he felt the strong need to run, but he was held in place as if his feet were glued to the sand beneath him. One of the swirling shadows reached out and surrounded him.
Ichigo panicked and began straining against it, expecting some sort of pain to come from the mysterious power. To his surprise, none came.
The dark mass spoke to him with an almost disembodied voice as he was held in place. "Ichigo Kurosaki, how far you have fallen. To live in this desert where your heart is as barren as your surroundings. You know so little of yourself and this world which you have sacrificed so much for."
Ichigo tried to respond, but his voice was stuck in his throat. He tried to breathe easier but he could not release until the grip of this being released him.
Once the binding was gone, Ichigo rose once again. He was still shaking and his hand covered his chest as he tried to regain his breath. "What do you want from me?" Ichigo said shakily. Shiro was oddly silent, and Ichigo felt a twinge in the back of his mind that felt like Old Man Zangetsu, much to Ichigo's surprise.
"I find you a kindred spirit, someone who can act of the balance between worlds," the unidentified spirit said. "I wish to recruit you as my assistant. Will you listen to an old soul's tale? My form is not stable here. I must act quickly and I hope you forgive me for acting so suddenly." Now, with it having spoken, Ichigo felt more at ease.
"Why should I trust you?" Ichigo muttered, "You're nothing like I've ever seen."
"Ah, but you have seen something like I; Yourself. Do not misinterpret me Ichigo Kurosaki, I have your best interests at heart." The mass of swirling riatsu spun one last time and charged Ichigo, but he was once again stuck in place. The black mass flew right into Ichigo's chest, leaving no trace after that.
It was now which his inner spirits spoke up once again.
"Ichigo, this man is not wrong about being similar to you. He is not only hollow and Shinigami, but also a Quincy." Old Man Zangetsu said.
'What?' Ichigo thought to himself. 'What is that supposed to mean?'
"King, this guy seems shady." Shiro growled from the inner world.
Ichigo, feeling unsafe, began to scan his surroundings, when he was interrupted by Old Man Zangetsu's voice again. "Ichigo, you need to enter your mindscape now. I do not know what this thing is."
Trusting his own soul, Ichigo sat down to meditate, finding the urgency helpful in focusing on entering his mindscape. Upon entry, Ichigo found a tall man standing upon one of the buildings in his mindscape.
"Thank you for meeting with me, Ichigo Kurosaski, though I must admit, you did not have much choice," the spirit laughed heartily. "For that, I apologize. For all intents and purposes, you may call me Roku." The man paused, seeing the three parts of Ichigo's soul staring at him with shock, distrust and anger. "Please, it would be for the best of all of us if we could have a calm discussion about your future. I can assure you, if I wished you to be dead, you would be by now."
"Well that isn't very comforting," Shiro snarled. "But that's probably true. So, what do ya want?" Shiro snarled. Being a creature of instinct, he was very protective of himself, and therefore his king. This man was a threat they didn't know how to handle.
"Please, just tell us what you want. I think it would put us all into a state less on edge," Zangetsu said with a concerned tone.
"Alright. Ichigo Kurosaki, I would like you to become my ambassador of sorts. As a person who bears membership to all four races of this world, like I do, you have a certain synergy which is most useful. For this reason, you would be the best candidate."
Shiro was about to retort, but Roku held up his hand to stop him. "The world is in turmoil after the war you fought in, and to the point where if there were another unforeseen threat to arise and the world did not have a defender, the world of spirits would fall into chaos."
Ichigo regarded this man, Roku's, assessment. It was true, hollows, shinigami, and quincies did not get along and most humans were largely unaware. Here Ichigo was, the closest to a whole combination of all four he had heard of, just missing quincy…but going off how Uryu was he could live without it. The man, Roku, had a point. A go-between would make sense, but who was Roku, Ichigo wondered.
"I, as the Soul King, must do everything in my ability to prevent this. Unfortunately, due to the nature of my power, it is difficult to directly intervene. I must push forth events from a distance. This is where you would come in. Do you follow?" Roku asked Ichigo.
"Ah, the Soul King…" Ichigo thought. He nodded along dumbly, not wanting to interrupt the man who was now revealed to be the Soul King.
Old Man Zangetsu on the other hand, spoke up. "Forgive me for my insolence, your highness, but why should Ichigo take you up on this offer. This seems like it would only drag him into another war, and however many as he is alive for," Old Man Zangetsu almost growled.
"Ah yes, is it Zangetsu you call yourself now? As the Soul King, it is one of my abilities to see what would truly put a soul to rest, and to reward exceptional souls, think of it a bit like Nirvana, those who deserve peace may exist in the way which would make them the happiest, and I may grant it to them by removing them from the cycle of life and death."
"Ichigo Kurosaki, you have achieved this high honor, but you will never rest until your loved ones are forever protected. So, you will become the one true protector, the true Shinigami. The one who reigns above death."
"Before you become this though, you must go through trials to test and train your soul, as well as familiarize yourself with this world and its inhabitants. Will you accept this proposition?" Roku held out his hand to make the deal.
Ichigo took a moment to think over this proposition. He would have a place in this world, a reason to be. On top of that, he would forever be able to protect those he loves. This power would supposedly be granted to him indefinitely.
"You deserve peace Ichigo. You deserve this," Zangetsu said with an unusual sadness.
"That ya do, King," Shiro smiled wide. Things were finally looking up for this soul.
Ichigo looked at his two spirits, who nodded back at him. He stepped forward and reached out to hold King Roku's hand. "I accept."
xXx
So that wraps it up. I hope you enjoyed.
-SK