Author Notes: Warning! Very Lemon-esque elements are heavily implied to readers who aren't mature enough to read ahead should probably avoid this chapter and head to the next one. It's left ambiguous for now if it happened or not till later. It also explains why Orihime is there with Ichigo.
On a more serious note, Tatsuki's new form is based on an illustration the Kubo did a while back, probably with the hint of making her more important until outside involvement forced him to stop those plans. Also, it was implied that Orihime was somehow experimented on without her knowledge by Aizen probably to turn her into a pseudo-Arrancar for the evulz and to make Ichigo even madder in order to make him a worthier opponent. This is using that possible idea, but making her a special Visored instead.
Chapter 19: Awakening Powers
Last Night
Ichigo lay unconscious while Orihime and Rukia looked at the pharaoh masked man as he slowly deactivated his powers with a irked expression.
Suddenly, he retrieved the nonactive masked Soul Reaper and strangely, Orihime to her confusion as well. He tossed them over his shoulder despite their weight.
Rukia looked befuddled as she stared at the blond man then leaping into the area and using Kuki Tsuro in order to travel into a far-off destination in Karakura Town with Orihime looking bewildered as to why he took her as well.
"What just happened.," Rukia asked herself as Byakuya, Renji and Toshiro suddenly appeared behind her to look at the departing man.
"Shinji Hirako. I thought you to be a criminal..., but it seems that reality was different.," he said to himself, reflecting on the information that Loly had revealed about Aizen- especially his inhuman experiment that created the Visored group.
"Should we-," Rukia asked her brother with concern, wanting to go after Ichigo.
"He's aligned with Kisuke Urahara- that man is smart enough to avoid detection for himself and all of his associates. It is not like him to hide in such an easy to discover location- it is why we never found him because of his careful nature.," Byakuya responded aloofly as he turned in the other direction. Rukia then followed him.
"...Aizen.," said Toshiro in a meditative state as he looked up at the sky.
The group then left through the Shoji that manifested in the gravesite, which vanished as it closed behind them.
Shinji then arrived at the Urahara Shop- a ratty looking place that didn't seem to attract many customers, though several Soul Reapers have gone there to research on their latest enemies or buy supplies. They would be quickly made to forget that Urahara existed due to special Kikanshinki (Account-Replacing Spirit Device) specialized on Soul Reaper use.
He then tapped the ground and a trap door opened behind him and fell into it with Orihime gasping in shock as she plummeted downwards.
When they landed in a dark underground space with sparse lighting, Shinji dropped the two and rejoined his ten other associates that had been waiting for him at the lighter part of the room.
"Um, who are you people? Are you friends of Rukia?," Orihime asked amiably to the people she was looking at as she adjusted to the situation.
"Nope. We're like that boy there...like Ichigo.," said Shinji as eight of the group who suddenly manifested white masks to Orihime's wide-eyed shock.
Aside from the double mouthed Pharaoh mask, the rest were as follows- a protruding avian-eque Plague doctor mask on the wavy haired blond man, an Oni mask with two small horns on the star haired man with mirrored sun glasses, a flat hockey mask with six slitted eye holes in two columns and extensions that frame his head on the gray haired man, a grasshopper-shaped mask with two goggle-shaped eyes, four slits in its mouth area, and small antenna on the green haired girl, a wide skull mask with a prominent horn centered on its forehead and a row of diamond-shaped markings over its eyebrows on the blond pigtailed girl with the snaggle tooth, a mask with tusks and feather-shaped spikes at the top of its head based on the Rangda demon on the pink haired man with the mustache and a Diamond-shaped mask with a cross-shaped hole in the middle and its top tip bending over the head on the bespectacled girl with black hair braided in a ponytail.
"You're like Ichigo...?," Orihime inquired the individuals
"Kinda Carrot Top's predecessors to be more accurate, right Kensei?" asked the grasshopper masked girl to the hockey masked man.
Predecessors, Orihime asked herself internally as she daydreamed about an evolutionary diagram with the pigtailed girl being at the back of the evolutionary line and Ichigo being at the front with the rest of the masked people in between.
"Yeah, but in a more artificial way- a Soul Reaper decided at random to turn us into this.," Kensei replied in a harsh tone while ignoring the grasshopper girl doing ridiculous poses. Orihime wondered in confusion.
Were they made in a factory?, Orihime thought as she imagined an assembly line of people making the same type of white masks for Soul Reapers to wear for special parties.
"And we weren't just ordinary Soul Reapers. We were Captains and Lieutenants until this happened. So inelegant.," said the plague doctor masked man in an overdramatic sorrowful tone and expression until the Oni masked man kicked him in the shin for his behavior. Orihime felt sorry for him, but didn't know enough about Soul Society to what Captains and Lieutenants were.
Captain and Lieutenant?, Orihime mused on this fact as she visualized the group in current Japanese style military clothing.
"Luckily, we got out of there to fight another day. The world's not perfect, but it's there for us trying the best it can. That's what makes it so damn beautiful- Roy Mustang quote from Fullmetal Alchemist manga I read- it ain't no Shounen Jump- but, it's good.," said the Oni masked man to Orihime's confusion.
Shounen Jump?, thought Orihime as she imagined Ichigo wearing Son Goku's clothing as he faced off against the gray haired man wearing the Saiyan, Raditz's outfit.
"What's worse is that he's still at it- and he's replaced Stupid-Shinji as a Captain. And everyone still thinks he's a good guy.," said the uni-horned masked girl as she mocked Shinji in an aggressive manner.
Orihime then thought of a Darth Vader-esque man standing over Shinji's defeated form.
"It seemed hopeless, but thanks to your efforts today- the man will finally face punishment.," said the feathered demon masked man with a gentle voice that contrasted his scary visage.
"No-no, I didn't really do anything except help Ichigo and the others from the side lines. It was really them who deserve the credit!," Orihime humbly refused the credit.
"And that's why you're here...you fucked up.," said the diamond masked girl in a detached attitude towards Orihime.
"What...?," Orihime questioned the woman who looked more stern than before.
"Allow me to rephrase what Lisa said young lady. Back when you healed Ichigo- his Hollow swallowed him even after he achieved his Soul Reaper Powers, but you rejected that and reconstructed that fact to make him a genuine Visored.," said the bespectacled man with the cornrow hairstyle as he advertised a hair tonic to the girl while remaining serious about the subject.
Keigo tried that and it didn't work for him, Orihime observed skeptically at the product that he was holding.
"You were in the process of healing Ichigo at the time...did you think stopping something that embedded in our world wouldn't have consequences.," the dark skinned woman in an orange over-shirt and black sweat pants told Orihime in a serious tone.
"First, look at him...then at yourself.," said the bucket hat man in a creepy yet pleasant tone as he pointed at Ichigo.
"Ok...," Orihime responded unconvinced until she saw what they meant- Ichigo's body was shaking violently to her immediate dread.
"Is he having a seizure?! I'm not sure if any of you are doctors!," Orihime shouted as she went to Ichigo's side. The feathered demon masked man and cornrow haired man were about to respond, but were interrupted by the uni-horned masked girl.
"Your boyfriend's becoming a Hollow- you did something earlier to reject the process. It ain't like the flu- it's like a virus that's now in his Spiritual Power- a gene in his DNA like those nerds call it nowadays. It's apart of him now and you can't stop it- even worse, if you treat it, you'll get the virus too.," she said coldly at Orihime's attempts to use Soten Kisshun to heal Ichigo.
Suddenly, the Hollow hole that had been closed off earlier by Orihime's powers- had reopened and caused the top half of Ichigo's uniform to be ripped to shreds. An explosion of Reiatsu colored an unnatural dark red surrounded him and forced Orihime back.
Naruki Town
At the Full-Bringer base, the ground shook with immense Spiritual Pressure that forced some of them to go unconscious, others to be forced to their knees, others to remain frozen while a few remained calm- the middle aged man, the wavy haired man with brown eyes, the man with combed backed hair, the magenta haired girl and a large portion of the group.
"What's going on in Karakura I wonder?," said the man called Kugo Ginjo with a stern expression.
She then looked on at the sight of the transformation Ichigo had underwent, his eyes now completely black as if there was nothing beneath the mask.
Ichigo now had long straight hair, reaching down to his waist, and a Hollow hole, smaller than the one that had emerged earlier, decorated with markings stretching from the hole across his chest and shoulders. He also had retractable claws on his fingertips/toessmall, furry red tufts, two starting from his collarbone and stretching around his neck and one each on his wrists and ankles, and white skin with a tail with a dark red tip at the end. His mask was slightly altered from before. Like before, it covered his entire head, but it now had four spike-shaped markings, two of them stopped by the forehead and the other two stretched past the eyes and teeth, going past his chin and joined with the marks on his chest. There were smaller marks that resembled a heart, but with the top and bottom open, extended from the inner corners of his eyes. Another feature it had from before was slightly altered, his two long forward-pointing horns now had black strips extending from their center towards the tips. He also went from 5'8 to 6'0 in height. For some reason, he remained solid as a statue.
She placed her hand in her chest in apprehension until she felt something odd- it was hollow- like a hole had suddenly emerged there to her large eyed gasp.
W-"What is this?," Orihime stuttered in immense terror as a white liquid manifested and solidified as an elegant white mask with no mouth, wing extensions on the sides of her mask and round innocent looking eye-holes.
"You healed Ichigo when his Hollow swallowed him. So some traces of it flowed into you and you got contaminated- you're Hollow-fying as well.," said the man with cornrow hair in a explanation to what was occurring right now.
"H-how can I help Ichigo? And then, how to help me- Ichigo would never forgive himself if I suffered because of him.," Orihime pleaded the masked people as she bowed. Her voice now distorted like a Hollow.
"Lisa is gonna feed two Reiatsu of Visored material so it gets suppressed until Kisuke gets the seals to bind the Hollow permanently.," the dark skinned woman said as she pointed to the diamond masked girl undressed herself. her mask shrinking slightly to expose her mouth. She also stripped herself to her underwear for some reason.
"Basically it's a critical point, I'll insert Spiritual Power into you two- you might react with spitting orange liquid, but it's natural.," said Lisa in a deadpan tone as she came closer to Orihime. The other Visored cringed with the thought of what would happen next.
"And after that, since you two are very gifted in Spiritual Power- you're gonna train tomorrow!," said the bucket hat man with glee.
"But, Ichigo's the strong one. I'm just a normal girl- though the Shun Shun Rika make it questionable, though.," Orihime answered as she bowed again in, reluctant to acknowledge her powers.
"No normal girl could do the things you did today- you have the potential for greatness more than most people in their lifetime. By the next week, you'll have the power to equal a Soul Reaper Captain, it's to balance out the incredible powers you displayed against Grand Fisher. Along with the handy mutation you got from mingling with Ichigo's awakened Hollow.," he said in a cutesy tone.
"How are you going to insert it?," Orihime tried to reply, her mask involuntarily shrinking to reveal her mouth until Lisa got into a few millimeters from her face.
"Birds and the Bees you should know that in school already," Lisa said nonchalantly as she kissed Orihime with her tongue mingling with hers. In her small pupil confusion, she fainted.
The scene went black.
The Next Morning
Tatsuki woke up to discover she was in a black kosode and and hakama with a brown weasel wrapped around her neck worn around her neck. Her hakama had an open section that showed her midriff.
"What the hell..," she replied in shock of her sudden new attire and noticed the furred weasel scarf she was wearing, one end had a bladed tail.
Chapter 20: Recruitment
