Chapter 2 : A Strawberry's Battle :

Before the chapter start i would like to answer some of your reviews

Jose4Andres7 : Yes Vasto Lordes Ichigo is nerfed, for two reasons, the first will be mentioned in the chapter, and the second is to balance the power level in this story, after all, it wouldn't be that interesting to see Ichigo destroying everything with ease or Erza getting destroyed by almost any threat from Bleach.

Ryner510 : It will be explained in a later chapter.

Guests : Don't worry, i have plans for Senna.

A few hours after the prologue, unknown place :

In an unknown void, on a bridge of light was standing the substitute Shinigami, it's been a few hours since he chooses to explore this strange portal they found in the shrine, and while during the first hour he had to listen to Kon's complaint, after that, the mod soul simply climbs on his shoulder and stayed here for the rest of the time they spent here.

And now, they were looking at a pillar of light in front them, the sign that the two reached the end of the path and the entrance of an unknown place for them, in a way, it reminded Ichigo of the time when he, Uryuu and Chad used a garganta to travel to Hueco Mundo in order to save Orihime, except that this time he wasn't on a way to save a close friend, the substitute was then pulled out of his thought when Shiro asked in his mind "So, do we go to the other side or what ?"

"Let's go." Simply said Ichigio while ignoring his hollow power

"Wait." Suddenly said Kon

The substitute looked at the mod soul with surprise, But Kon ignored it and said "Are you sure we should go to the other side, I don't want to die before seeing Nee-san again." Ichigo just sighed after hearing that, he was expecting something serious from the mod soul, but it was just complaints once again, and so, the substitute decided to not reply and simply walk into the light, once inside the light, the two were blinded for a short time.

After a few seconds, Ichigo opened his eyes and see that they were in a forest, while the mod soul seems still blinded by the light, the substitute looked around him, the grass, the trees, and even the sky looked like what you could find in the world of the living, and yet, with all the energy around them, he knew they were in a completely different place, Ichigo then hear the voice of Kon saying "Where are we ?" the substitute simply reply "I don't know, but we are definitely not in the world of the living or the Soul Society."

"Wait, so it means that we potentially found a new world ?" Asked the mod soul

Ichigo took time to think of this, after all, the energy here was different, but could it be really a different world, the substitute wasn't sure of this but then hear the voice of Ossan in his mind saying "The only to find out about this is to explore around." Ichigo realised that his Quincy power was right, and so, after thanking his zanpakuto, the substitute tried to use is spiritual senses to find any town or living being around them.

At first, Ichigo couldn't find anything because his spiritual sense was clouded by the energy around him, but, after a few seconds, he was able to feel multiple presence not so far from here, probably a village, and another place with energy but farther away, probably a town, he wasn't sure of where to go, he then hears Shiro say "Unless you want to be lost in an unknown town and potentially create panic we should head to the village." the substitute was about to say something when Ossan intervened by saying "For once I agree with him, a small village would be a better place to start looking for information." Ichigo just thought 'I guess you're right' and turning toward the mod soul.

"We are moving." Simply said the substitute

Kon looked at Ichigo and asked "Were ?" The substitute just looked away and answered "I feel something that seems to be a village, we are going to head up there and start our investigation to understand this potential new world." at first the mod soul wanted to argue, but, after a few second simply give up and walked toward Ichigo before climbing on his haori.

The two were about to move when the substitute felt something, it was incredibly thin and yet he knew this energy, this reiatsu, but how ? How is it possible ? How is he alive ? So many questions when trought Ichigo's mind, Kon then noticed that the substitute stopped moving and say "Is something wrong ?" but Ichigo didn't reply and look in another direction, somewere in the forest, as if something was there, the substitute then simply said "U-Ulquiorra ?!" those words surprised the mod soul, but he wasn't able to react before Ichigo used shunpo to move where he was looking.

It only took two shunpo for the two to arrive at destination, upon arriving, the mod soul fall on the ground as the substitute was around the place where he felt the presence of the former Espada, it was a clearing, but, given it's states and the swords stuck in the grounds, a battle clearly happened here, looking to the side, he noticed a girl who was hiding behind a tree on the border of the clearing, she seemed to be looking at something and so, Ichigo looked where the girl was looking and noticed two people on the other side of the clearing.

The first one is a red-haired woman who was lying on the ground, she is wearing a red pant with a yellow fire pattern at the bottom of the pant, she is also wearing what seems to be bandages around her chest, in her hand is a broken, but then the substitute looked at the other being and was surprised, it was a hollow, and, given its size and the Reiatsu of the beast, it's a Vasto Lordes, quickly grabbing his zanpakuto, Ichigo used shunpo to move toward the hollow.

Once close enough, the substitute swings his zanpakuto at the vasto lordes how was barely able to block the attack with its own sword, Ichigo then uses the surprise effect of his attack and pushed away the hollow while getting in front of the woman, after that, the substitute concentrated reiatsu in his hand and said "Bakudō#63 Sajō Sabaku !" while closing his hand as a yellow rope appeared and bing the hollow, the vasto lordes seemed confused by this and Ichigo used this distraction to turn toward the woman who was looking at him and ask "Are you alright ?"

"I'm... fine." She simply answered while trying to get up

Well, given what he could see of her wounds and she was struggling to stay up, she was the opposite of fine, but the substitute was thinking of bringing the two girls out of this place, because if he starts fighting the Vasto Lordes now, they would be in great danger, at first he thought of moving them himself, he then heard Shiro saying "Why don't we put this annoying mod soul to use for once." Ichigo was confused by that, but, quickly heard Ossan saying "He mean that with the modification Kon received, he could bring them out of here." the substitute realised what they mean and how it would be safer to do this, after making his choice, he just looks at the mod soul.

"Kon, use your transformation and bring them away !" Shout Ichigo

At first the mod soul wanted to argue, but seeing the urgency of the situation, he simply nodded before pressing a part of his body, activating it, after that Kon simply ran towards the red haired woman and grabbed her before running into the forest, quickly followed by the other women, once alone with the vasto lordes, the substitute was about to grab his second zanpakuto when he heard Shiro saying "King, there is something different about that Vasto Lordes." Ichigo asked "What ?" he then heard his zanpakuto saying "It's... us."

Ichigo didn't believe this at first, but, upon looking again at the hollow, he realised that Shiro was right, it was the exact description that Uryuu and Orihime made about the form he take during his fight against Ulquiorra, and the sword in the vasto's hand is the old Tensa Zangetsu, he also realised that in this case he is going to need the help of Shiro and Ossan to overcome it quickly enough without destroying the entire region, instinctively, he heard is zanpakuto saying "You can count on us." and felt is Reiatsu quickly rising trought him as he saw the hollow slowly breaking out of the kido.

As soon as the Vasto Lordes break the binding, Ichigo used shunpo quickly towards the Hollow and raise his sword to attack him, but, the Vasto use his sword and block his Zanpakuto, the substitute then use is second sword and wound the beast, right after that Ichigo saw the Vasto disappearing with a Sonido, but, thanks to his training with Shiro, the substitute was able to spot the hollow on his right side and parry his attack before counter-attacking, wounding the Vasto who, once again, disappeared with a Sonido.

The substitute, then used shunpo and appeared behind the hollow to attack it, but, the Vasto was able to react and avoid the swing with a Sonido, then, a battle of speed started between the two, the hollow using is sonido to get a killing blow, the substitute using his shunpo to stop the beast, while the battle was even between them, Ichigo started to think about a way to end the battle quickly, with the lasts blows, they destroyed what remained of the clearing, and, if things go further, the other will get caught in the battle.

"If you want to end this quickly, you should target the horns." Suddenly said Ossan in his mind

Those words confused the substitute at first, but then he remembered what Uryuu told him about how he regain his human form when Ulquiorra cut one of the horns, Ichigo thought 'Worth the shot.' and used shunpo to get close to the Vasto, as soon as the Hollow prepared to counter him, the substitute use shunpo a second time to move behind the vasto, before the hollow could react, Ichigo swings his zanpakuto and was able to cut one of the vasto's horns, who simply fell on the ground.

Ichigo was expecting to see the Hollow disappear, act like he was wounded or in the most crazy case, seeing another Ichigo fall on the ground, but what happened wasn't any of that, instead, the hollow touch the place where the horn was, and let out a roar as a red reiatsu was covering the Vasto and the horn was regenerating, once healed, the hollow pointed his horns towards the substitute, Ichigo quickly realised what was happening as he saw the cero charging between the horns, quickly moving, the substitute use shunpo to get in the air and charged a getsuga to counter the Cero.

Shortly after, the Vasto shot the cero towards Ichigo, the substitute then swings his zanpakuto and use the getsuga tensho to block the cero, the attack was powerful, but, after a few second, Ichigo was able to deviate the two attacks towards the sky where they dissipated, the substitute then use all of his speed to attack the hollow with a swing, seemingly distracted, the Vasto took the hit and ended up with a big wound on the chest, but, once again, the wound just healed and hollow started attacking again, upon seeing that, Ichigo realised that something was wrong here, that the Vasto could regenerate the horn was believable, but healing such a wound that fast, it was wrong.

"Guess we're gonna keep fighting this thing, but even I get a weird feeling about this." simply say Shiro in his inner world

A few seconds later, the substitute charged once again at the hollow and started another fight, but, during the fight, as Ichigo was wounding the Vasto and get some small wound, he noticed something, it felt like the hollow was growing weaker, sometime it get a boost of power but after that it loose the power, knowing the tale of his battle against Ulquiorra and the extent of his power, it was weird seeing what was described by his friends as a demon loosing power in a battle, it gave to him a feeling that the Vasto's power is artificial.

Shortly after that, Ichigo wounded the Hollow once again, and this is when he felt it, while the Vasto was healing, the substitute felt that the Hollow was receiving Reiatsu from somewhere else, as if it was linked to something, Ichigo quickly closed his eyes and tried to find the source of this Reiatsu, but, because of all the energy around him, he wasn't able to find it and after a few seconds the Vasto was ready to attack the substitute.

"Bakudō#63 Sajō Sabaku !" Quickly Say Ichigo while contracting Reiatsu in this hand

As the Hollow was bound by the Kido, the substitute started to think about what happened before, this copy of him is definitely linked to something, and this thing has a similar reiatsu to Ulquiorra, but why they were linked, this is when he heard Ossan saying "There is only two things we can see to explain this for now, the first one would be that this Hollow is stuck here with this link acting as a bind." Ichigo wasn't convinced by this, after all, if this Vasto Lordes was bound here, it probably wouldn't be able to act and move so freely.

"And the second one ?" Asked the substitute

The Quincy's power simply answered "The second possibility would be that this Hollow is an artificial creation, and that it's just a guardian who protect the thing who gave him Reiatsu." Ichigo thought about this, as weird as it sound, it was still believable, given who different it acts compared to what he heard from Uryuu and Orihime, how it was able to heal some heavy wounds and what Kirio explain to him about how it was possible to create a clone with artificial soul and how it was forbidden for obvious reasons.

Now what they would need is to find the source of this link, but it was clear that the Hollow wasn't gonna let him do as he will, this is when an idea pop into Ichigo's mind, he quickly said in his mind "Ossan, Shiro, i have an idea." after getting his zanpakuto's attention, the substitute says "We need to find out what is linked to this other me, and for that, I need you to take control of my body, Shiro." this surprised the inner hollow, after all, it was the first time that he asked something like that, the zanpakuto simply asked "King, are you sure about that ?" Ichigo simply answered "Yes, I'm sure of this."

"Ossan, I'm gonna need your help to expand my spiritual senses in order to find this source." Then say the substitute to his zanpakuto

After a few seconds, a fragment of Hollow mask appeared on Ichigo's face as his eyes were changing and his mouth turn into an evil smile, shortly after that, Shiro noticed that the Hollow in front of him started to break the Bakudo, the substitute simply jumped towards the Vasto and quickly swing his zanapakuto towards the Hollow, this attack wounded the Vasto on the chest, but, broke the Kido in the process, right after that, the Hollow tried to attack the substitute with his sword, seeing this, Shiro just blocked the attack before counter-attacking, up from now, another battle of swords begins between the Vaso Lordes and Ichigo's inner Hollow, the only difference with the previous battle was Shiro's brutality who kept the Hollow in check.

In the meantime, the substitute was in his inner world and, with the help of Ossan, was trying to spot where was the thing linked to the Vasto, thanks to his Quincy power's help, Ichigo was able to get a better feel of their surrounding, the forest was quite large and, hopefully, the small village he spotted earlier was far enough to not be impacted by the battle, at least for now, the substitute also quickly spotted Kon somewhere else in the forest, he was still with the two women, but, he also feels three new presences he didn't know, perhaps friend of them.

"Stay focused on finding the source." Said Ossan, seeing Ichigo getting slightly distracted by the new presence

The substitute nodded and get back to searching, because of the energy around them it was hard to search, but, after a little while, they finally found what was linked to the Vasto Lordes, it was in the center of the forest, and Ichigo was able to feel this familiar presence, it was Ulquiorra's Reiatsu, but, there was also another power with it, it's clearly Reiatsu but it was a type of Reiatsu he never feels before, but that wasn't important, quickly taking back the control of his body, the substitute blacked another attack from the Hollow and jumped in the air, once there, he charged and fired a small Getsuga Tensho towards the source, and, depending on how the Vasto Lordes would react, they will know which theory was the good one.

And, unsurprisingly, the Hollow used Sonido to get in front of the Getsuga Tensho and took it head on, getting wounded in the process, this action confirmed what Ossan was thinking about this Vasto Lordes being some sort of artificial being created to act as a guardian, now, the best thing they could do would be to reach the center of the forest and destroy the source to end all of this, but, the problem was that the Hollow wouldn't let him do that easily, and so, the substitute started to think of something to bind it long enough for him to move.

But, while being lost in is thought, Ichigo forget for one second the Vasto Lordes who healed once again, and didn't notice the attack, the substitute was taken out of is thoughts when Shiro shouted "King, be careful !" Ichigo barely had time to react and blacked the Hollow's sword, but, the surprise effect of the attack was working against him and after a few second, the Vasto Lordes did another attack, this one hit the substitute, but didn't do any damage to it, instead, he was sent out of what remained of the clearing and crash in a bush, quickly getting up, Ichigo was waiting for the Hollow to attack again, but noticed that the Vasto disappeared in the second after the attack, at first the substitute looked around him to find it, but, the Hollow wasn't here anymore and he realises where he was going.

"The others are in danger." Thought out loud Ichigo with a worried voice

Ichigo then used all of his speed to catch up with the Vasto Lordes before it reach Kon and the other, because one of them can't use any power and the other one is wounded, and, on top of all of that, he wasn't sure if the three new presences could stand agaisnt it, so, the substitute chooses to speed up to get to them, 'I have to protect them' was his only thought while accelerating toward the others.

A few minutes earlier, somewhere else in the forest :

Defeated

It would be the best to describe Erza's situation, after she barely deflected the demon's attack, another battle started between them, at first, she thought it was just going to be a really hard battle, but things quickly change, after that attack, the beast seemed to finally get serious and destroyed her, no matter the armor or the weapon she was using, it just stopped affecting the demon, in the meantime, the beast's attack was more powerful, breaking every armor she tried to use, and, after a hard battle, she was defeated, the knight ended on the ground, waiting for an unavoidable end.

But, this is when they appear, the first one was a man who countered the demon, she remembered seeing this warrior with orange hair wearing some sort of oriental suit with a white sleeveless coat with some motive at the bottom of it and with and diamond's pattern with the word « Guardian » written in it, the first thing he did after pushing back the beast was asking if she was alright and after that, he tell to his comrades, a being who looked like a stuffed animal, to carry them away, which led to this situation when she still carried by this Kon, who was running in the forest.

"Can you please let me down ?" Asked Erza, tired of being in this position of weakness

At first, the being didn't answer, but, upon reaching a small river, he gently put her on the ground before returning to his small form, Senna quickly arrives too and asked "Are you alright ?" the knight didn't answer and instead summoned a sword to help getting up, once on her feet, she started to walk with difficulty toward the place when the man was fighting the demon, but, she then saw the stuffed animal standing in front of her, acting as if it was trying to stop her, Kon asked "Were do you think you're going ?"

"I... Have to help your friend, this demon is too dangerous." Simply answered Erza

The stuffed animal didn't react at first, but, after a few seconds, said "Look, first off, you are too wounded to fight, and second, I can't let a beautiful woman like you throw her life away." the knight ignored the last part and started "But..." she was then interrupted by Kon who continued "And, if you are worry about my friend, you need to know that he is strong enough to defeat that Hollow." Erza wanted to argue, but she knew that this thing was right, and so, she simply sat on the ground, it's then that his words struck her, why did this Kon called the demon a «Hollow», perhaps this being and his friends have information about this beast.

"Hollow..." Said Senna to herself

Erza noticed how the girl was in deep reflexion after hearing that, after a few seconds, Senna says "I already hear this word, but where..." the knight was surprised by the girl's reaction, if even she knew or heard about this, then maybe Hollow was just another way to describe demon, Erza thought 'I'll have to ask them about that later'

"Erza ?" Asked a new voice

The three looked at the other side of the river and saw three hooded figures, at first she didn't recognize them, but, after some thought, realize that those three were from Crime Sorciere, she then say "Jellal." the man take his hood off and was quickly followed by his comrades Ultear and Meredy who crossed the small river to join the three, Meredy then saw the knight's wound and asked with a worried voice "Are you alright ?" Erza looked at the ground and answered "I'm fine." despite being wounded, she was still alive, but, even with that she couldn't help but worry this stranger who saved her and who was fighting the beast.

"Why are you here ?" Asked Erza who was curious about their presence

Ultear walked in her direction while answering "We were not far from here and saw what seemed to be an attack, Jellal propose that we investigate it." once in front of the knight, the time wizard get on a knee to inspect her wound while saying "But, on our way toward where we saw the attack, we felt an immense power suddenly appear and ran toward here." Meredy then takes out a bag with various medecines and said "Here, let us fix those wounds." Erza just nodded and let them heal her.

"Thank you." She simply answered

While they were applying bandages on her, Erza looked at Jellal who was looking away, in a way, she was glad they were here, but she was still hurt from what happened at the beach and realised that thing were going to be awkward between them for a while, Jellal then looked at her and asked "What happened ?" the knight looked at her wound and reply "I was tasked to defeat a demon and..." she then proceed to tell them what happened about the beast, how she was defeated and how a warrior was fighting the demon right now.

"I see..." Said Jellal, in a deep reflexion

The leader of Crime Sorcier was about to say something when they saw another red beam going across the sky, all looked at the attack and saw that the beam was hitting something, they also saw some blue energy colliding against the beam, this created a blast that could be felt even from their position, after a few seconds, both the blue energy and the attack went higher in the sky and dissipated.

"Jellal, you should go and help this warrior Erza mentioned." Said Ultear while attending to the kinghts wound

Jellal was about to leave when the stuffed animal gets in front of him and said "Don't worry, my friend got this." the wizard was surprised by this being but quickly replied "Someone had to help your friend." Kon simply answered while pointing Erza with a finger "Look, your friend already said that, and as I said, my friend is strong enough to deal with it, he is as strong as me." Jellal looked at the plush and, beside the obvious lie about this power, was curious about this «friend» strength, the wizard then asked "Then how strong is your friend ?" the stuffed animal looked at all of them and seemed to think for a few seconds before reply "From what i feel, he is stronger than all of you."

This answer seemed to convice Jellal and the other to stay here while Senna seemed once again lost in her thought, but, deep down, Erza was still worried about what would happen if Kon's friend lose his battle, who would be able to stop the demon in this case, but, the knight quickly pulls herself together, after all, from what they see with the attack, he clearly seemed to be handling the situation, looking at the sky, Erza just hoped that everything would be alright.

And that concludes the second chapter of this story, hope you liked it, and on that, I'll see you next time.