'-AN: I really had no idea how I wanted to write this I knew what I wanted to happen story-wise but I didn't know how to put it into words. What you see is the result of this sorta writer's block.

Ichigo's POV first person

It's been two weeks since Zangetsu brought the egg to my attention. He told me that the reason I was able to manipulate that black reishi was because of the egg even though it hadn't even hatched yet it was already imprinting previously unknown abilities onto my soul. We didn't waste any of our time we trained in controlling our reiryoku but we were already good at that, once I fully balanced out my powers and fully accepted my hollow, controlling my reiryoku became as simple as breathing. So instead of focusing on control we focused on my mental fortitude and the ability to keep in control under pressure and in large amounts of pain. Hogyoku is surprisingly well versed in causing extreme amounts of pain to someone without causing any physical harm. I shivered at the thought even Ywachs final "attack" didn't hurt as much as some of the things she did.

We descended into the deeper parts of my soul, we being me and my sword spirits. I was expecting something like long dark tunnels or maybe just a black void but what I found was definitely not what I was expecting. The deeper we went the stranger it got the first layer was a replica of Karakura but all the buildings were older and shabby looking. The second layer was a massive ocean that looked like a liquid rainbow with specs of black and white in it.

The third layer was strange it was the living world or at least that's what it looked like we were in space staring down at a planet that looked exactly like I remembered those images from space I had seen once looked like. The fourth was soul society or more specifically the Seireitei like Karakura town the Seireitei was run down some buildings were even reduced to rubble.

The fifth layer was honestly disturbing it was an area as expansive as the desert far above, the ground was covered in crimson red blood with human skeletons buried into the ground and laying on top. When I asked Zangetsu why there was something like this in my inner world he told me that every layer represented something that deeply impacted me emotionally and left it at that.

The sixth layer was the same place I hated the same place I had seen before the place where grand fisher attacked me and killed my mother but instead of the normal rain falling it was the same tar-like black liquid from before. The river was also made of the same black substance. I didn't bother asking Zangetu what this layer represented I had a pretty good idea.

The next layer was similar to the second one but instead of one massive rainbow mush it looked like a peaceful forest, a calm lake, tall trees, and mountains in the distance but instead of the normal colors like the trees being brown and green and the lake being blue everything was the same rainbow color as before. Basically, it was a normal serene scene one would see in nature but rainbow.

We arrived at the final layer. It's a graveyard, there are easily hundreds of tombstones in the center there's a large glowing blue egg and there's a large number of glowing tentacles that spread out from the egg covering the graves and spreading upwards towards the previous layer. I looked around other than the graves there was a wasteland that spread out all around us black bubbly tar in puddles on the ground and a couple dried up black dead trees. "I'm assuming that's the egg right," I asked pointing at the glowing blue egg. "How didja figure that out," Zangetsu asked sarcastically. Before I could respond to him Hogyoku cut me off "Quite the bickering you two we have more important things to be doing." She's right there's no reason to argue with Zangetsu right now. "Are we all ready?" I asked' I got a grunt from Zangetsu a nod from Zangetsu a thumbs up from Hogyoku and a smirk from my STILL unnamed hell spirit I should give him a name or see if he has one at some point but I keep forgetting.

We stood around not doing much staring at the egg Zangetsu had informed us that we could only do this when the egg was hatching it was close and could start any minute we were all tense even Zangetsu no mistakes could be made or else I would die. Aren't I technically dead I'm a spirit, well my soul would be destroyed that's worse than death right?

The tentacles around us began quickly moving expanding and heading upwards. "IT'S BEGINNING EVERYONE GET IN YOUR POSITIONS!" Zangetsu shouted, we all quickly got into our positions that we had decided on beforehand. My sword spirits stood in what was the equivalent of the cardinal directions while I stood close to the egg ready to dive inside at a moment's notice. I felt all four of my spirit's power flair before balancing out. "NOW!" Zangetsu yelled. Without a second of hesitation, I dived headfirst towards the egg. I felt myself be pulled inside as a massive amount of power burst forth from it. I forced my will onto the egg and attempted to stop the purification, pain even worse than what Hogyoku made me endure it felt as if my soul was destroying itself, and in a way it was.

I have to fight against this I can't lose control I was having this massive amount of power and knowledge transferred to me while I tried to keep my powers balanced and stop my soul from self-destructing. Outside of the egg, the spirits were entangled by blue tentacles that were squeezing hard and refused to let go. They still kept their powers balanced but they had no way of escaping without disrupting the balance. The amount of pain of something trying to literally obliterate you was nothing to sneeze at but the spirits ignored it focused on supporting their master. God damn it why the fuck won't this work I was told all I had to do was absorb the contents of the egg and stop the purification I'm absorbing the power and knowledge just fine but I can't seem to even slow down the purification. The pain at this point wasn't that bad but that didn't matter if my soul was destroyed. The amount of power the egg was releasing increased and the tentacles grew tighter and the pain worsened. I was told that I needed to absorb as much power as possible because if I went slow It would take too long. I took in as much power as I could my soul screamed in pain. I screamed at the top of my lungs but never lost control I would make it through this. Unknown to me the tentacles began loosening some even withering and dying. I felt the pain reaching an unbearable level even with all my training I was still losing control. "I WON'T DIE TO THIS STUPID EGG!" I screamed as everything went black.

Sometime later Ichigo's POV

Ughhhhh it feels like I just fought Kenpachi I feel like I've been hit by a train ten times then injected with acid. Well, considering I can still feel pain and think, it's safe to assume my soul is still intact. Now the question is where am I and why is it so comfy. I slowly opened my eye's checking out my surrounding. "What the hell?" I spoke aloud quickly sitting up when I did that I realized that something was lying on top of me "Hogyoku?" I asked confused, I'm in a room that looks eerily similar to my old room in the now long gone Karakura town. "ICHIGO!" I was forced back down onto the pillows I had been resting my head on previously Hogyoku now had her arms locked around my neck hugging me tightly. I'm sure if I wasn't a transcendent being the amount of force would have been more the enough to snap my neck but luckily it was just a little uncomfortable. The sound of sobbing reached my ears I was surprised. she's crying? I moved my hand to her back pulling her in closer. I've never really been good at this type of thing consoling people, but even I have enough sense to hug someone back when they're hugging you sobbing. She kept sobbing into my shoulders for a while before raising her head and smiling at me. She still had tears in her eyes and her face was flushed but I could still see the pure joy in that smile. "You feel better now?" I asked her. She nodded cuddling close up to my chest again. "You've been unconscious for a while." "For real, I feel like shit how long was I out?" She looked down her eyes misting over "Time isn't really a concept for us physically but mentally" She seemed to chock on her words. "You've… you've been asleep for three years" "Three years!" I tried to stand up but she held me down. "Calm down the other will be here soon let me enjoy some alone time with you before that, I promise to explain everything when they get here." I wanted to protest against her but she seemed to genuinely miss me and just wanted to spend some time with me so I decided to indulge her while we waited.

No one's POV 3rd person

"There's 5,354 at the moment and there's another 300 or so forming." The STILLLLLLL unnamed hell spirit reported to Zangetsu. "Hmmmmmm" he hummed in thought "Has there been any other disturbances?" "Nha beside's these damn glowy things its the same as always empty space empty space and even more DAMN EMPTY SPACE!" This time Zangetsu was the one who responded, he shouted the last part in anger. "We all felt it he's finally awake now that we're done with this shit we can go and tell him about all this," Zangetsu spoke waving his hand around at the glowing rainbow orbs of reishi that surrounded them. "No, we still have to check on the black dimension once were done with that then we can return." "Fuck that he's been asleep for three year's we can check on it some other time." Zangetsu glared at his other half "We've held out for three years you can wait a few more hours" an annoyed "Tsk" was his response they both knew if they got into a fight It would stall them even more than visiting the black dimension so they both silently agreed that they would call a truce.

Black and white reishi swirled and shifted in the infinite expanse completely undisturbed. This peace didn't last much longer. I large slash cut through the infinite darkness creating a hole where bright light shined through. "This place is dark and dreary as usual," Zangetsu muttered as the three spirits entered the strange dimension that resembled the garganta. The three spirits shared a look, they would rather get this done and over with than take it slow cit chatting. So without any more words, the three spirit's split off from each other going in different directions, a silent agreement to meet back here when they were finished.

Zangetsu blazed through the infinite darkness using shunpo, senses on high alert for any irregularities. He hated these stupid scouting missions they always went on, not only were they boring but most of the time everything stayed mostly the same besides those stupid ball thingy's. Sure enough, no matter how far he went or how far he stretched his senses there were no changes in this place. As far as they were aware this place had no end and stretched out endlessly but they would still travel tell they found what they considered the boundary. It was a strange fold in the dark realm it wasn't the end one could still keep traveling on words from there but the fold was the maker they used to know when to stop their search, when they reached the fold they would have easily traveled a trillion-plus miles. Speak of the devil, he now stood right in front of the fold. The fold was a grey line that split the space in the void it was in the shape of a circle if one were to look at it as a whole but right now in front of Zangetsu, it looked like a thin grey line that splits the darkness. Zangetsu tsk'ed irritated, extending his senses to their maximum to see if he could sense anything, sure enough, there was nothing just like he thought. With that taken care of, he turned around in the direction he came from and raced off full speed.

Back at their agreed meeting place (the rift in space is still there that's how they know where to meet up at) Zangetsu arrived, he was the first one here. He created a reishi platform out of the black reishi and sat down waiting for his fellow spirits to arrive. Before he realized it he fell asleep. Not even ten minute's later the hell spirit arrived. He glanced down at the sleeping albino after a couple of seconds he raised his foot and slammed it down at Zangetsu's head. Zangetsu shot awake rolling out of the way of the foot but also rolling off his reishi platform. There was a surprisingly girly scream as he rapidly fell into the void. Regaining his composer Zangetsu created another reishi platform and jumped off of it back towards Zangetsu. He lashed out with his right fist aiming for the hell spirits head. He slightly tilted his head back avoiding the punch without any effort. Zangetsu followed his punch up with a jab one again aimed for the head. Unlike last time the hell spirit had to use shunpo to avoid it. Zangetsu glared at him "What the hell was that for?" "You were sleeping so peacefully I couldn't help myself." The hell spitit smirked mischievously. Raising his hand to his zanpakuto Zangetsu shifted into a battle-ready stance prepared to charged his target. The hell spirit didn't just stand there he gripped his zanpakuto as well ready to intercept him.

Before their "fight" could's escalate any further Zangetsu arrived using Hirenkyaku. "What are two doing?" He asked deadpanned. "This ass hole tried to kick me in the face while I was asleep so I'm gonna put him to sleep" "I have no clue what he's talking about all I did was arrive this rabid dog decided it would be a smart idea to attack me." Zanegtsu judged by the amused smirk on the hell sprits face that he was probably the one that started it but he didn't care about their little squabble. "Did either of you find anything?" "Not a thing just like I said there was gonna be " Zangetsu answered ticked off. "Nothing business as usual." "Nothing on my end either NOW we can return" Zangetsu emphasized the now. With the subject changed and the *cough*children*cough* placated they began the short journey home.

3rd person back to Ichigo and Hogyoku

"Those three should be back any time now so while we're waiting I want to show you around a little bit," Hogyoku told Ichigo getting out of bed and opening the curtains letting the glaring sunlight into the room. Ichigo closed his eye's from the bright light his eyes used to the darkness of the room. After a couple seconds he popped his eyes open looking out the window there was a lush green forest outside a couple of beautiful flowers, mostly purple in color as well as a small stream that twisted sound the trees and towards the house. "Beautiful isn't it?" Hogyouku asked. "Uh hu" was his intelligent response "I created it all my self" "You created that?" He asked. "Yep, all of it the trees, the flowers, the stream, the grass, even that butterfly over there." She answered pointing at a purple butterfly perched on some flowers that were close to the window. "Wow that's amazing" He spoke in awe. "I don't know why your so surprised in Mugetsuga we turned a molten planet into basically second earth you can do all the same things I can." What she said made sense to Ichigo but he still couldn't imagine himself making something this beautiful. Ok, enough self-doubt I'm showing you around, and then when the others get back we have quite a lot to tell you.

Hogyoku dragged him out of the room to a small halfway that had six doors. The one they just came out from two on the left and two on the right with the final door being at the end of the hallway. She walked to the closest one on the left opening it. "This is the bathroom not too much to show." Ichigo looked inside besides the fact it was easily double the size of any bathroom he had ever seen there was a large jacuzzi in the right corner of the room against the wall. Other than that it was just like a normal bathroom a toilet that looked like it had never been used once, a large shower, and a white tiled floor.

They left the bathroom heading to the next door this one parallel to the bathroom on the right side. The door had a purple flower design on it, unlike the bathroom door's plain brown design. "This is my room" She opened the door exposing her room to him. Purple… a large amount of purple was the first thing he noticed the carpet, the bed, the curtains, the wallpaper, even the ceiling almost every part of her room was purple. "I knew you loved purple but I didn't know you liked it THIS much." He sweatdropped. Beside's the purple, Ichigo saw that she had a computer on a purple desk the computer was purple as well. "Does that work without internet?" He asked pointing at the computer. "Ignoring the fact that I could create internet if I wanted to the purposes I use it for doesn't require internet I use it to design things easier and store information." He nodded. Other than that there didn't seem to be much more she wanted to show him in her room so she guided him out of her room to the next door.

This one was plain brown just like the bathroom. "This is the old man's room I'm sure he won't care if we look inside he never spends time in here anyway." "I don't think we should barge into his room when he's not here." "Did you not listen to what I just said I've never even seen him sleep in here he spends all his time in your inner world sides where your zanpakuto literally parts of your soul this is just as much your room as his." With that said she opened the door. She was right the whole room was covered in a layer of dust some of which got kicked up when she opened the door the bed was neatly made with bed sheets that have a Quincy cross design on them there was an empty desk covered in dust, light blue curtains pulled closed. "You weren't kidding It looks like he never even stepped foot in here." ''I told you he prefers the inner world, the only time I have ever seen him spend time in here was the first week I made it for him and I think that was only his attempt to not be rude to me because I went through the trouble of making it for him." With that said they walked out of the room, it was pretty much empty and there was nothing important to see.

Hogyoku approached the next door a black and red door with a golden skull design in the center. "This is Hs room he spends way more time in here than Zangetsu does his room so it's decorated much better." "Who's H?" Ichigo asked not remembering anyone with that name but still having a pretty good idea of who it was. "That's what we started calling your hell spirit since he doesn't have a real name." "I figured if he actually spends time in here going in here without his permission is pretty rude why don't we just wait till he gets back." "When did you start caring about other people's privacy so much especially parts of your soul." "When I got sick and tired of people constantly invading mine. I realized what it felt like and decided to respect people's privacy as best as I could" "Well like I said he isn't just some person he's a piece of your soul it's not invading his privacy." She said with a tone of finality. Ichigo sighed accepting defeat. She opened the door stepping aside allowing him to walk in after her. The room was lit by a red light bulb that bathed the room in a crimson light. Black curtains blocked even the tiniest hint of sunlight from entering the room. The whole room was covered in black and reds, a redwood desk, black curtains, black carpet with red outlines, pitch-black wallpaper, black sheets with red skulls on it, in general, the whole room fight the personality and theme of H to a T. On the desk were two large containing what looked like paper. Walking over to them he read the top it seemed to be in a different language the Japanese but he could still read it fluently the thicker folder on the right said 'New World Intel' while the thinner folder on the right read 'New World Balance Plan'. Ichigo was very curious about this balance plan but before he could investigate any further Hogyoku grabbed his hand and started pulling him away from the desk towards the doorway. "Hey, I was still looking at that," he shouted as he was pulled away. "Don't worry about it I told you we will explain everything when the others got back. If you look at those right now you'll end up with more questions than answers." He grit his teeth in anger he was sick of this constant trend of keeping him in the dark and pulling him along like a dog but he wouldn't lash out at Hogyoku he could feel her emotions just as she could feel his and he knew she was only doing this out of a place of genuine love with no ulterior motives.

She guided him out of Hs room slamming the door rather hardly behind them. "We have one more room to go I'm pretty sure you can guess who's" "Zangetsu's?" He said questionably. "Yep" She answered popping the P. Zangetsu's door was rather ruff looking it had a large crack going from the door knop to the very top to the bottom, the handle was slightly bent to the left there was also small chunks of wood missing from the top right-hand corner. All in all the door looked like it had seen better days. "He rather rude to the door I made specially to be hard to damage" She pouted puffing out her cheeks cutely. "He's rude to everyone and everything he can, ignore him" Ichigo spoke dismissively. "I know but I made this door with extra dense wood and even reinforced it with reiryoku but he still found a way to break it" "Like I said ignore him he's an ass." This time instead of Hogyoku opening the door he did wanting to see how well his hollow/zanpakuto took care of his room. To Ichigo's surprise beside's the messy unmade bed and the haphazardly throw aside clothes the room was rather clean. The desk had some neatly stacked papers on it with a cup that had pens in pencils stuffed inside. "Huh, I didn't expect it to look half decent." "He's your base instincts are you trying to say that on an instinctual level you're a slob." "Well… no but I didn't expect this, this looks like my room when I'm too lazy to pick my clothes." "You might not realize it but you two are way more similar than either of you realize." "Yeah well, it still looks bland as hell in here white walls white curtains white bed sheets are we in a mental hospital?" "These are the basic things I put in the room he can change them around if he wants but he doesn't he does spend some time in here but he doesn't sleep in here so it's more of an office than a room." "What does he need an office for?" Ichigo asked walking over to the desk. "Reports on new information he found, experiments with his power, surprisingly good drawings, and stuff like that." "He draws?" "Once again I don't understand why that's so shocking he might be your instincts and really love to fight strong opponents but that doesn't mean he can't enjoy the finer things in life." "Your right… it's just hard to see someone that tormented me for so long and that is still an ass hole to me regularly as… normal" He muttered feeling guilty about how he treated and thought of Zangetsu. "It's fine I think Zangetsu feels bad for the way he treated you under the guise of a hollow that only wanted to take over your body so he doesn't call you out on it either way you should still try and treat him better for both your sake's.

After that conversation, Hogyoku and Ichigo left Zanegtsu's room and went to the final door at the end of the hallway. When opened the door lead to a comfortable living room with a grey three-seat couch along with a purple armchair in the corner. There was a TV mounted on the wall probably about 65in, the biggest TV Ichigo had ever seen. When he asked what it was for Hogyoku told him they used it for all sorts of things planning and entertainment to name a couple. After they got done in the living room she brought him to the kitchen one could find anything they wanted to cook a meal within there pots pans ovens silverware utensils even more uncommon things like a spit an industrial-sized deep fryer infinite capacity fridge and way more. After being amazed by the kitchen and grabbing a glass of water to lubricate his dry throat they made their way outside to see Hogyoku's garden.

When she said garden that's what Ichigo was expecting to see a part of the backyard with flowers and a couple of other plants growing inside it, not for Hogyoku to bring him into the forest and show him every part of it. It turned out sense Hogyoku created and maintained the entire planet she considered the whole planet her garden but even more specifically the forest that surrounded their house was considered the main part of it.

"I call it Nemurerumori." "A sleeping forest what's with that name" Ichigo questioned raising his eyebrow. ''You were asleep in the forest I made the forest because of you. So the sleeping forest." Hogyolu answered in a matter-of-fact tone. "Make's sense… I guess." "Well, now that I'm awake are you gonna change the name?" "Hmmmmm maybe" During the entire conversation they were making their way down a path that lead deeper and deeper into the forest. There were beautiful flowers of all colors surrounding them purple, yellow, pink, white, red, and even black. The dense trees above them blocked out most of the sunlight and made him wonder how such beautiful flowers could grow with this little light. "I can tell what your wondering. Like I told you I take care of the whole planet like it's my own but this forset is my personal garden I manage every plant and animal to make sure they coexist and stay healthy." "All of em that sounds like a lot of work." "It was at first but now unless there is some sort of unpredictable variable like a mutated disease or an overeating predator everything balance's itself out quite well." They kept on walking making small talk about things such as the cute animals of the forest or how annoying it was to stop the little arguments H and Zangetsu were constantly getting into. After a while, they both grew silent simply following the path towards wherever Hogyoku was leading them.

When Ichigo and Hogyoku reached the end of the path he was surprised. At the end of the path, there was a somewhat familiar sight the grave's from his inner world, or at least graves that looked very similar but instead of the dark rotting wasteland, there was a beautiful forest with the same flowers that had been on the path they took to get here. Where the egg was located back in his inner world there was statue of a mighty dragon roaring into the sky, the vines that once grew from the egg and covered the gave's were gone allowing him to see the name's engraved on them. The deeper he walked into the graveyard the more familiar the name's got at the edge there were names he barely remembered classmates he barely remembered a random friend he made when he was young that he never talked to again people he wasn't partially close with but the closer he got to the dragon the more familiar the names became people he knew pretty well but wasn't extremely close with, like his friends. Ikkaku Yamikica Kenpachi Yammomoto and Unahona to name a few. But what truly made his heart hurt was the graves surrounding the dragon statue these graves had intricate flower designs on them and had been handled with much more care than the previous ones. Ichigo read some of the names aloud "Yuzu Karin Renji Rukia mom dad Orihime chad Tatsuki… Uryu." Ichigo fell to his knees staring blankly at the graves. "I figured our inner world being there only grave's wasn't for the best so even if there's was no bodies to bury I built this place as a sign of respect and affection to those we've lost." Hogyku's eye's widened faster than she could react Ichigo tightly embraced her soft sobs audible in her left ear. "Thank you so much that disgusting place in my mind was no place for them to rest in peace. This place suit's them much better." She knew he was gonna be grateful but she didn't expect the pure gratitude and happiness she felt from him at this moment. She patted his back softly "It's the least that they deserved."

After she left his embrace he went to the graves with his family and closest friends name's on them sat on his knees and prayed Ichigo knew that there was no such thing as a god to hear his prayers or his family's soul left to hear him but he still prayed out of respect and because from a young age he was taught preying for the dead was the biggest show of love you could show them. After a little more praying and thanking Hogyoku they began the walk back to the house. The path was still as beautiful as before even with the setting sun darkening it even more. During the walk back Hogyku offhandedly mentioned that the others were definitely back by now and were probably waiting for them. Ichigo picked her small body up by the hip throwing her over his shoulder much like he did Rukia back in the day. "W-what are you doing." She stuttered out at him. "You said the other are back. I've been asleep for three year's I'm sure they missed me just as much as you so I'm speeding this up a bit." "That doesn't matter I'm not slow you know I can move just as fast as you." Their surrounding blurred as they arrived in front of the house in a matter of a second. "We're here." He said setting her down on her feet gently. "I told you I didn't need you to pick me up I could have got here on my OWN." She yelled at him her cheeks flushed pink. "Your kinda red do you have a fever are you sick can a zanpakuto get sick?" He asked placing his hand on her forehead she violently jerked back swatting at his hand "I'm fine to leave me ALONE." (Hogyoku more like tsundereku) She stomped into the house slamming the door behind her leaving him standing outside staring at the door in bewilderment.

1. If you see any grammar errors tell me and I'll fix them. Also words keep disappearing and stuff that was in bold keeps un-bolding so if you see that pls tell me. I have spell checked this fucker 8 times I finally got it to actually save my shit but I'm sick and tired at this point so this will not be as good as the first time I went through and edited everything but it will have to do till I'm in the mood to go and edit it again

2. I didn't want to end it here at 5.5k words I wanted to go to 6k but it just felt like the right time so yeah.

3. I realize most of the things in this chapter weren't described that well and for that I have a simple response I want the reader to imagine this stuff how they want my words are merely a guide to give you some sort of idea.

4. I have a little contest whoever wins gets to add or change something about the story of course I have the right to veto if I want but the winner will 100% be able to change something. Ok, basically the contest is to either leave a review or PM me about what you think the different layers of Ichigo's inner world represent if you manage to be spot on or close enough for all of them you win as simple as that.

5. I would like some help figuring out how getting a beta reader works for crossovers if anyone knows and care's enough pls help me T-T

6. Hope you enjoyed. Review and tell me what I did good and what I did bad on what I can improve on and what I'm already good at bye.