Word count: 1,136
Spoilers for chapters 201, 202
He likes to think that he spent the past years sleeping peacefully, taking refuge in one of the empty buildings. Only it was rather unlikely: he remembers dreaming of rain, shifting in annoyance to try and shut the cold out. And it rained more often than he would have liked.
Then one day, he woke up to a cold hand on his shoulder, and obeying some wordless command he came alive, facing down the monster he was ordered to fight. The power came naturally, and he instinctively knew words, like strength, spirit, Hollow, shinigami.
His own name.
All throughout, the cold hand never left his shoulder, and even aided him in his fight. He did not ask, neither did he have time to look back in the ferocity of the battle.
Only when the Hollow was slain and he was back in his world of slanted buildings did he turn to face the strange presence.
The pale girl looked back, his dark glasses reflecting in her wide eyes. "Oh. Oh."
His name is Zangetsu. He is young, like the human who wields him. He is dressed all in black, and lives in a tilted world of skyscrapers and erratic weather. He has never known any other place. He is never sealed, and when he fights alongside the boy, power thrums through him, more than enough to spare.
Her name is Shirayuki. She is old, like the shinigami who wielded her. She is robed all in white, and lived in a world that does not have any skyscrapers. She is living in a world that is not hers. She cannot be drawn, and is completely cut off from the girl she shared her powers with.
They fight for someone who does not know their name.
Shirayuki does not laugh often, but when she does, she laughs long and cheerily. Her laughter is like bells cutting through heavy winter air.
"So, there is no reason why the buildings are so tall."
They were sitting on the side of a building, enjoying a particularly good stretch of weather. The relative modernity of Ichigo's world had baffled her, although she seemed unfazed by the rewritten rules of gravity. She bent down and peered through the window she was sitting on, long black hair brushing the tinted glass as she scruntised the memory residing within. Whatever was inside seemed to pass her inspection, and she straightened and looked at the clear sky.
He followed her gaze, watching the world both familiar and unfamiliar pass him by. He had been vaguely aware of his surroundings when he was sleeping, but there was quite a difference between feeling and seeing. "It reflects the world he lives in."
Her chin tilted upwards, a clear sign of disapproval, and he knew he was skating on the edge of what she considered acceptable conversation. She favoured silence over all else, and questions about the world she came from were generally unwelcome, inviting disdain if they were asked. His fingers tapped out a lazy rhythm on his knee as he continued talking about his world. "The many rooms also make memories easier to hide."
Her grey eyes darted towards the building that was always surrounded with dismal clouds, and her expression grew nostalgic. "That is rather common, isn't it? I had to avoid those hidden memories in my walks through the trees."
This sudden burst of honesty from the spirit who carefully evaded most questions took him by surprise. Her laughter rang out again at his stunned expression.
Zangetsu does not mind being laughed at.
Zangetsu hates the rain.
It had not rained for the longest time, but today the clouds spewed forth from the dismal building and engulfed the entire landscape. Some distant, painful memory had been evoked by the opponent Ichigo was facing, and his fury and pain was evident in the way he fought. But even the raw emotions were unable to help.
Shirayuki stated it simply: "We are not strong enough."
She was looking up at the sky now, face tilted to the pouring rain, despite the way it splattered uncomfortably against her face, ran in rivulets down her pale skin. Zangetsu himself was fine, but from the way his world ripped and shivered at the seams he knew Ichigo was not. The entire world still thrummed with anger; he could feel it resonate in his bones.
And then another familiar presence crept into their world, and Zangetsu watched as wistfulness filled the other's face. The girl (Rukia, he remembered Shirayuki telling him) was healing Ichigo again, and Shirayuki grasped at the tentative spiritual pressure, reminders of the world she came from. But the faint tendrils were not sufficient to draw the sword back, and she settled back with regret.
"You'll go back eventually," he said, as a form of comfort. She smiled at him, and stepped towards him as her hand drew an icy cover in mid-air to protect the both of them from the rain.
Very few things surprise Shirayuki, and Zangetsu is proud of being one of them.
"A Menos Grande Zeros! Really," she said, looking at Zangetsu in astonishment and exasperation. "Forgive me for saying this, but the boy can be incredibly rash." She does not mention her worry.
"Not believing there are limits can be a strength."
Shirayuki graced his opinion with a hum of agreement. "You should be fine, after my return."
He did not reply. The cold wind that whipped the edge of her robes into disarray said far more than he could.
Zangetsu has been broken a few times since, but he still regards the first time his blade shattered as the worst.
For one, the pain was unexpected, intense, like lightning bolts of agony shooting across the entirety of his being. Unconciousness threatened to fold in again as Senbonzakura cut away the power that had awoken him with surgical precision. He gritted his teeth, and hung on, even as parts of his world peeled away in shreds and were buffeted away by the flowing wind.
For another, somewhere else, Shirayuki closed her eyes, and faded away with a sigh.
Ichigo is training to get back his power, and it is only a matter of time before Zangetsu is fully awoken. He's willing to wait; a few days is nothing compared to 15 years of slumber.
Zangetsu notices the flash of white out of the corner of his eye, and briefly his mind flits back to Shirayuki, but the aura is all wrong. He should know; traces of Shirayuki's aura still linger in this world, faint imprints of the places she's been.
He turns around, faces the newcomer squarely. Black eyes with a core of yellow meet his challengingly, and maintains eye contact through the deep bow.
"Hello, Ossan," says the Hollow version of Ichigo.
The End
A/N:
Idea that Shirayuki was absorbed into Ichigo's world taken from himawari1.
I wanted to describe Rukia's inner world, but Shirayuki said no. (
Finally, Zeros is apparently the name of the Menos Grande attack when it shoots a powerful ray out of its mouth, according to the English scanlations. Ichigo deflected this ray with Zangetsu in chapter 49 of book 6.