Uh, yeah. Warning: character death, gomen.

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Chapter 12

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Renji and Shuuhei had left through the hole Ichigo had blasted into the Seireitei wall a few hours earlier. Fortunately, the hole was going to be fixed reasonably fast, since it wasn't that big to begin with. However, there were now guards posted on both sides of the hole, as to keep unwanted wandering ryoka into the Seireitei.

The only good thing going for the two vice-captains, was the fact that their target had made it easy for them to find him. He had ravaged through multiple cities in the lower numbered Rokongai districts, and was steadily making his way into the more dangerous regions. Each village they went through, they found few survivors, and dozens of bloody corpses ripped apart. The hollow was having a feast on the large number of souls, and no doubt getting stronger with each one consumed.

After passing through region 47, and into 48 did Renji and Shuuhei start sensing the largely hidden reiatsu that reeked of hollow, with a bit of Ichigo's entangled in there.

"Yes, we're finally catching up to that idiot." said Renji, who was getting tired. Who wouldn't, after running at full speed through 47 districts?

"Renji, don't get too cocky. He isn't the way you are used to fighting, this time he might willfully kill you, to add to his power and relax his missing heart." warned the 9th division vice-captain.

"Yeah, I know that. This isn't the first time I've fought a hollow."

"Yes, but how many hollows have been your friends before?"

"I get it. 'Don't let old relations get in the way of fighting'."

"Right. Now let's hurry, it's getting harder to sense his reiatsu, which means he is still moving."

Another couple of hours passed, and the hollow's reiatsu was getting extremely hard to tolerate. Eating dozens of souls an hour had done wonders for the increasing of Ichigo's reiatsu.

"Dammit, how stronger has he gotten!" mumbled the red-haired vice-captain.

"I don't know. A while ago, I sent a message to Seireitei, telling them of the level of carnage. Hopefully they're doing something about it."

"That's good to hear. Now we'll know the total number of souls we lost." Renji replied sarcastically.

Shuuhei ignored his companion's retort, and continued to flash step to the next village. This time, they caught up with him. They were now in the 54th district, and the hollow was found ripping a young looking child to pieces. The girl wasn't moving or making any noises, which indicated she was probably dead. Actually, most of the village had be obliterated. Renji and Shuuhei could still sense a few spirits hiding from Ichigo, but no other signs of life.

Ichigo threw the girl against the building, resulting in a crash, and a hole in the wall. If it was possible, a sneer became visible on the mask that covered the young shinigami's face. Both vice-captains took out their zanpakutos, and readied themselves. The hollow was making its way over to them slowly, and then vanished, reappearing behind the two. Raising a large clawed hand, it slashed at Shuuhei and Renji, who just barely dodged the attack.

"Tch, missed." whispered the hollow.

Renji's eyes widen. He could hear Ichigo's tone in the eerie voice before him. Still lost in these thoughts of surprise, Ichigo took the initiative and started gathering reiatsu in his right index and middle finger, aiming it at the dazed 6th division vice-captain. Luck seemed to be with him though, because Shuuhei had cut off Ichigo's right arm, and jumped back near Renji.

"Idiot! Don't get unfocused! Forget he was your friend once! That thinking will get you killed!"

"Uh, right."

Both of them ran at the hollow, who just as they were about to land their attacks, vanished again. He landed on the roof of a nearby house.

"My, my..." said the hollow, tail moving back and forth behind him, like a cat. "So many souls in one day, and now two shinigami have come for me to eat."

"Ichigo, bastard! How many souls have you shoved down your fucking throat!" yelled Renji, irritated at the hollow's smugness.

"How many?" it repeated curiously. "I don't know. I lost count after 50, well, more like I didn't bother keeping track anymore. However, you don't seem too pleased with it. Want to join them, shinigami?"

Renji twitched with rage, the Ichigo he once knew would never harm anyone unless they deserved it. Now he was killing left and right, just for the fun of it.

"Howl, Zabimaru!" he cried, and jumped at the hollow.

Unfortunately, Ichigo had raised his tail, and wrapped it around the extending blade. The action caused both Renji and Shuuhei to look completely shocked. However, Shuuhei had snapped out of it first, and flash stepped behind the hollow, cutting off his tail. He hadn't noticed that Ichigo's arm had grown back, getting him a good swipe to the face. Four long cuts ran across the 9th division vice-captain's face, running through his first set of scars at an acute angle and over his unscarred eye.

"Now, now. No need ta be hasty ta die. But if you're tha' determined..." the hollow trailed off, dropped Zabimaru, and darted toward Shuuhei. Before he had time to react, he figured out that most of his right shoulder was in the hollow's mouth, getting dissolved rather quickly.

"Dammit!" the black-haired captain shouted as he swung his zanpakuto into Ichigo's head. The good thing about his action was Ichigo let go, the bad part was that Ichigo had ripped most of his shoulder off in the process of getting away.

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Kuroji immediately halted his sexual assault on the almost naked shinigami under him. He shot his hand up to his face, which had started to bleed. The strike that had hit his mask appeared on his face as well. However, he also noticed that Ichigo had a similar cut across his face. Leaning over his bleeding counterpart's check, he started licking the blood away, while running his hand down into Ichigo's loose pants.

"Heheh, they think tha' somethin' like tha' is gonna stop me?" he mumbled to himself.

"Dammit Kuroji. Stop!" Ichigo yelled. The cut to his face had gotten the clothe loose enough for his to be able to speak coherently.

The hollow glared at the shinigami, and scowled. He leaned his head on the orange-haired boy's forehead, eyes about 3 centimeters from another.

"Ya know, ya ain't in a position ta be tellin' me wha' ta do." he said lightly, as he groped Ichigo's upper thigh.

All Ichigo did was groan, as his hollow added more pressure to his forehead, so that their noses were now touching. The hollow smirked, and kissed the shinigami. It was full of lust, and force, but Ichigo slowly responded to it. He felt his body betraying his mind, and was acting on its own.

When the kiss was broken a minute later, Ichigo's eyes were clouded, and were getting darker. His body was giving itself to Kuroji without the fight his mind wanted.

"King, you're losin' yourself. I think I like it."

"Unnnh..."

Kuroji laughed at the response he got. Moving his hand farther up Ichigo's thigh to his crotch, and clutched it in his hand. He got another groan from Ichigo, and some movement, but no angry speech for him 'violating' his prey. The hollow squeezed the reproductive organ, causing Ichigo to gasp. While his mouth was still open, he kissed him again, shoving his tongue into the boy's mouth. During the kiss, he started to pull off Ichigo's pants, and he didn't try to stop him.

Using his feet, he kicked off Ichigo's pants from the rest of his legs, while removing his own clothes in the process. Ichigo just lied there, not moving, dazed.

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Both Shuuhei and the hollow screamed in pain. Shuuhei grabbing his shoulder, the hollow covering his face. Soon after the separation, part of the white and red mask shattered, the upper half that held no white on it was now in shards on the ground. The hollow glared daggers at the black-haired shinigami, its now visible eye showed nothing but blind rage. Renji stood there, staring into Ichigo's black and yellow eye which darted between him and his companion.

Slowly removing his hand from his face, the hollow turned on Renji, and charged. Taken by some surprise, Renji was able to stop Ichigo's claw with Zabimaru. Unfortunately, he didn't stop there, his tail came lashing out at him. Renji's left hand let go of Zabimaru, and went to Ichigo's tail, which was now around his throat.

Ichigo started to lift his tail higher, causing the red-haired shinigami to be suspended in air, by his neck. Choking noises ensued closely after the first couple of seconds off the ground.

"Heheh, ya ain't as strong as ya first seemed, shinigami. I wonder if you'll really be able ta help me."

"What... are... you... talk... ing... about... ?" Renji managed to stammer through gasps for oxygen.

"You've ha' your job fer how long now...? Ya should know why I'm gonna eat ya."

Some struggling started again from Renji, which caused the hollow's tail to tighten its grip on his throat. It was getting hard to see, things began to mesh together in a thick and colorful fog. His grip on the tail was getting weaker, and Zabimaru soon met the ground as he dropped it, unable to hold it any longer.

'Jus' a little longer.' thought the hollow, 'And I'll get ta eat 'im.'

Renji's eyes started to cloud up, body started to lax, and saliva backing up and coming out of his mouth. He let out the occasion choke or breath, but each breath was harder to get. The pain starting to build in his head, from lack of oxygenated blood, kept him from realizing that he was gaining altitude, then losing it rapidly. His head hit the packed dirt of the village's road, and everything went black, and cold.

Ichigo started to laugh, proud that he had done what he just did. Renji was on the ground, still wrapped in his tail, taking breaths few and far between each other.

"Hm, he's still alive after tha'?" the hollow mused. "Has a strong will ta live."

Shuuhei looked up from tending his shoulder when he heard the loud noise of Renji's head hitting the street. His shoulder was still in bad condition, but he could move his arm now. He hoped that's all he'd need. While the hollow was muttering to itself, he flash stepped, and cut of his tail. Not even waiting for the hollow to react, he grabbed Renji, and got a fair distance from the threat. To his dismay, by the time he had put Renji out of harm's way, Ichigo's tail was back.

"Rapid regeneration...!" whispered Shuuhei, amazed that Ichigo had this ability. He knew about this ability very well, and it allowed hollows to fight for longer periods of time, without having to retreat back to Hueco Mundo to heal.

"Ya know, cutting off my tail, jus' ta get 'im was a bit desparate. Don't ya think so...?" asked the hollow, coyly.

The 9th division vice-captain glared at Ichigo with his uninjured eye.

"My, you're a very scary person."

"Shut up!"

Ichigo vanished, and reappeared behind him. Gathering reiatsu into his two fingers quickly, he fired the cero at his prey before he had time to react.

As the dust cleared, it became apparent that Shuuhei was on his knees, clutching his right shoulder. Blood running down his forehead, mouth, and right side by the ounce. He was loosing a lot of blood in a very short amount of time. However, his opponent seemed unfased toward the injuries he received earlier.

The hollow exploited the weakend state of his opponent, and got ready for firing another cero. He knew that the black-haired shinigami couldn't take another blast, and with that, he fired. Shuuhei was hit square in the chest with the condensed reiatsu, and went flying backwards dozens of yards away from the hollow, and Renji.

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It took Ichigo a few seconds to fully absorb what Kuroji had done. When it finally hit him, his eyes widened at the site of the naked hollow infront of him, or ontop if him. A larger blush overtook the one that was already present, and he started to struggling again.

"Calm down, King. Ya ain't gonna make my life or yours easier if you're all tense like tha'."

"Shu... shut up!"

Kuroji ran his hand along Ichigo's thigh, sending shiver throughout Ichigo's body. He lied completely on top of the orange-haired boy, kissing Ichigo's neck, check, ear, forehead.

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Renji looked around at the carnage he was lying in, remembering what had happened minutes earlier. He tried to get up, but once he got to his knees, his body collapsed.

"Shit."

"Wha's wrong, shinigami? Can't move?" asked the hollow sitting near him, watching him intently.

All Renji responded with was a glare of anger, hatred, and a small bit of betrayal. Ichigo's visible eye showed glee when the glare was pointed at him.

"Don't worry shinigami, you won' be feelin' pain for much longer anyway."

"Wha...?"

The hollow got up from his sitting position, where Shuuhei was tied up in bloody clothe that probably belonged to a ryoka. Renji noticed his companion's presence when Ichigo moved.

"Shuuhei!"

"Don' worry, shinigami. He ain't dead yet, he goes after you."

Renji's eyes widen, as the hollow slowly walked toward him, and crotched near him. A clawed fist slammed into his ribcage, causing a reaction that made Renji sit up in pain for a second, before falling to the ground again. That one second was all Ichigo needed, and his partially masked face was in Renji's arm, the saliva quickly dissolved his left arm. Screaming in pain, as he felt the hollow advance up to his shoulder, and farther.

Shuuhei had finally started to gain some consciousness as he looked around for the hollow and Renji. All of the sleep that was remaining in his body was gone in a flash, when he saw over half of Renji already consumed. The red-haired vice-captain was unconscious, and twitching in pain. He tried to get up, but getting hit by two ceros, other assaults, and being tied up didn't allow him to get up. His body stiff, all he could do was scream at the hollow as it consumed Renji.

"Renji!"

The hollow lifted his head, with Renji's remaining body in his mouth, dangling and swaying from the movement. Its eye showed the hidden smirk behind the mask, as it continued to slowly swallow Renji.

After another few minutes of watching the site of a hollow savour the taste of his partner, only part of Renji's right arm remained visible in Ichigo's mouth.

"Fuck..."

Jerking his head to where the new voice came from, Shuuhei smiled weakly, and Ichigo looked irritated at being disturbed.

"Hitsugaya taicho!"

"Hisagi, it that Abarai?"

Shuuhei looked over at the hollow, who just finished swallowing Renji's hand. He looked down, disappointment filling into his face.

"Hai..."

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Don't hurt me!

-hide behind something solid and sturdy-

I'm sorry I killed off Renji, but he made a bigger impact on Ichigo's life, so he had to. I hope this doesn't run off any Renji fans, cause I'm one too. Please don't take this chapter the wrong way in thinking I hate Renji, his death won't be in vain, promise. It plays a significant role in a future chapter.

Read and review, please; and don't abandon Hyou because of the chapter.