Reset then Restart
"Shiro-Zangetsu/Hollowfication"
"Zangetsu-Ossan"
"Other Zanpakuto"
"Mind communication."
"Hollows"
"Tensa Zangetsu"
Neroscurse- Thank you! I hope you continue to enjoy it.
Jacquiline green- Good guesses. You shall see in the future. Your actually rather accurate but I am glad to see that you can't pinpoint it 100%.
I have a new respect for those people that write really detailed fanfiction. Coming up with understandable and logical spirit science is really really hard. I do hope that I haven't just presented you with a whole load of nonsense.
Oh and I was being quite literal about that soul connection thingy with Ichigo and Rukia.
Chapter 19, Promise and change,
Rukia,
Sitting by the window of the Senzaikyu was one soon to be executed Kuchiki Rukia. Or so everyone thought. The small shinigami looking down towards the streets of the Seireitei knew far more than anyone else. The sun was being it's usual awfully bright but it had finally moved out of the windows way allowing her to see out.
There she sat thinking about what these 'visions' were and what they were about. They made her feel, confused. Yes that was how she would describe this feeling. It was as if she had been overlapped by another Rukia and now both were trying to exist at the same time.
Rukia could remember dying but she was clearly alive, well as alive as you could get as a soul. Perhaps she should be hiding or practicing with her bankai but she didn't have bankai so why? Sitting still made her feel as if time was being wasted. Attacks and training and defense but her she was. Rukia was restless.
Cursing her lack of a bed she stretched looking at her own body. There were changes. Things that shouldn't have been there.
Her body was scarred in ways she couldn't remember the cause of and pains went down her left arm as if it had been injured. Once she was getting changed into the fresh clothes she had been brought only to realize that she had been getting dressed only using her right even though it was so much harder.
She wanted these things to go away. The confusion and feeling she didn't understand. Faces she was sure she had never seen before or her brothers dead body.
"But we must become one. I once made myself a promise to save him but I never got the chance, he's falling apart."Spoke a voice, gentle and quiet but much like her own. Any voices were odd considering that she couldn't communicate with Sode no Shirayuki but this voice was nothing like hers. Perhaps she was finally going mad with the isolation, after all there should be no voices in her head other than her zanpakuto.
But nevertheless she answered it back. "You made a promise, to who?"
"I made it to myself. But it is for Ichigo. He may seem fine but he acts under the watchful eyes of those around him, especially the soul king and Kisuke."
Right. It was obviously someone who knew about his past, but who? "Who are you? You know Ichigo's past well."
"I am Kuchiki Rukia. Captain of squad thirteen when we had a squad thirteen." She had to be her future self though it was strange to put her name along side the word captain. It was odd that this was happening to her. Would it happen to anyone else or just Rukia? What had caused this to happen in the first place?
"What did you say earlier about becoming one?"
"Like I said. Though this is only possible because we are linked to Ichigo. Feel your own soul and look for him, not even this sekkiseki stone shall block you. Or that pathetic seal around your neck. They believe they are dealing with a mere unseated officer but once we have combined fully we will become captain class. For now I shall guide you. First think about the collar around your neck, if you wanted you could break it."
She could break it? Then she should. But for some reason the way future Rukia had stated it seemed that it was far less simple than that.
"You must not think about just taking it off. What would happen if it was taken of?"
If she was to take it of the guards would know when they came to take her to her execution that she still had to go to. She had once read a book for the omnitsukido out of curiosity once. What was it? Something to do with destroying seals from the inside out in case of capture. When the right time came they completed the process giving them the upper hand.
"One thing future me."
"Hm?"
"If this goes correctly which it will then why do I need to break it in the first place?"
"Aizen."
"Isn't Ichigo going to deal with him?" He was far stronger than anyone she had ever met other than Akira-sama.
"Are you going to leave him alone? After all he has suffered? Do you think that will end well? Fifteen years Rukia. He had the worst of it all. You should understand why this is bad."
Anger. It fuels hollows. And what was Ichigo? His anger, which was perfectly justifiable, was amplified and in his anger he was so awfully alone. That was a danger.
"Correct. And what would happen if he put them in danger. If he hurt someone. What if he killed them?"
"Ichigo would break beyond repair. His friends try but they can not fix what they do not truly understand."
"So on the hill we will fight beside him. Last time I let him save us but this time we do not need saving. He does."
But for that Aizen must die. First to weaken this seal.
Moving from the veiw of the window she leaned against the wall beside it making herself comfortable but continuing to look miserable considering someone was probably watching her. Looking into the seal she could realize what her future self had meant. All it did was keep her reiatsu within her body and prevent her from focusing enough to enter her inner world, causing dizzy spells whenever she tried. But it did not stop her from focusing on the seals components.
One thing she noticed during her thoughts was how much her own reiatsu had increased. Captain level my ass this was just a little bit higher. Sarcasm most certainly there. How much had the bar for captain level increased?
"A lot. By the time I died it was not rare for there to be lieutenants or even seated officers with bankai or at least close to it."
"Wow, talking about bankai what about Sode no Shirayuki?"
"The Sode no Shirayuki I once had is no longer within my possession so I will have to convince yours that we can have bankai once we become one."
"No longer in your possession?"
"You will understand once you rember but lets carry on, get this seal of its making your inner world all stuffy with reiatsu."
Mumbling to herself about 'annoying future selfs' and about how 'zangetsu made me cryptic' she looked back into the seal. Just pushing her reiatsu into it would cause it to explode so she couldn't do that, so she carefully pushed in just a little bit.
Click
"There I done it!"
"Well done. Now to contact Ichigo."
"Contact Ichigo?"
"I will not tell you how you must figure it out yourself. Look at you own soul."
Well then. Try to contact someone else by looking at your own soul. Perhaps she had gone insane like she had previously believed?
But why would she tell me to look at my own soul? There had to be a good reason...
-X-
Shin'o academy,
At the front of the class stood one of the kido teachers, Kohana-sensei. Her name was rather fitting with her short stature and lavender coloured hair that sat above her shoulders and was rather fluffy. She was one of the academy's kinder teachers though that did not mean that she should be messed with. Kohana was just more approachable than other teachers.
It was early in the year which was why she was talking about reiatsu sensing instead of actually learning about kido."Even those who are bad at reiatsu sensing will be able to trace people that they spend time around more often easier than others. But do not get me wrong this does not mean that you should slack of on training your reiatsu senses."
As we were all new students she was rather surprised when one young boy raised his hand for a question.
"Yes?"
"What causes there reiatsu signatures to become easier to track? Is it just that you are used to it or is there some other reason?"
"Thank you for asking, this is actually not asked very often causing this small hole in a shinigami's education. You see unless we are consciously suppressing it we are always releasing our reiatsu out into our surroundings these will latch onto the people around you, the same will happen to you. The more another persons reiatsu is attached to you the easier you will find it to sense these people. The edges of your soul energy wise are actually rather jagged from where pieces of this energy has fragmented of. It has never been proven but there is some suspicion that really good friends that have been around each other for a long period of time like Ukitake-taicho and Kyoraku-taicho form bridges between their souls allowing for them to borrow power from the other if really necessary. But like I said this has never been proven. Now! The next thing to do is reiatsu control! Create a ball of reiatsu above you palm."
-X-
Urahara Shoten,
"Ichigo?" Why she was on first name terms with him was beyond her. For some reason Rukia had almost instantly felt comfortable in his presence.
"Yes Rukia?" They had both sat themselves on opposite sides of the table and no one else was in the room. Multiple times now he had said things accidentally which she did not understand. It seems like they had quite a large amount jokes between them. She knew that he hated pity but that was all she could feel.
What must it be like to be surrounded by friends and know so much about them but they knew nothing about you. Looking like people you had fought beside only for them to not be the same as you remembered.
"I know how to give someone my powers as you obviously know but how does that actually work? It's not like I could just go and ask someone in the Seireitei."
"You create a pathway between the receivers soul and push your zanpakuto into their soul. It was probably because you was unaware of this that caused your confusion as to why I took all of your powers. It's just not possible to do it halfway."
-X-
A pathway?
Instead of focusing her attention to the core of her soul she moved it outwards to the edges, here her normal 'cold' feeling was reduced to more of a cool breeze type of feeling. Mentally touching these edges she could feel a gentle pulse coming from somewhere.
Slowly following the pulse she found it increasing until she found a part of her soul that just shot off into another direction.
"What in the name of chappy is my soul doing?"
"Keep going."
"Ah right cryptic."
Doing as she was told she followed it only to open her surprise and realize her arm was held out in front of her parallel to the ground. Within her hand was a multicoloured spirit ribbon.
"That's... new."
"What is?"
"The specks of gold."
She was right looking closer Rukia could see one or two threads going through the ribbon that were coloured gold.
"Whats gold for?"
"Dunno."
Looking at things other than the gold she registered to her that this was Ichigo's spirit ribbon and that beneath her the floor had been filled with a solid red ribbon originating from her chest. Ichigo's ribbon went through the wall on one end, the other end went down into the particularly deep pool of red. It went above the doorway!
"I'm tempted."
"Go ahead you will be perfectly safe."
So she jumped down into the pile and found it rather soft.
"This is all mine?"
"Yes, spirit ribbons always have a minimum length. This will depend on the individuals reiryoku. Yours is large which is the explanation for all of this."
"Have I got to follow Ichigo's down into this pile?"
"Yup!"
And so she did and when she found the end of it she found that it was connected to her own. At the point where the two ribbons met ice ran at least a meter over the ribbons both ways and it was also thick making the colours almost impossible to see. Underneath the ice the were also glowing threads running between them which was probably Ichigo's power keeping it together. The ice would have been her own.
"So do I just mentally follow this and speak?"
"What do you think you should do?"
Returning back to her mental touching she tried to speak down the line.
"Oi strawberry idiot!"
"FUCK RUKIA! You just made me jump a mile into the air! Be glad no one saw that! How did you figure out you can do this it took the other you years?"
"I got bored. I'm not stressed about being executed so i'm pretty bored in this tower."
"So your going to talk my ear off?"
"Exactly!"
"Hey Rukia! I can talk to ya to!"
"Hello Rukia."
"RUKIA YOU BETTER NOT BE AS DEPRESSED IN THAT TOWER AS YOU WAS LAST TIME! DON'T MAKE OTHER ME SUFFER WITH THOSE GOD DAMN SNOWSTORMS!"
"Sode no Shirayuki...?"
"Who else has my wonderful voice?"
"Dear god your even more unbearable!"
"Ossan 'as been complimentin' 'er again!"
"Wait Zangetsu does what?" Why would Ichigo's zanpakuto be complimenting hers? Why was she even in his soul? IT MADE NO SENSE!
"Zangetsu-Ossan likes her!"
"Definitely!"
"SHIRO! ICHIGO! Stop being childish!"
"Your all childish your his soul after all."
"Hey! Oh gotta go!"
With that the line cut off but it made her feel better with just how easily she could talk to him. Walking back up the steps to her window she made the ribbons disappear leaving no trace of what she had done.
He wasn't looking forward to going to see these people but Ichigo insisted on him coming with him and he would do anything for Ichigo. Heading through the seireitei under one of Kisukes many concealment cloaks the two ran forwards to their destination.
It had been a hundred years after all and he was still under an execution order as far as they knew.
Kyoraku,
Finally, eventually, he managed to get Juushiro and Retsu in one place with no one able to listen in to them. They had gone out to the thirteenth squad office that also doubled as a small home that sat in the middle of the lake. Juushiro who was the best kido user out of the three of them had just finished putting up the barrier.
As one walked in from the door you would be faced with the low table, directly in front of you would be Retsu with Kyoraku to the left and Juushiro's space to the right.
"So what did you want to talk with us two about Kyoraku?"
"It's about Kuchiki's execution... and those ryoka I caught." Though rather than caught it was more like he had come across them and they had just accepted that it was not a fight that they could win.
"I'd rather her not b executed. I was in the process of convincing Kuchiki-taicho to let me make her my lieutenant. She certainly has the strength and skill for it. I'm getting far to backed up with paperwork."
"Lieutenant? Here I thought that young Kuchiki wasn't even seated level." Retsu had not been at one of there little meet ups for a while now, not having the time for it, so her confusion was unsurprising. So he kindly cleared that up for her.
"Byakuya's protective over her."
"Kuchiki's can never be straight forward can they? I saw Rukia training once and was struggling with her zanjutsu. She just couldn't ask anyone for help until some poor officer took pity on her and just went over and said he was helping her no refusing it." Pausing in what he was saying Juushiro gave us both tea and nabbed the bottle I had in my hand. Sending me a glare Juushiro then reprimanded me."Shunsui! Really do you have to be drunk? You still need to tell us about those prisoners!"
"Juu you don't let me have any fun! Anyways they just let me lock them up but while we were talking they mentioned some names."
"And what would these names be Kyoraku?"
As usual Retsu was straight into business, no waiting with her around."Yadamaru Lisa and Hirako Shinji. Before you try and give some sort of explanation to it don't forget that these are living people. The last I heard any of those names was a hundred years ago."
"Awfully long since ya three have heard my name yes?"
All three of them swung their heads towards the door. There stood one Hirako Shinji in what had to be living world attire. On his head sat one hollow mask. Which he only now noticed he had been gaping at.
"Close ya mouth before a fly goes in there. Been a while hasn't it. Sadly we're here on business."
"Hirako-san you said we're, who else is with you."
Looking rather awkward in our presence (which was understandable we were meant to kill him on sight) Shinji continued and stuck his hands in the air as a sort of 'please be civil' way."Look i'm gonna take a wild guess here and say that you have him on a kill on sight order at the moment so if I could just kindly ask for ya to listen to him for a little before trying to slice him up that would be nice."
"Sure we'll listen. I'll make some more tea for you two."
When he said that Shinji wandered of to presumably go get his friend from wherever he was hiding. "And this is Kurosaki Ichigo." At the name they looked to where this supposed terror stood only to be pained at the expression held in those eyes.
Instead of finding pain or sadness though he could only find emptiness, the boys face was void of any emotion though he seemed to be scowling though it was hard to tell from under that fringe. He was staring blankly straight at Juushiro. His fringe went down to almost the end of his nose and was only parted to allow his left eye to see.
So focused on the boys eyes he never even picked up on when Retsu got up and grabbed the boy by his shoulders.
"Hey Retsu I don't think..."
"Kurosaki-san if you want to talk to us your going to have to start by breathing first. I don't know whats happened but please listen to me." Some sort of awareness seemed to sluggishly come back only for him to breath in what could only be described as a pained wheeze.
"Ichigo, fuck I should have thought this would have happened eventually." Shinji then proceeded to continue with a long string of very colourful vocabulary.
"But their alive Shinji." Well wasn't that confusing. The kid seemed shocked that they were alive which was odd.
Unohana seemed to have had enough because she began using her ordering people voice."Hirako-san, explain. Now."
He stood there and thought for a few seconds probably weighing the positives and negatives of telling us anything then gave a look of fuck it and just told us anyways."Time travel. He knows you and to him you've died already."
"Oh, may I ask why your looking at me then Kurosaki?" The implications of him being so focused on Juushiro was most certainly not pleasant. He could think about the possibilities of time travel actually being possible later.
Then Shinji seemed to notice something they hadn't because he started to panic."Oi is this barrier a sound proofing one?"
Juushiro confirmed that it was stating that he was the one to put it up. Only for Shinji to nod in acceptance though he did quickly examine the barrier shortly. Slamming the door shut Shinji stepped forwards and grabbed Kurosaki under the arms and the boy just collapsed and started screaming and crying along with particularly violent shaking.
"Your dead. Your dead he killed you. Oh dear god he... he... YOUR DEAD I WATCHED HIM KILL YOU!"
The room had been shocked into silence other than Kurosaki's ragged breathing and crying.
"Who... killed me?"
"AIZEN SOUSUKE!" He spat his voice twisted in hate only to begin yelling, "LIKE EVERYONE I CARED ABOUT! I HATE HIM HATEHIMHATEHIMI'MGONNAKILLHIM!" The emotionless mask that had been on his face before had completely disappeared only to be replaced with pure pain and Shunsui honestly couldn't tell what he found worse.
"Ichigo! Hey Ichigo answer me!"
To Kurosaki's left rippling appeared in the air then all of a sudden there was a completely white version of the boy stood there who immediately pulled Kurosaki against him and held his arms around his shoulders tightly. Kurosaki reacted back by holding onto him with a death grip which was obviously making it hard to breathe but the white Kurosaki didn't seem to care.
"Shhh. Don' think abou' i' king. Aizen ain' gonna do nothin' ta Juushiro this time 'cause we're gonna stop 'im."
Gently the white version of Ichigo lowered them both to the floor and ran his finger though his hair making Kurosaki's violent shaking slow down.
"Shiro what ta hell caused this. He's never reacted so badly before."
"It was to much for 'im. Unlike ya lot 'e 'as had eleven years to get used ta ya and ta 'im ya looked a little differen' then. In jus' under a week 'e's seen Rukia, the Seireitei an' Rukongai is in one peice, the Shiba's which he cried when he saw them just not this much, Ikkaku and Yumi, several captains and lieutenants runnin' abou' and now these three here. 'e can't handle this much. Added ta eleven years of suppressed everything. Not only that this case is... special."
Without knowing what to say everyone just looked at each other uncomfortably, the tea slowly going cold, only for Kurosaki to be the first person to do anything. "Juu." Kurosaki had his hand held out towards him and he just took it as a request to go over there and did just that albeit rather slowly as to not scare the poor boy.
Once sat next to him Kurosaki raised his outstretched hand up to his face and just seemed to feel it and played with his hair.
"Ichi-nii don't be sad!" Two young children had appeared and seemed to be desperately trying to comfort him.
"Sogyo no Kotowari! Why are you out here?" Well it seems that even Juushiro's zanpakuto wanted to help him.
"Not Kyoka Suigetsu's creation?" He spoke weakly, voice broken.
"What do you mean by that Kyoka Suigetsu is a water type zanpkauto? Of course im Juushiro."
At this his eyes widened in realization. 'All they want to give is a warning. Hirako wanted to say that it was most certainly not a water type zanpakuto beware of the other captains' It wasn't a water type zanpakuto, though the kid looked confused as to what it was about so he wasn't aware of the situation just passing on a message. "It's not a water type zanpakuto is it Shinji."
"No Kyoka Suigetsu is an illusion type zanpakuto. Once you have seen it's shikai release once you are forever under it's illusions that can effect all five senses. The only way to dispell the illusions is to touch the blade."
"Well damn me we have all been fooled." And wasn't that the truth. With the demonstration of his shikai they had all fallen into his trap.
"Kurosaki-san. I do not wish to ask but as a healer I must. Those scars under your scarf are not from battle are they." Where Kurosaki had pushed himself towards Shiro, Hirako had called him Shiro, The black scarf had been pushed down to reveal a nasty mess of scaring on his neck. Then everyone in the room understood what she was hinting at. Torture. "Kurosaki-san."
"No. There not."
And he swore he saw several degree's of violence heat up in Juushiro's eyes that he was feeling himself because this boy who was living and if they were following events somewhat which they probably were Kurosaki had been pulled into there mess when he was young even for the living. Torture. Kurosaki had been tortured and Aizen had used his zanpakuto to create illusions and had proceeded to kill Juushiro in his view.
"Well then I think that your all busy and I must be ill from all this stress yes? You all leave and do whatver you should be and I think that i'll look after Kurosaki here for you yes?" Juushiro stated using Retsu's politeness himself.
There was no arguing with this. Juushiro wanted less of a crowd to talk to Kurosaki. All realizing this Retsu and himself parted ways with Shinji and went back to their respective squads while Shinji went to who knows where. All three of them promised to not say anything about Kurosaki and left him with Juushiro.
"This is starting to become rather... not good but certainly interesting. I most certainly want to slice up that traitor for breaking that poor boy so much."
"So we're protecting him then?"
"Why are you even asking!"
"Good. It's been a long time since I have wanted to harm someone so badly. Especially for a stranger."
"But you partly blame yourself don't you?"
"He souldn't have had to go through anything just for us."
He felt his zanpakuto shrug before they both went somewhere else. It had been odd at first when he relised that he could feel what they were doing in his head.
Unohana,
She was unsettled. The living aged far faster than the dead and she could see that the boy was young. Not even an adult to human standards. Then again how far in the future had he come from?
To see the poor boy so broken just at seeing them (Alive whats it got to be like to see the dead alive?) but only for them to not remember the first thing about him because they had never met. Seeing Kurosaki so broken was painful.
As a healer she liked to see people in good health both mentally and physically but while this invasion was going on she couldn't do anything to help him.
"You wish to help my wielder. Don't look so surprised that I guessed we had fifteen years to get to know you Retsu. Or should I say Yachiru."
In her office was, Ywatch? But with sunglasses and having not aged a day. She placed her hand around the hilt of her zanpakuto and pulled it out of her sheath slightly making her warning clear.
"How are you here?"
"Do not worry I am not who you think. My name is Zangetsu though due to there being two of us people have taken to calling me Ossan."
"Your one of the boys blades?" He nodded in return which helped her relax greatly. If she was to guess he was probably a manifestation of Kurosaki's quincy side. Showing her understanding she put her sword fully into it's sheath though she did not put it down. "And some boy knows about my little secret. How annoying."
"Smart. Do not worry. There are plans in affect and after this is all over you will have plenty of time to get onto his case or perhaps even fight him, he would accept it. Why he reacted so bad to Juushiro? Well during the war Aizen had a habit of capturing people and he made sure Ichigo suffered plenty."
War. By the sounds of it a fifteen year long war that resulted in Kurosaki time traveling to stop it.
"How long did Aizen have his hands on him?"
"A year."
"If you could stay for a while it would be helpful. I'm going to begin making a medical profile for him."
"I got your original one."
It seems that this was going to be easier than she thought if the quincy spirit had the thought to keep such things on hand. "Thank you. Now lets go through this shall we?"
It was one of the thickest medical reports she had ever seen and this was just for fifteen years. The start of it seemed to just have normal injuries other than one life threatening injury that nicked his spine. Then it gradually got worse and worse. Multiple cases of trauma (both the physical and mental kind). Many signs of PTSD as well but that could only be expected from a war veteran who had joined the war at fifteen! Fifteen! Dear god she was going to have Yamamoto's head for even permitting this! She would have him running.
Then there was... what?
"Zangetsu you wouldn't happen to have anyone elses Medical files? Say Ukitake's?"
"Yes I do... I have quite a few others on me actually." Handing over the file she quickly went to the back. Right near his death. It seems she was right. No wonder he acted so violently.
"You only said that Aizen had killed him."
"Well this is, not something we like to think about. Ichigo hadn't even remembered until he saw him."
This was going to be far harder than previously believed. She could feel a growing headache at how Kurosaki was going to keep reacting to Ukitake and how difficult this would be if Kurosaki could just not shut down even after many years since he had been in that war. Just because she could she released some annoyance within three rare words, "Well fuck me."
Juushiro,
After half an hour Kurosaki left his state of panic and would stare at the floor for ages with that blank look then suddenly jerk his head up every few minutes to check Juushiro was still there. Sogyo no Kotowari had been rather quiet and just convinced Kurosaki to join them with their drawing.
Turns out that Kurosaki was a good artist. Even with crayons.
"Juushiro! Juushiro! Look what Ichi-nii drew for us!"
A detailed drawing of Sogyo no Kotowari and himself. "Hmm yes, lets put it on the wall!"
"Yay! On the wall! Here! Here!"
"How many people gonna call ya Ichi-nii. We got enough tiny people callin' ya tha as i' is!"
"Tiny people... Ichi-nii! Ichi-nii! The hollow called us tiny people!"
"Hollow? Hey now Kurosaki."
"I ain't no harm." But he was a hollow! But... when he looked at Shiro he so easily see how gentle he was being with the small zanpakuto spirits.
"Juushiro don't worry! As zanpakuto we can tell. Your Ichi-nii's zanpakuto! Your safe! Shiro-nii is good hollow!"
"Oh god, nope! No' me too!" Shiro started to back towards the wall and waving his hands around comically.
"Shiro-nii! Shiro-nii!"
"Accept your fate Shiro."
"Shirayuki? You can manifest?" Wait, hold on a minute this is not his zanpakuto.
"Why do you have Kuchiki's Zanpakuto?" Well that was the wrong thing to say because Ichigo returned to his panicked state from before.
"Did ya 'ave to? We don' like our memories." Juushiro was now on the receiving end of a deadly glare that could have killed someonee with it's intensity.
"Sorry."
"Nah it's fine. Shirayuki could you go back in for a bit?" She went back to his inner world as asked and so did Sogyo no Kotowari as to free up some space in the small room a bit. "I'll tell you."
"King..." The hollow seemed to protest to this and would have probably gone back to his inner world if Kurosaki hadn't been clinging to him so much.
"Kurosa-" He began only to be cut of.
"Ichigo."
"Huh?"
"I call you Juushiro so you call me Ichigo."
"Okay."
With the look on Ichigo's face it seemed that they were going to be there for a while so moving to the back room where he slept so no one could creep in with Ichigo still there. Instead of Ichigo getting up Shiro just picked him up then he was reminded to the fact that Shiro had called him king and just put it to that. But it seemed that I hadn't been able to completely hide my confusion because Shiro answered all my questions.
"When King gets like thi' 'e 'an barely function so I 'ave ta carry 'im everywhere. 'e also thinks im lazy."
"You are." Ichigo mumbled almost inaudibly.
In the back of his mind he could feel Sogyo no Kotowari laughing at their newly dubbed big brothers.
"Well you two can make yourselves comfortable, your going to be here for the rest of the night aren't you."
"Thanks."
"You can start when you want to. That is if you want to." He sat himself on a rather soft arm chair and had probably been made of clouds.
"Ah well I guess I could start at the beginning. First came Rukia's execution date, that was when Aizen faked his death. I had blocked the Sokyoku but you and Shunsui destroyed it." Probably with the Shihoin shield meaning he had to do that again."I had a fight with Byakuya and won then Aizen showed up with all his 'look who isn't dead' and everyone proceeded to attack him and were defeated rather easily. I got stabbed which was wonderful and woke up in fourth. Gin and Tousen was there as well but Gin just wants to kill Aizen for Rangiku because he really likes her but just can't say it."
Ichigo continued telling him about when they had invaded Hueco Mundo for Orihime and the fight above Karakura. The many fights that spanned two years but not really causing any damage to the top end of the gotei thirteen.
Then he said about how after those two years Ywatch the quincy king had also joined and teamed up with Aizen. How he cam searching for him in the world of the living and killed his living body and destroyed his fathers soul. When he had been told by Ryuken that he was a quincy himself. Then what had happened to Karakura with the hell's gates.
Many people had been caught by Aizen and how they either never returned or returned a completely different person. Two friends killed by Aizen not long before Ichigo had got himself caught.
"They weren't happy with just torture they also wanted to experiment on me. After all there is no one else like me. Other than the soul king of course but he's a god."
"Your like the soul king?"
"We're both a perfect mix of hollow, quincy and shinigami. Really can't take him seriously though, he acts like a child half of the time and has found a game of pretending to be my cousin in the world of the living. He is rather Shiba looking."
"You know the soul king personally?"
"You wanna know a secret?"
"Sure."
"I've been in the royal realm and I can go whenever I want."
Lucky son of a... nice lady. "Aww lucky."
"Yep. But your here to listen to my depressing past. So about half way through my capture-"
-X-
Ichigo-Hansha
"Hey now Ichigo don't look so sad there. I came up here myself to bring you a gift. Just no more kicking me." Aizen stood there with his smug smile and mocking eyes. In his hand was something white. Hair, a top and shorts like his own, pale skin,"Ukitake?"
"Like I said a gift."
He had spoken to Ukitake often. Along with Kyoraku because if you wanted one you had both. But a few months before Aizen caught him he had gone missing. Presumed either dead or captured which was just as good as dead.
"Kuro-" Ukitake then ended up coughing and coughing until blood was falling down his face only to be thrown into the floor and chained him up.
"There, now I have given you your gift I have things to do." And walked out of the room.
"Ukitake?"
"He got you too?"
"Yes he got us. We have been here for a while."
"We? Your looking a little hollow there Ichigo."
"Hansha."
"What."
"We're Ichigo and the hollow, we're Hansha."
"Mmm. Tired. And cold."
Looking at Ukitake he could see that he was even more underweight than before it was no wonder he was cold. So laid down next to him so their back touched.
"Hansha?"
"Your cold right?"
"Thanks."
They talked for a while and for an entire week they were left alone. Ichigo had begun to hope that they had been forgotten. Until Aizen showed up. But instead of going for him he started to attack Ukitake over and over until his clothes are shredded and the floor was stained red. There was no getting over to Ukitake though as Aizen had pulled him to the other side of the room. No matter how much Ichigo screamed at him he didn't stop.
The worst part was that Ukitake didn't fight back. Didn't even try. Then Aizen left again.
"Ukitake."
"I'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i-"
"UKITAKE!"
"I didn't tell him, I refused. I'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry -"
Tuning out Ukitake because they couldn't even reach him and thought back to try and figure out what on earth he was going on about only to remember the raid into one of the arrancar camps for supplies that was being led by Kyoraku-Soutaicho himself because it was the larger camp and they really needed supplies.
Ukitake had probably been captured and tortured for the information until he broke. After a few hours Ukitake came over to them and just let them pet his hair until he fell asleep. It had been so long since he had any company and they had to watch him be hurt and they hated it.
Over and over again arrancar or Aizen would come in and do the same thing and every time he begged them to stop but they would never listen. Some of the arrancar kicked him or turned their attack on them which was always better because that meant they were protecting Juushiro.
"Hansha."
"Hm."
"Don't like being alone. Please don't go." Ukitake seemed so small and fragile compared to the captain they knew. Even with his illness he had never seemed weak.
"We wont leave you. We promise. We'll get out of here and you can see Kyoraku again. Right? We'll get out right?" Because they would get out wouldn't they. Together. No they couldn't be stuck here could they. No.
"Yeah."
They wanted to go home but their home was destroyed, at least Juushiro had a home to return to.
The two of them had no other company so they spoke for hours and hours. Juushiro was old enough to have many stories that filled in the silence and they carried on like this for days. Every time the arrancar left them both bloody on the floor Juushiro would always ask us not to leave and they always promised to get back home with him.
"Hello there Ukitake, Kurosaki. It seems that we have some visitors but I can't just let them break in and get away with it so it seems they will have to have a punishment don't think."
Both of them just laid there on the floor unable to move or speak but Aizen did not come towards him. He went towards Ukitake and threw him onto of me. But he wasn't moving and his breathing non-existent, eyes slowly going dull.
"We could go home. In the Seireitei, sit by the lake and feed the fish. You could mock me for cutting the tree when I have no skill and Kyoraku would be there as drunk as always. Right? Ichigo... you didn't leave me alone. Thank you, you stayed like you promised. Hey Sogyo no Kotowari was left in my office, I hide them under the floorboards. Could you look after them. I know you can keep items on you. Don't let anyone else find them first plea-."
His blood seeped through his thin clothes and he couldn't have. Ah this was why Aizen had left them together. He knew they would come after us eventually so he had planned to kill Juushiro. "Oi, no sleeping. Juushiro I promised that we could both go home. Juushiro? Oi wake up. JUUSHIRO!" He couldn't cry though because he had broken his promise so he had no right.
But he knew he was dead. Drowned in feelings of uselessness he couldn't even move. Too weighed down with self loathing to do so.
When Rukia had found them a day later she took Ukitake of them and they locked that memory away. Completely forgetting. Yet Rukia never reminded them despite knowing for that could have broken him beyond what he already was.
During that day it had taken to find him Aizen released Kyoka Suigetsu and kept making illusions that Juushiro was there. But he had saw him die. He was dead but he could see him, feel and and hear him. But Juushiro was dead.
"You promised me Ichigo."
"Yeah I did. I'm sorry."
"Ichigo. We finally found you! Come on lets go home. We have people waiting on us. Like your sisters. They miss you."
"Yes lets go home. Rukia."
-X-
Juushiro,
"Well. You were dead. I didn't remember what had happened until I walked in and saw you. Not long after my sisters died along with Rukia and eventually everyone but me and Kisuke was. So we fought Aizen and even in his dying moments he killed Kisuke. Just to leave me alone. I proceeded to blow all of existence up by accident and Tsuki, the soul king his name is Akira Tsuki, just showed up and was like,'Yep can fix all of this shit. Time travel lets go!' So that's the story of my depressing life."
It took some time for everything to be processed because he had died a horrible death. Aizen had then used that to his advantage while Ichigo was still in his care with Kyoka Suigetsu. Ichigo had explained to him how he was no longer effected by those illusions because near the end of the war Aizen had disposed of Kyoka Suigetsu and just in case a tiny fragment of the metal had been placed into his head.
Safely though because Kisuke.
"When is over I can ask Shunsui to come over this way and we can sit by the lake as you promised and i'll cut my small tree so you two can laugh at me and we will all feed the fish. How does that sound. That way you can keep the promise you made."
Ichigo looked up in shock and seemed as if he was about to cry but he blinked back the tears and looked him dead in the eyes. "Yeah. Lets do that."
It had been a long evening so after placing up some Kido barriers they both went to sleep.
Orihime,
After killing Kurotsuchi Mayuri his 'daughter' Nemu had helped them out for some unknown reason. First she allowed them to keep their stolen uniforms then had taken them all (including Maki-Maki from squad eleven) into the squad building and gave us a room we could rest in. She proceeded to give them food and water and was now walking with their group as no one would question a group of people walking with the squad twelve lieutenant.
If anything people had been giving their group a wide berth just in case they were explosive or something.
"If we head this way we should be able to avoid Komamura-Taicho and Tosen-Taicho. Then we will hide in squad fives barracks in one of the storage rooms, I will put up a kido to hide our reiatsu and deter people from entering."
"And I am guessing we are going to squad five because this Aizen-taicho is dead leaving this squad less protected." So far Uryu might have just made a new best friend with Nemu and she was the only person he had yet to pick an argument with.
"Yes. The lieutenant was locked up earlier today as well for attacking a captain."
"Leaving the squad without it's highest to members. Smart."
It had been a bit of a panic when they had first sensed two captains heading towards them. Orihime would not have been able to kill them due to having no will to do so. Though her attacks would never be weak thanks to what Ichigo had told her, strengthening her will considerably. 'Your a kind girl Orihime. But you do not have enough faith in yourself, you have the capability to be powerful but when you use this power your actions are full of fear. What you don't need in battle is fear. Nothing will come of it. When you put up your barrier, you don't let them harm you. When you protect someone, you don't let them die. And when you attack, their defenses mean nothing. Your attacks will hit.'
Ichigo was the one who had told her which meant he was right and it had worked but she didn't like killing. The captain that they had come across earlier was far from human and from the little she had heard deserved far more than death. The two she could sense had done nothing wrong and would have only been following their laws. Not only that but dealing with two captains at once would have gotten out of hand.
"Ok here we are. In here."
They all squeezed themselves into the room. It was a tight fit to all hide behind one shelf but they did it.
"The kido is up. Who is taking the first shift on watch?"
Surprisingly to everyone else she decided to accept the offer.
"You sure Orihime. You've used up a lot of power protecting us all." Sometimes she wonders if Uryu would have ended up so concerned with others if it were not for Ichigo.
"I'm not even tired! I'll wake you up when the times up though!"
"If you say so."
She was to stay awake for two hours and keep watch just in case something were to happen. The space between the shelf and the wall was just barely enough to fit a person and with the self only being three people wide meant that while they were all huddled on the floor she was leaning agaist Uryu with Nemu Leaning against her. Karin had sat on her lap with Yuzu somewhere between herself and Nemu.
From where she was sat she had a lovely view of the sky. It was clear out with only a few clouds, the sky full of stars and the moon shining brightly. Only to be blocked out by a shadow.
"Wah!"
"Oh Hime-san!" Spoke the cloaked figure.
"Kaien?"
"Yup!"
"Do you just never get tired?"
"Nah. Only if I use up an extensive amount of power. Sleeping in Hueco Mundo isn't really that safe."
"I forget that your an arrancar sometimes."
"Bah so do I considering that Nejibana still works the same as she did when I was a shinigami."
"Cool. Well we're hiding so shoo, leave now. I think I saw some hair dye somewhere near here. Go dye someones hair in their sleep."
Looking at her with the same happiness a kid might if you told them the world was now made of candy he nodded at her and ran of in search of this hair dye.
"Inoue-san. What are parents meant to be like?"
Unfortunately for Nemu she had only had a mad man for a father, even if she had be built instead of born. Though Orihime couldn't remember her own parents she had come to think of Ichigo's family as hers as well. Often she stayed over and Masaki often treat her the same as she would Karin and Yuzu. Perhaps her cooking was a bit, different, but she was still a good cook thanks to her. They had been there when she had first unlocked her powers and when she started to explore what she could do with them.
Masaki and Isshin were her parents in all but blood.
"Well I don't remember my own parents but I do have people that I could call family. They should be kind and push their children to learn new things. Spend time with them and teach them. I do not think that they should use you."
"I have never known any different."
"After all of this is over perhaps you could meet my family and see for yourself. I'm sure they would love to meet my new friend."
"Friend?"
"Yep! Friends."
Though it was faint a small smile could be seen on Nemu, the first one ever.
"Did you think you could hide from me?" The voice was above was venomous and commanding. Without even looking she could already guess who it was. Looking up she could only laugh nervously.
"Good evening Soifon-Taicho." She was sat on the top of the shelf looking down at us.
Orihime fought to hide it but she almost burst out laughing at the look she had at Orihime's politeness.
"I um-uh, your rather polite."
"We are invading your home."
"Extremely polite for invaders. You two get out of that space it looks a little cramped."
"Thank you!" Putting down Karin and Yuzu gently they both moved out into a more open part of the room."Well you've either found us by yourself or we're surrounded."
Jumping down from the shelf herself Soifons voice lost some of it's venom,"A bit of both. I noticed something was up with this area and found you then I ordered my men to surround the area."
"Inoue-san sould we-"
"Na. If I can't keep up with Yoruichi I highly doubt we're going to outrun Soifon-taicho. Though I do ask if we could just, walk with you. Shunpo makes me feel woozy and the two girls have just gone asleep."
"I'll allow it since I have been running around all day but don't forget your surrounded."
"Not gonna."
Going over to Uryu she quietly woke him up and explained the situation to him and picked up Yuzu. She would have handed Karin to Nemu as she seemed to like the girls but Karin had crawled up onto Uryu when the heat source she was laying on moved.
"So Yoruichi is in the world of the living?"
"Yep! She's there often, very nice to us. You will have a chance to talk to her though. Whether you want to believe me or not she does regret not talking to you sooner but when she saw how well you were doing and how she had abandoned you she just couldn't bring herself to but in. She speaks to us often about you, sh may have other students but she misses you dearly."
"Ah, thank you. If I get a chance to talk to her I guess I will just have to pummel her into the ground as punishment."
"I think I could help you with that."
They spoke for a while and though Soifon seemed rather hard to approach her skill for getting through to people seemed to work even on her. She didn't have to run or be manhandled into a jail cell but she understand and listen when they put sekkiseki cuffs on her.
She had been put in a cell opposite from her friends. Chad, Mizuiro and Keigo had apparently came in with no fuss as well which was one of the reasons they got to calmly walk.
"Does your abilities come from your hairpins?"
"Yeah, you can take them of but please look after them. They're very important to me."
Soifon pinned them to her shihakusho,"Here, can't be lost."
Looking over at Nemu who had curled up on one of the beds, far too solid for her own preferences. She had to wonder why Soifon hadn't said anything about her being a traitor. It just didn't sit with the type of personality she had expected from the small captain. "Soifon-taicho?"
She had not even left, just picked up a chair and set it down between the two cells, her arms crossed and one leg placed over the other making her look relaxed though she could be up from that seat and gone within a second. They had been there for a few hours and the sun was beginning to rise. Calmly she look over to me,"Yes Inoue-san?"
"I was wandering why you didn't end up yelling at Nemu."
"Guess I just feel bad for her. I see her often during the meeting for the shinigami's womens assosiation and she always seemed so sad but when you called her a friend she looked happy, just a little. Myself, well, perhaps it's because I was born to a clan where everyone is brought up with a knife in hand and being invisible as soon as you can walk. Honestly i'm glad you killed Kurostuchi-taicho."
"He hurt far to many quincy."
"You know many quincy?"
Leaning her back against the wall she looked Soifon in the eye. Both of them trying to understand the other in this invasion. Neither knowing why they were being so open."Uh huh. That boy there is Ishida Uryu and he's a quincy along with Karin,Yuzu and Ichigo. Then there's Ichigo's mother, both of Uryu's parents and his grandfather and there all very nice people once you get to know them."
"As a member of the omnitsukido I often forget how human some people are."
"Understandable. Your assassins, in order to do your job without going mad you would have to think of your targets as just names, just a target. I couldn't do that job. I hope I never have to kill again, I would rather heal."
Both of them sat in silence not really knowing what to say. No one woke up even when it reached late morning, far to exhausted with the stress of breaking into a military city but with trust in the others. They were just the distractions after all.
Around mid-day explosions could be heard and what had to be crushing reiatsu was distantly sensed.
"God damn brute."
"Is that Kenpachi?"
"Yes and... Unohana. She doesn't normally fight."
"Heh well Ichigo did want to fight Kenpachi."
"Kurosaki Ichigo!?"
"Don't worry he won't be too harsh on them. He's strong but nice."
"Explains why I couldn't sense their opponent. I'll just pretend you never said anything about Kurosaki, I do not want to be in the middle of whatever is going on over that way."
More explosions could be heard and all the two girls could do was sigh.
Looking down at *his her?* its body it changed into Tsuki's more fitting form for his position, the shihakusho changing as it did so and used *shunpo* sonido to get on top of the sokyoku stand where everything would begin. The wind blowing its bright hair across his face, moonlight reflected in its red eyes. Looking around he used *reiatsu chikaku* pequisa and went of in the direction of *myself* Kurosaki Ichigo.
Landing on the walkway it *walked through the wall* slid open the door and stepped through its steps silent, the barriers less than even noticed but still stood as if nothing had happened. It walked over it him and put his head on its lap.
"Found me." It spoke in it's sickly sweet voice."You couldn't keep your grip on me forever *Asahi* Tsuki."
To his left laid *our hollow* Shiro who was waking up due to its talking. "No no sweet hollow go back to sleep now." Its power letting him continue to rest.
It put his head on its lap and gently brushed the hair from his face. Placing its hand on his forehead it moved itself to where it belonged.
"Finally home."
If Hansha seems like a bit of a dick sometimes do not forget that he is a product of Ichigo's and Shiro's screwed up minds and in a good portion hollow and most of his memories are wacked. If you want to know this its in another story in this series thing. Still traumatizes Ichigo.
In fanfiction I do want to be able to use the Japanese honorific's like san, chan and kun but i'm not Japanese and have no one to directly ask about this so if I mess up I will not be annoyed by anyone telling me. The reason I want to use it is also because it helps me distinguish characters from another within the speech. Such as I see Unohana as rather polite and in my head I often put san at the end of names but am never sure whether to put it in her speech.
I loved the speech Kisuke gave Ichigo and found something similar could have greatly helped with Orihimes fear as she was afraid of anything she did. So I grabbed that and adapted it. Ichigo was taught by Urahara so it wouldn't be surprising for him to share some of the things he was taught.
9000+ words this chapter :)
See ya in the next chapter -Luna