a/n - So i'm like 3 hours late on my 5 day promise that i dropped in the filler story
For those that missed it, i'm writing a filler arc called BTP: Fall Back in Line, a seperate story cause i couldn't integrate it into this, head to my profile and check it out, i'm exploring a few ideas that i rejected from integrating into this, and i'm interested in all your feedback ;D
Just head to my profile if your interested and click the link for it, i can't guarantee you'll be excited, but i think its damned cool
Ichigo pushed hard against Lisa, trying his best to get to Layne
"Get out of here, you passed" Lisa said, not giving an inch to Ichigo
"I can still fight" Layne protested
Lisa pushed Ichigo away and turned to stare at Layne
"Back. The. Fuck. Up."
Layne backed the fuck up
Behind him, the wall opened and Shinji reached out and grabbed him, pulling him through the barrier so Hachi could shut it
"Good, now sit down and we'll get to you later"
Layne wondered just what the problem with him us, cause sometimes, he thought that they wouldn't mind if Layne just turned into a hollow, as long as it wasn't on their watch
The energy released from the combined Bankai releases of Ichigo and his hollow shattered the building they'd been standing on the side of
Faster than anyone could catch, they clashed, holding their Tensa Zangetsu against each other in a stark contrast of black on white
"You bastard" Ichigo growled "When did you learn Bankai"
"Isn't it obvious?" The hollow replied, "Same time you did"
Ichigo and the Hollow blew apart but then Ichigo flashstepped back in, forcing the Hollow to block
"Ichigo!" The hollow shouted "Get the chip off your shoulder! Let's enjoy this!"
"Screw you"
Ichigo pushed The Hollow with such force that he flew backwards, blowing a hole through one of the blue-gray skyscrapers that made up Ichigo's inner world
Pressing his advantage, Ichigo held Tensa Zangetsu beside him, black and red energy beginning to radiate from it
"Getsuga Tensho!" he cried, flinging the wave at the Hollow
The Hollow stood up in the rubble and eyed the oncoming wave with contempt, chopping it with a single arm motion
"One handed!" Ichigo thought with alarm, not expecting the block, or the ease with which the Hollow had executed it
The Hollow grinned wildly and then appeared before Ichigo, pressing against his sword
"Getsuga Tensho"
An explosion of white reiatsu overtook them both
Lisa kicked Ichigo away and flipped backwards, avoiding Ichigo's return cut
Layne was interested to note that Lisa looked almost as beaten up as him
Kensei finished looking at his watch and tossed it to Layne
"That's time for a shift change, open up" He told Hachi
"Understood" Hachi said, making a door appear in the wall, which Kensei then went through
Layne watched as Kensei elbowed Ichigo in the gut, and sent him flying away, sending Lisa out of the barrier at the same time
She walked out, sat down next to Layne and watched Kensei spin his little zanpakuto around and proceed to kick the snot out of Ichigo
"Hurry it up Ichigo" Shinji thought "If you don't finish it soon, then we'll have no choice but to put you down"
"I already told you" The hollow said disdainfully "You ain't shit, Ichigo, your worse than shit"
Ichigo was breathing heavily, that point blank Getsuga had torn off the front of his Shihakusho and ripped up his stomach
"Did you forget?" The first person to use Getsuga in Bankai was me, and that's all you can aspire too, A child that watches my technique and attempts it at home"
The hollow flashstepped towards and Ichigo and grabbed the blade of Tensa Zangetsu
Ichigo tried to grab it out of his grasp, but it wouldn't move
"Give it up Ichigo"
The black of the blade began turning white and Ichigo's eyes widened in surprise
"You can't use Bankai"
The blade shattered as the hollow said Bankai, shattered and disappeared
Lisa was still breathing heavily
"You ok?" Layne asked, concerned
She nodded, and turned to Shinji
"How much break time do we get?"
"Nine people times ten minutes, is ninety minutes"
"Idiot, you can't count Layne again" Lisa said
"Baldy" Hiyori added, "If you don't count her, its only seven people"
"Fine, seven people times ten minutes, is seventy minutes"
"Umm, I'm holding up the barrier and I'm included in the rotation?" Hachi said meekly
Kensei stabbed his knife into Ichigo's shoulder and brought it out, causing blood to spurt into the air
The blood stopped spurting and his shoulder regenerated
"High Speed Regeneration?" Kensei wondered, bringing his fists together, a light blue ball of reiatsu condensing around them
"Whoa, whoa" Love said
Kensei shot the ball forward, it becoming a large explosion, which ripped Ichigo's arm off and knocked him to the ground
"Holy shit" muttered Layne
Kensei approached Ichigo's prone form, and some gigantic hollow worm thing exploded from the arm socket and tried to swallow Kensei
"What the hell?" Kensei exclaimed, firing another reiatsu burst down its throat, causing it to explode
Behind it, Ichigo had gotten up, his arm regrown into a fully hollow arm
"Well, your hollowfication was faster than I expected" Kensei said
"Zangetsu is…" Ichigo said, shocked, watching the fragments of Zangetsu fade away
"That isn't Zangetsu" The Hollow repeated "I am Zangetsu"
"You son of a bitch" Ichigo growled
The Hollow sneered, and grabbed Ichigo's face, tossing him down into a building
"Same old stupid shit, spacing out and standing there unarmed"
The hollow landed on the building as Ichigo picked himself up
"Ichigo, what's the difference between a King and his Horse?"
"What?"
"I don't mean some bullshit riddle like, one has two legs and the other has four, if you assume that they are exactly the same being, then form, abilities and shape are exactly the same, if one is the king, then the other is the horse, lending the king his power as well, but I'm asking what makes them different"
Ichigo said nothing
"INSTINCT!" The hollow shouted "Powerful people acquire more power until they are taken down by someone of greater power, the only thing needed to become king, is the desire, the will, the lust for battle!"
"These things known as raw instinct Ichigo… you don't have any of it, you fight rationally and try to defeat your enemies with logic and reason, and that makes you weaker than me, and you know what?"
The Hollow tossed its white Tensa Zangetsu and impaled Ichigo through the chest, who looked down at it in shock
"I won't have it, Ichigo" The hollow said, smirking and walking towards Ichigo "Zangetsu can, but I won't deal with a King that's weaker than I am, trying to use my power to cover up for his weakness"
The hollow grasped the hilt of his White Tensa Zangetsu and kept speaking
"If you're weaker than I am… I'll crush you and become the king"
"Instinct huh, Sword, Fight, Death, Sword, Chad, Layne, Sword, Orihime, Ishida, Fight, Rukia, Renji, Death, Seek Battle, Instinct!"
Ichigo reached out and grasped the sword sticking out of his gut, the blade turning black at a rapid rate, from where he held the sword
The black shot up so rapidly, and turned part of the hollow's sleeve the same colour as Ichigo's Shihakusho before the hollow let go
Ichigo looked up, his eyes glowing light blue with a combination of resolve and reiatsu
Pulling a now black Tensa Zangetsu from his chest, he twirled it around and charged forwards, thrusting clean through the Hollow's body
"Dammit" The hollow muttered "Guess you still had some of that will to fight in you"
The entirety of the hollow's shihakusho was changing colour to match Ichigo's and Ichigo stared serenely as he started the hollow started vanishing
"Try to stay alive until I appear next time"
Ichigo, if you could call it that anymore, was charging up a Cero, aimed directly at Love
Love took an odd pose, with his hand over his face and Layne wondered what he was going to do
"Oi" Mashiro said, worried "Is Love really going to turn into a hollow?"
"Even if it's Love" Rose answered "He couldn't take that blast without having to use his hollowfication
Before Love had to hollowify, however, a crack appeared in Ichigo's hollow armour and he stopped charging the Cero and stopped moving
"This is it!" Hiyori yelled "Get Love out of the barrier!"
Love slid out just in time for Hachi to close the barrier and absorb the resulting explosion
"Holy shit, was there a nuke in there or something?"
When the smoke cleared, after like 5 minutes, the hollow shell fell of Ichigo, and he was left standing there, still wearing a mask
"Hachi" Shinji said
"Yes" Hachi replied, snapping his fingers, and causing the barrier to shatter like a glass window that just got smashed through by a truck
Ichigo crumpled to the ground, the mask sliding off his face, but unlike the previous parts of hollow, it just bounced on the ground and landed next to his head, instead of shattering and disappearing
The mask itself was quite odd, Layne noted, it looked like a demonic visage, with six red stripes covering its right side
Shinji stood over Ichigo
"How you feeling?" He asked lightly, unsure if Ichigo was even conscious
Slowly, Ichigo turned his head till he could look at Shinji
"Well…not too bad, actually"
"Oh Really" Shinji said, grinning
A few hours later, Layne was sitting by himself and reviewing today's events in his head
"I was trying my hardest just to survive in that fight" Layne realized, vividly recalling the earlier ten minutes he spent going at it with the hollow controlling Ichigo, and then watching Lisa trade sword blows, Kensei blowing it up with his shikai and Mashiro kicking it's face "And they all looked like they were just sparring, like this was just training for them"
Some of Layne's thoughts must have shown themselves on his face, because Lisa came up and sat down next to him
"You okay?" she asked kindly
"I guess" Layne replied "I did say to myself that if it was to help Ichigo, then I didn't mind becoming a monster… but getting my ass handed to me earlier, sort of made it hit home, even if I control the hollow inside of me, will I be able to stand on his level?"
Lisa said nothing, and Layne stood up and looked out across the rocky plain under the warehouse, wondering just how far did this place extended
"I mean, barely nine months ago I didn't think spirits existed… and now, I'm so far from home, with a shadow eating at my soul, and if I don't beat it, then I'm shadowing alone"
"You're pretty strong, you and Ichigo, most people would of given up if they'd had a quarter of the crap shovelled on them that you two have"
"That's just it, we've gotten through all that earlier crap, and it's still piling onto us, I don't blame Urahara for bringing me through his portal or whatever it was, not after I learned that my brother somehow got turned into a Shinigami and was killing people, but I don't know if I can be the warrior I'm supposed to be ,and Ichigo's still in a worse situation, he had no choice and he's taking it a hell of a lot better than me… part of this is all because I agreed to it, but I had no idea just what kind of trouble's it'd bring me"
"That's to be expected" Lisa said, sounding surprised "You're what, Seventeen?"
"Yeah"
"It's not like you've gone through Shinigami Academy, been trained to be a guardian, or a soldier, but you've survived, and surpassed threats that killed lots of people who have, people that by all rights, should of killed you, and that says something about your skills and determination"
Layne was silent, and Lisa stood up and jabbed her hand in his face
"What the…?"
"Anyway…it's your turn"
Lisa brought the unconscious Layne to the rest of the Vizards, and placed him on the ground
"Well?" she asked, when none of them moved after she'd laid him down
"I don't think we should do this" Kensei said "He may have the same strengths, but we have no clue as to his loyalties"
"His loyalties?"
Lisa couldn't believe it
"We're not entirely convinced that he's not a sleeper tool of Aizen's, in their meeting Aizen did call him his second generation pseudo arrancar, and also said that it would be remiss of him to not monitor one of his creations" Shinji said calmly "If we end up aiding one of Aizen's tools in becoming more powerful, it's counterproductive"
"He'll be more valuable to Aizen as a Hollow" Lisa insisted "If he's mindless, how's he supposed to fight it when Aizen puts him through Shinigamification and turns him into an Arrancar"
Shinji was silent
"You know I'm right" Lisa said "He passed your damn test, which would of killed him had he not performed that bit of magic with his speed, and if he's loyal to anything, he's loyal to Ichigo, and he's powerful enough to be a major player in this upcoming war…we need him Shinji, we need all the allies we can get"
"I agree with Lisa" Hachi said quietly "Willingly condemning someone to wander as a hollow isn't a punishment I'd visit on my worst enemy, let alone a potential ally"
Love, Rose and Mashiro nodded
"I like Roady-tan, Kensei's just being a dummy"
"You're just not thinking about potential consequences"
"Dummy meanie Kensei, Dummy meanie Kensei"
"I'll kill you!" Kensei growled, a vein throbbing dangerously in his temple
Mashiro danced out of his reach, and he continued chasing her for a bit until a pulse of reiatsu set in over them
"Hachi, Barrier!" Shinji shouted, and Hachi moved the fastest he'd ever moved in his life, erecting a barrier faster than it took Lisa to realize that she didn't need to move or get caught in it
"So we're doing this" Lisa asked,
"Yeah, same order as last time" Shinji said "I don't understand what sorta interest you got in this kid Lisa, but you'd better be right about him"
"You know, in hindsight, I should have realized that it was you a lot longer ago than I did" Layne said humourlessly, staring at the carbon copy of himself on the edge of his inner world lake
"Been a while Layne"
"It has…Diff"
"What's Diff?"
"You look like me put through a difference filter, hence Diff"
Diff shook his head
"Where's Roxas anyway?"
"Right there" Diff said, pointing at Oblivion and Oathkeeper, ready to go in Layne's hands "And right here!"
Diff summoned his weapons to him, a Black Oathkeeper that Layne had seen before, and a White Oblivion
"So you take my weapons, and switch their colour schemes around, real original"
"Your weapons?" Diff asked "What makes you say you're even using them properly at all?"
"Low Skill Floor, High Skill Ceiling" Layne replied "But your just a shadow of my soul, so I'll prove it to you that I'm using them correctly"
Layne charged forwards, pressing Oathkeeper and Oblivion together
"Riptide Sword Style: River! And Tempest!"
The reiatsu surrounding Layne's blade became visible and jagged, seeming cutting they air it was passed through
Diff sneered
"You got nothing"
He blocked River with the Black Oathkeeper and used the white Oblivion to send Layne flying
"Oblivion was formed purely from my powers, and Oathkeeper from yours… you can't use Oblivion, not for a million years"
"Bankai!" Layne shouted "Roxas Final Form!"
"Bit premature isn't it, to blow Bankai this early in a fight, isn't there some epic lines you wanted to drop, or you could have waited for me to drop some epic lines"
"Fuck that" Layne replied "Riptide Sword Style: Split River"
Layne broke River down into Oblivion and Oathkeeper and resumed his charge
Layne and Diff became locked in a speed fight, trading blow for blow, parry for parry and dodge for dodge, neither one of them giving an inch
"Pretty fast Layne, but I'll go faster"
"I'm not even moving at top speed"
They accelerated, and eventually, anyone watching the fight would only see flashes of light as their blades clashed, and little spurts of blood as they nicked one another
Diff pulled back, seemingly overwhelmed by Layne's mastery of the close range flurry
"You got nothing" Diff repeated
"Flurry is my Forte" Layne replied, going in for another attempt
The hollow mark on the back of Diff's right hand flashed, and suddenly Diff became too fast, raining blow, after blow, after blow on Layne, who couldn't seem to move fast enough to counter them at all
Diff kicked Layne away and he sprawled on the ground, barely managing to sit up
"See the difference between us yet Layne?
Layne was bleeding from several bazillion cuts all over his body, but he could still move
"Are you going to give me some weird ass speech about a king and his horse?"
"You know it?" Diff asked, sounding disappointed "I was going to, but if you know it, I'll have to think of something different, how about…"
Diff tossed his white Oblivion away and held his arm out
Layne's Black Oblivion disappeared from his tight grasp and reappeared in Diff's hand
"How about you can't use Oblivion, and I'll just leave it at that?"
a/n - Getting good for this, nearly finished the arrancar arc, but it was always going to be smaller than SS and Kira arcs simply cause i've gotta divide it into the Hueco Mundo arc as well XD
IRL news, my team won our way thru the first round of the League of Legends tourney, playing in our second round tomorrow, wish meh luck ;D
but seriously, i don't mind if we get crushed, i only cared about getting through one round XD
Next Chapter for this soonish, next chapter for BTP:Fall Back in Line will be sooner, 1k word chapters of my own design somehow became easy to produce O.o
anyway, catchyas and R&R ;D