Ichigo stood there staring down H. Ichigo. He held Zangetsu in his hands standing not to far from H. Ichigo. Rukia stepped back as she watched the intense stare down. Suddenly Ichigo let out the pre-empted strike. He appeared right in front of H. Ichigo and stood right in his face. H. Ichigo did not flinch as Ichigo grinned. They created distance again and the battle began. Their swords clashed with great sound cracking through the air like thunder during a storm.
Urahara slowly stepped out of the hole and made his way to Rukia. He was rubbing the back of his head as he placed a hand on Rukia's shoulder. She turned around and was relieved to see Urahara feeling ok.
"I bet you're wondering how this is possible." He stated. Rukia looked up at him with a curious look on her face. Urahara took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair.
"Well I wondered if this was going to happen or not. When I was training him before he rescued you, I had this weird feeling that something like this was going to happen. The hollow inside of him was very strong. He was also very smart. I knew he would find out how to separate himself from Ichigo."
"But how?" Rukia asked.
"When Ichigo left and ran to Soul Society, the hollow within in began to take over. With my best guess, I would say that when he reached Soul Society the hollow took over him. When Ichigo fought back and tore the mask off, the hollow did the technique to separate them. It called "Soul Separation." When done at the right time, the hollow inside of a person can escape the person and become another being.
"Then what happened to Ichigo?" Rukia inquisitively asked.
"I would have to say that when he lost Hollow Ichigo, it drained him of a lot of his power. He might have passed out from the separation." Rukia looked back at the two Ichigos that did battle. The many sounds of their swords clashing together filled the air. Urahara made his way over to Isshin. He stood looking down at him and chuckled.
"Old man you know you're not as strong as you used to be." He said. Isshin gave him a weak grin and a small chuckle.
"I had to protect my soon to be daughter-in-law." He said as he slowly turned his body and sat up. Urahara smiled as he looked back at Rukia who was still watching the fight. H. Ichigo and Ichigo seemed to have been an even match for each other. Neither of them let down or even thought about trying to stop.
They both kept up with their assault on each other. It seemed an even match until something occurred. As H. Ichigo landed on the ground, he slipped on the dirt and fell to the ground. Ichigo, sensing this could be his only chance, went in for the kill. Before H. Ichigo could recover from his fall, Ichigo's sword pierced H. Ichigo through his heart. Suddenly a loud yell filled the air as H. Ichigo began to fade away.
Ichigo stood there silent still looking at the ground where his former hollow used to lay. He lifted up his Zanpakuto from the dirt and stood there in silent reverence. Rukia quickly ran up to him and wrapped her arms around him. Ichigo looked down at the mass of hair that was buried in his chest and smiled. Byakuya slowly got to his feet and began to walk away.
"What's wrong?" Isshin said. "Jealous that you were beaten by Ichigo again?" He gave him a small grin. Byakuya stopped and stood there silently before he answered.
"No." Byakuya simply said. "I hate you have you as my uncle." And with that Byakuya disappeared. Isshin and Urahara began to laugh at his comment. Meanwhile, Ichigo led Rukia away from them so that he could talk to her privately.
"Are you Ok?" Ichigo asked placing a hand on her back. Rukia smiled as she moved closed to Ichigo.
"Don't worry about me. Where did you go?" She asked, her voice softened from before.
"When we were at the restaurant, I felt the hollow inside of me trying to take over me. At one point I knew I was not going to be able to control him, so I had to get away from you as far as possible so that I couldn't hurt you. I love you too much to hurt you. It took me awhile to get over it, but now I know that you and I will never be together, and I will just have to deal with it." Rukia stared deeply into his eyes and smiled. They embraced once more before they headed back and went home.
End
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Sequel coming soon. It'll have a character that I added myself and more than likely it will be set about 2 years into the future of this story's timeline. Look for it soon.