I'm back! Homework still incomplete:D I still get to do meh English homework.
Offers for assistance are welcomed... Just be sure you know what you're doing. ;D
Just kiddin'.
Warning: Quickly self read, grammar might not be perfect (when is it ever?).
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Chapter 12
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Rukia stood, watching the orange haired hybrid stare into space on the tree branch. As the minutes stretched, her worry seemed to increase. His eyes looked dead, his body unmoving, but his reiatsu still pulsing. She could feel it, even if it was hard to keep track of, despite the distance between them.
"Ichigo... wake up," she tried again.
However, the response was the same as the last few attempts. Silence.
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Ichigo stared at the wall where he and Kuroji sat. The clouds darkening quickly, as secluded memories ran through his head. Renji's final limb dangling from his mouth, countless souls now making up his being, failing to slow Aizen down, fear of Soul Society; everything came crashing down... again.
Kuroji glanced up when he felt something wet hit his head. He scowled.
'Rain... damn.'
The hollow placed a hand on Ichigo's head, pushing it back gently. Yellow and black locked with brown and white. Curiosity and minor irritation facing sadness and fear.
"King..."
"Give me another minute Kuroji... please."
Kuroji sighed, but let go of Ichigo. He wasn't going to let his shinigami counter-part out of their inner world without the great mystery being revealed.
A light drizzle began to fall on the side ways world, both occupants looking up at the clouds. At the same time, the both looked at each other. Determined eyes once again caught uneasy ones.
"Please, King. Tell me."
Ichigo nodded his head. "First; what can you remember?"
Kuroji looked a little confused at the question. He knew his king knew. Why did he ask? Why not just get right to the point?
"Ya know wha' I remember," the hollow's voice was a little sour, he wanted answers.
"Please," Ichigo asked quietly. "I need to hear it."
"'Kay..." Kuroji glanced down at the wall. He hadn't really even thought of where his memories started again. His coming into existence definitely was older than Ichigo's current feelings of shun toward him. Struggling for power and control of his king's body; he remembered that too. A strange, but vague calm. Then hatred towards the shinigami in control, Kuroji's need for control and power. Ichigo kicking his ass after the last fight for the body. More futile attempts that failed, resulting in long periods of dark fog and light drizzle for him. That tiny arrancar that seemed to have some sort of obsession over his king. Them going to Aizen's to get their barely alive carcass out of Hueco Mundo, recovering, then this. Not too much he could remember. "'Ere's a gap. I recall a strange calm in 'ere, bu' tha's really hazy. Then all tha' calm seemed ta up 'n vanish. You were in my way, holdin' yer throne like ya are now. Ya beat me, an' I haven' been able ta hold a figh' against ya since. Which is weird if ya ask me."
Ichigo had to do his best to keep from laughing. Laughing and then punching a hole in the wall he sat on. That calm was still in Kuroji's mind. Even if he didn't know what went on during said calm. Relief seemed to spread through him a little. That calm was enough to give him some form of hope that Kuroji could return to how he was before the entire damned experiment with that bastard of a Gotei captain.
"That 'calm,' as you put it," the orange haired hybrid paused, containing his emotions. "Was a short time of peace between us. No fighting – unless you count the occasional spare. That lasted the last part of the War, in the time where we needed to work together most."
A pause.
"Ichimaru had his fucking tooth-picker at our throat. Aizen behind him with Inoue. Our death was planned to break her.
"Then, you pulled me in here. Offered the bargain: 'Le' me deal with this bastard. You can deal with the has-been four-eyes. If she dies, you'll have it pourin' in here, tryin' ta drown every occupant.'"
Kuroji looked shocked. This was definitely something he didn't remember at all. Curiosity still held him, so he continued to watch Ichigo. Waiting for more.
"You transformed my less injured arm into its hollow form. Heh; gave Ichimaru a nice little surprise. Our hand went right through his throat, his head no longer where it should. But... you still had control on the brain, so you went after Aizen next. You were never affected by his zanpakuto, so his illusions didn't work on you. Our combined speed got us behind him, leading to a blade into our chest. Your instant regeneration came in handy there. We caught Aizen off with that, which was a total shock. Gave him a good scratch to the face."
Ichigo stopped for a second, controlling his laughter before his continued. "That resulted in our arms getting cut off. Then you ran back here after healing our arms.
"After that, all I remember is some-how firing a cero at the bastard. Apparently you helped me do that; you didn't stop gloating for hours. The fight between us and Aizen lasted for a good 45 minutes. Us taking more hits then him.
"Then the buildings started to collapse. Our mission was to distract Aizen long enough, as well as get Inoue out..."
Colorful memories took over from there. The ground shook, the ceiling crumbled. Ichigo leaped at Aizen, firing three Kuroi Getsuga Tenshou at the arrancar leader at his sides. To top it off, Ichigo jumped above him, firing another cero at him.
Then, Aizen was on the ground. He looked unconscious, but Ichigo couldn't shake the rushed feeling he had. He grabbed Inoue and used shunpo to get of Las Noches. They both got out safe, only to have Ichigo collapse from fatigue.
The planning and preparations before the final strike killed off most of his sleeping hours, the actual attack massacred it. All in all, the battle lasted two and a half days of non-stop searching, running, and fighting. Ichigo was grateful that they didn't loose anyone important to him during the fight. Yeah, he was sad for their deaths, but all he thought of was sleeping once it was all over.
"We got out, I left Aizen. I was hoping the building would crush his unconscious body, and we can see how great that turned out to be.
"After the War, I couldn't go back to school. The gap was too big after two months of ditching. 'Tou-san home taught me for a while, then I had had enough.
"Then, the alarm went off, I got hit by a hollow, you came out, scared the crap outta every shinigami in the area, which got our butt abducted into Seireitei. Where that freak-show Kurostuchi did some shitty experiments on us. Live body dissection one day, brain investigation another. Then..." Ichigo trailed off. More memories surfaced. This time of Kuroji screaming in pain. "Then... Then came the 'up 'n vanishin' part you mentioned. You lost all the memories... you had of our time as partners... companions even. No, it was a little deeper then that."
Kuroji's eyes widened. 'Wait. did we actually like each other more than just partners?'
"You should know the rest," Ichigo finished, his eyes once again glaring a hole into the wall.
'I thin' we were. Fuck.'
The rain started to come down harder. Both boys hair flattened and dripping wet.
A blur of white surrounded Ichigo.
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Rukia felt another spike of energy. This one felt a little more content then the panicked one from earlier that brought her here.
Ichigo shifted a little in his spot, eyes remaining unchanged.
"Ichigo..."
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Kuroji held Ichigo in his lap. His chin resting on the orange haired hybrid's head, both of his arms wrapping around Ichigo in a protecting way; light, but firm.
Ichigo sank into Kuroji's lap, ignoring the fact that this wasn't his Kuroji. This was as close as he had been to the hollow in years. He pushed away logic, and tried to enjoy it.
"Gomen, King," Kuroji whispered. "I can' preten' like I know wha' was goin' on, bu' I can try."
"Don't. Please don't. It's not worth it."
Kuroji sighed. His king could be so stubborn. He kissed Ichigo lightly on the top of the head, before shoeing him out.
"Yer needed ou' there King. That black haired shinigami been ou' there fer a while."
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Ichigo blinked his eyes a couple of times, shook his head, trying to get everything back in check. He glanced up at Rukia, who looked relieved that he finally moved.
"Are you... okay, Ichigo?" She asked caustiously.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
The orange haired hybrid jumped off the tree, followed by Rukia soon after. They started back toward Urahara Shoten. Questions waited in that shop, that - unfortunately – had to be answered.
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When Ichigo and Rukia got back to the shop, Isshin was also there (along with Urahara, Nell and his brothers, and Kon). The years that Isshin hadn't seen his son was unleashed as soon as Rukia took her seat, and Ichigo was about to.
"Oh, Ichigo! It's so great to have you back! Come, join your ol' man in a father-son reunion hug of love!" He yelled, tackling the hybrid. This resulted in the usual fight that happened between them before the experiment in Soul Society.
The final result: Isshin being thrown against the wall, complaining that his son was still going through his rebellious stage of life.
"So, Ichigo-san. I have some questions that Nell-chan here didn't seem to have an answer for. Care to fill me in?" Urahara asked from behind his fan.
"Whatever."
"I thought you killed Aizen a while ago. Why is he still alive?"
"During the last battle, I knocked him out, and he became buried in Las Noches rock. I figured he'd be dead. Besides, I was more focused on getting Inoue and myself out in one piece."
"What did you do while you were gone these past five years?"
"Coping."
"With...?"
"That's none of your business Urahara."
The shop owner shrugged before continuing the interrogation. Ichigo answered what he could or would, resulting in vague answers over the span of two hours.
Once Urahara was content, everyone got ready to go to sleep, they closed down shop for the rest of the night. Isshin went back to the clinic, Rukia, Ichigo, Kon, and everyone else stayed at the shop. Ichigo didn't feel like going back to the clinic, even if his family was there.
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After a few hours of rest, Ichigo woke up to the darkness that still shrouded the shop. Kon was still asleep (they shared a room), he hoped no one would stop him from leaving, as they should all be asleep. He slowly got up, and used shunpo to arrive at the entrance door to the store. Slowly, the orange haired hybrid unlocked and opened the door, closing it quietly once he was outside.
Ichigo jumped to the roof of Urahara Shoten, and thought on what he would next. He doubted Aizen would pull something soon, but he couldn't shake the feeling that the arrancar leader would do something soon. To get his mind off his swaying decision, he jumped from building to building. The cold early morning climate acting differently than the dry, spiritually loaded air of Hueco Mundo.
He landed on the roof of his old high school. All the lights were off, save for the ones on the outside of the building. Ichigo sat on the edge of the fence that circled the parameter of the roof, over looking the school grounds. His completely black uniform swaying from the small breeze that could only be acknowledged from a higher altitude.
'Ugh... Why are ya up so early, King?'
'I don't know.'
'Yer worried, aren' ya?'
'I guess.'
"..."
'I just feel like something might happen. I can't sleep.'
'Ya don' thin' tha' Aizen 'ill do anything today, do ya?'
'I'm hoping not.'
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A small alarm went off at Urahara Shoten, sending the owner of said alarm into a woken frenzy. Rukia looked at her phone that had gone crazy it seemed. Hollows seemed to spot the city, and they were huge hollows.
She burst into Kon and Ichigo's room only to find Ichigo gone, and Kon snoring.
"Kon! Wake up!"
"Uh," a sleep slurred voice mumbled from the futon. "Wha..?"
"Get up! We have hollows to deal with!"
"What?!"
They both ran to the front of the shop, past the blond shop keeper. His fan hiding his melancholy expression.
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Ichigo's head jerked up from his internal conversation when hollow reiastu overwhelmed his senses. He felt drawn to them, the need to rip and tear flesh started to bubble up.
'Fuck.'
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Okay. It's done. Hopefully I can get off my lazy ass to put out one more chapter for this before school starts up again on the 29th.
I'm also gonna try to get chapter 2 out for Restriction next, if any of you care. That story isn't getting' much love.
Oh, good news everyone! I think I've finally solidified what I'm gonna have Aizen do with Ichigo. ;D Yup, more plot just got added to the shaky foundation that is this fanfic! Some of you are probably gonna laugh at my 'creativity' for it. xD
REVIEW!