I don't own Bleach

Talking to the voice in your head

"Ichigo! Breakfast time!" Yuzu cheerily said as she opened her older brother's door. She frowned, there was something wrong… "Ah! I know! You're playing hide n' seek! That's why you're not here! I'll find you brother!" Yuzu said, determination in her voice.

She then proceeded to look in Ichigo's closet, under his bed, and under the sheets on his bed. When she didn't find him, she started to panic. What if he wasn't playing hide n' seek? What if he was kidnapped by bank robbers who had stopped in his room last night after robbing a bank? Or what if aliens had come to Earth last night, and taken him? The possibilities were endless.

"Daaaaaaadddddddddyyyyyy, Ichigo's missing!" She yelled.

As soon as those words had left her mouth, Isshin Kurosaki burst into his sons room, "Ah, where's Rukia-chan!" he yelled.

Rukia, who had been passing Ichigo's room at the time, stopped at her name, "Is everything all right Uncle?" she asked.

"Ah, good! You're ok Rukia-chan!"

Beside him, Yuzu had a worried look on her face, "Brother's missing, do you know where he is?"

"Ichigo?" Rukia quickly threw out her senses, trying to find out where he had gone. He could just be fighting some hollow somewhere, but then her phone would have gone off, and his body would be here at least. After a second or so, she found him. He was just aimlessly wandering around town, going nowhere in particular. "Ah, he told me that he was going to take a walk before school today. He's fine" Rukia responded.

She put on a smile and said, "Well, let's go eat breakfast!" Walking down to the kitchen though, she thought to herself, 'I'll have to talk to him later, he's all depressed again.'

Rukia's guess was only partially right. Ichigo wasn't depressed, more like confused. I guess you could say he was still sulking about not being able to keep up with Grimmjow, but he was focusing more on his Hollow right now. After the fight had ended, any attempt to talk to his Hollow had been met with silence. It was getting rather annoying.

So, early that morning, before anyone had woken up, Ichigo had gotten up and started wandering aimlessly around town. He decided that if he was going to get answers out of the Hollow, then he should go into his Inner World and confront him.

Finding a place where you could sit down and essentially be dead to the living world was a problem though. Of course there were empty parks all over, but it was ridiculously early right now. Nobody might be there now, but there would defiantly be people there later. Going into your Inner World was like exiting your body; to a regular human, you were dead.

So, parks were out of the question. He could always head to some abandoned building… No, gangs usually hung around abandoned buildings.

Maybe he could go to Urahara; at least he would be undisturbed. Ichigo sighed; he would probably get suspicious if he just sat there dead to the world for too long though, and no doubt ask him what he was doing. Ichigo doubted that Urahara would approve of him talking to the Hollow, so that ruled that out.

Ichigo continued his aimless wanderings for a few more hours, until he decided that it was useless to try and find somewhere where nobody would be. Turning, he started to make his way back home.

Past the construction site, past the office buildings, past the parks where the Arrancar's reiatsu still lingered, scaring away regular humans, past the- Ichigo stopped, he hadn't noticed before, but the Arrancar's reiatsu was still thick in the air around where they had landed the first time. It seemed that regular humans were avoiding it; they probably felt something different in the air and stayed clear of where the Arrancar had landed.

Smiling slightly, Ichigo started making his way to where the two Arrancar-Ulquiorra and Yammy-had landed.

The Hollow didn't know what to think. Ichigo usually went out of his way to ignore the comments it made, pushing him back down into the depths of his Inner World. But after the fight against Grimmjow, when Ichigo had actually pushed the Hollow into control, Ichigo had actually been trying to contact him. The Hollow didn't know what he would actually say to Ichigo if he responded, so he kept quiet. If Ichigo really wanted to talk to him, then he would have to come into his Inner World.

After awhile, Ichigo had stopped trying to talk to him, and the Hollow felt disappointed. It looked like Ichigo didn't want to talk to him that badly after all. He ignored what was going on in the outside world for awhile, instead choosing to lay back on one of the sideways buildings and rest.

When he woke up, he found Ichigo wandering aimlessly around town. Curious, he focused his reiatsu and took a peak at what Ichigo was thinking about.

"That damned Hollow is ignoring me. I'll just talk to him in my Inner World; there's no way he can ignore me in there."

This surprised the Hollow, he was still gonna try and talk to him? The Hollow smirked, 'Interesting.'

After a few hours, the Hollow was starting to get impatient; why the hell was it so hard to find a place where all those humans wouldn't disturb them! The Hollow knew that if Ichigo tried to enter his Inner World around regular people, then it would create a scene.

Which would lead to all the Shinigami that were hanging around here suspicious that he was trying to take control. If not, then it would defiantly lead to some questions that the Hollow thought were defiantly not good to answer.

On the outside, Ichigo sighed, and turned around. Tapping into his thoughts again, the Hollow saw that Ichigo had decided to just go home and pretend to be sick, lock himself in his room, and talk to him there. It wasn't the best solution because as soon as his reiatsu dropped, the Shinigami in the area would probably all come rushing to see what the problem was. Or at least Rukia and Renji would, they would probably think that he had lost control or something.

The Hollow sighed, this was irritating.

Halfway back to the house though, Ichigo stopped. Curious, the Hollow looked around where Ichigo had stopped. He was confused for a moment until Ichigo turned and started walking into the parks. Heading for a specific one in particular. The Hollow smiled, Ichigo did have his moments. He was heading toward the spot where the first two Arrancar had appeared. Their reiatsu was still thick in the air, and the humans were staying clear of the area. Plus, it would help block the other Shinigami from sensing Ichigo's reiatsu-they could talk in peace.

Ichigo reached the clearing where the two Arrancar had first appeared. He shivered, their reiatsu just felt evil.

He walked over to one of the trees on the outskirts of the clearing and sat down; slowly calming himself down, he descended into his Inner World.

When Ichigo opened his eyes, he found himself standing on one of the sideways buildings located in his Inner World.

"Yo, Ichigo, whacha' doin'" he heard from behind him.

Turning, he saw that it was the Hollow. For a moment, he just stared at the Hollow, taking in his appearance. He looked exactly the same as Ichigo, except for the colors. His hair was pure white, and the Shinigami robes that he wore were the opposite colors of his. His eyes were different too, the sclera was black and the iris was gold. His skin was a slightly paler shade of white, but it was hard to tell without staring for too long.

The grin on the Hollow's face faded slightly and he put his hands on his hips in an irritated manor, "Quit staring, it's rude ya know."

This seemed to snap Ichigo out of the trance he was in, he blinked and then said, "Who said I was staring at you? I was thinking about something!"

"Whoa, you were thinking? That's new." The Hollow said, with genuine surprise in his voice. "Anyway," he said, reaching up to grab his Zangetsu's hilt, "You come to fight?" he said with a shit-eating grin spreading across his face.

Across from him, Ichigo's eye twitched at the thinking comment, "Ah, wait, I didn't come here to fight, I want to talk to you."

The Hollow's grin faded into an unreadable expression, "Why?" was his simple response.

"Because of what you did after fighting Grimmjow, you could have taken control, and I want to know why you didn't."

The Hollow seemed to think about this for a minute. Sure he wanted control, but not all the time. That would mean he would be chased around by Shinigami, and it would also mean losing Zangetsu. Zangetsu was originally Ichigo's blade; if Ichigo was gone, then Zangetsu would be gone too. That would leave the Hollow all alone being chased by tons of high level Shinigami, wanting revenge on him for killing Ichigo. He would be dead in a matter of days.

There was also another reason; the body did belong to Ichigo first. Technically Ichigo was already the King, and him the horse. Now this would be fine and all if it wasn't for one simple fact: the King was weaker than the horse. The Hollow hated that.

There were other reasons too, but the Hollow decided to answer his counterpart's question, "I told you, I was board. There was no one there to fight me, so there was no reason for me to be there." Hell would freeze over before he told Ichigo his reasons.

Ichigo thought about this for a minute, that did make some sense, he had only tried to take control during a fight anyways. So he loved fighting, and was too lazy to look for an opponent. Now that he thought about it, it made less sense, but the Hollow didn't seem to want to give him any other answer. It was a possibility, anyways.

This time, the Hollow asked a question, "Is that the only reason you're here? Psh, how boring." He yawned, to further indicate his boardness.

"No, that's not the only reason I'm here, I have more questions."

"Fire away."

"When I saw you before, you seemed to hate me, but now you're talking like your fine with me. So which is it." Ichigo asked, he was genuinely curious as to the sudden change in personality.

The Hollow looked surprised for a minute before responding, "Both, I hate you, but I'm fine with you right now."

Ichigo took a minute to think about this, how the hell did that work? He hates me, but he's fine with me right now? But that lead to another question, "Why do you hate me?"

The Hollow decided to be one hundred percent truthful with this one, he frowned slightly and responded, "What's the difference between a King and his Horse. And no stupid answers like, 'one has two legs and one has four.'"

Ichigo blinked, what did this have to do with anything? But he decided to go along with it for now, "Um, I don't know." He said truthfully.

The Hollow's eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms, "One carries the other. The Horse carries the King on his back. Why is that, if their forms, abilities, and strengths are the same, when one becomes the king, the other just lends his power. But what makes them different, is what I'm asking."

Ichigo didn't know how to respond.

When Ichigo didn't respond, the Hollow continued, "The difference is instinct. The instinct that is carved into us before we are even born, the instinct to fight, to become powerful, you lack any of it! You try to fight your enemies with a sheathed sword, and it irritates me to no end that the weaker of the two is the King! That is why I hate you."

The Hollow turned and started walking away, "If that's all, then I'm leaving."

"Wait."

The Hollow stopped, and turned his head, "Hm, you wanna fight me now?" he said, a smile creeping onto his face, "Cause' that sounds like lotsa fun!"

"No, I don't want to fight you." Ichigo had his scowl set firmly in place, "If you hate me so much, then why didn't you kill me and take over before, and don't use the excuse 'I was board,' it's not gonna work for this one."

The Hollow mimicked his scowl and responded, "I didn't feel like it. You looked so pathetic, it would have been a joke to fight you then. You're too weak Ichigo."

"So why don't you train me." Ichigo was surprised at his own request-where did that come from?

The Hollow burst out laughing.

Ichigo had been gone the whole day.

That morning, when Yuzu had freaked out over Ichigo disappearing, Rukia hadn't given a second thought about it. He had his Shinigami badge, and he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself. Rukia had decided to talk to him when he got back though, he didn't need to walk around all depressed at a time like this, when the Arrancar could appear any moment.

Sometime around noon, she had started to worry.

She had only been checking up on his reiatsu periodically, and the last time she had checked he had started walking home. Expecting him to be there, she made her way back toward the house.

She was slightly surprised when he hadn't been there when she returned. Throwing out her senses, she tried to pinpoint where he was.

It was always difficult to find Ichigo's exact location in Karakura Town; not because he hid his reiatsu, but because it was spread out everywhere. His reiatsu was wild and stuck to things, which made it hard to pinpoint his exact location in Karakura Town. Since he had spent his whole life here, the air always had some of his reiatsu floating around.

Concentrating, she tried to find where he was, but after a few minutes of searching, she gave up. Oh, she could tell he was still in Karakura town, but she just couldn't tell where. It didn't help that the last place she had sensed him had been near where the Arrancar had first landed, their lingering reiatsu was confusing her sensing abilities.

She decided to wait until night; if he wasn't back by then, she would go ask Renji or Matsumoto to help her search for him.

She had gone up into Ichigo's room, saying that she needed a quiet place to work on her homework; Yuzu and Karin were in their room watching TV. By 6:30, she was nervous. He was obviously staying in the same place, and wasn't moving.

Sighing, she threw out her senses again; trying to find him one last time before going out to search for him. After a minute or so, she saw something. A very familiar presence suddenly appearing near the parks and making his way towards the house. Ichigo had finally decided to stop doing whatever he had been doing and come home.

Sighing, she fell back on his bed, glad that nothing had happened to him. A few minutes later, she could hear the calls of, "Brother, you're back!" coming from downstairs.

Rukia sat up; she could feel his presence getting closer to the door. She took a deep breath and got ready to knock the depression off of his face.

When he opened the door and she saw his face, she was slightly confused. He didn't look depressed, or even worried about anything; he looked frustrated. That was strange. "Oh, Rukia you're here."

That managed to piss her off, "Is that all you have to say? I was worried about you all day because you disappear suddenly, and that's all you have to say?" As she said this, she hit him repeatedly on the head, "Your sisters were worried about you too, imagine the shock on Yuzu's face when she comes in and finds her big brother missing! She thought you had been abducted by aliens! Idiot."

Ichigo was silent for a moment, "Rukia, I'm fine. Sorry if I worried you, but I needed some time to myself."

Rukia looked down, "I guess I might have over reacted a little, I know you can take care of yourself."

From downstairs, Yuzu called, "Dinner time everyone!"

"Well, we should probably go eat, right?" Ichigo asked.

"Right."

Okay, it has come to my attention that my story strongly resembles Daricio's "Feeling Hollow" (which is where I got the inspiration for this story by the way)

I had read it awhile ago, and liked it a lot. I liked his idea, and had a variation of my own stuck in my head for awhile. Things happened though, and I had my mind off fanfiction for awhile. When I got back around to it, I still had this idea stuck in my head, but I had forgotten the title and author that had inspired me.

It was not my intention to copy Daricio's work, and I will make sure that my story is different from his.

PS: I wrote this chapter before I figured this out, looking back it's kinda similar too. I swear this will be the last chapter like that.