New King Chapter- 10

I don't own Bleach.

The next day, they spoke without Mayuri for once. This, they knew was their chance. Hichigo was still in bad shape from the day before, so Rukia's return was most definitely relief. Hichigo was afraid that Mayuri would never let her come back again. But she did, and that's all that mattered to him.

He knew he was relying on Rukia way to much. That it would be harder to kill her... If he still could even..

A conscious wasn't a good thing to get.

Rukia sat outside Hichigo's cell, as he was sitting up against the wall, eyes looking up. Not a word was exchanged for a minute or two, as if they didn't know how to start a conversation.

"Ichigo... How do I get you out of here? She suddenly brought up.

He looked towards her with an almost shocked look. Was it finally time? "Open this cell, and I can find my own way." he told her.

"It's that simple?" she asked.

"No." he sighed. "It's not." Then he told her about the poison, as much as he would have liked to not.

Rukia's only reaction was to wish Mayuri's death even more than before. "Do you know what the antidote is?"

"No." he answered. "The bastard hides it in my food."

Rukia looked at the plate that had been sitting in the cell for quite awhile now. She didn't notice anything unusual about it, but then again, Mayuri was a brilliant bastard. "I only see one solution."

Hichigo looked confused. "And what would that be?"

"You go to Hueco Mundo."

"Kurotsuchi." Yamamoto simply stated. "Do you know why I needed to talk to you?"

"No idea." Mayuri replied, a bored expression crossing his face while standing in Yamamoto's office. He absolutely hated being called in when he could be in his lab.

"Just what have you done with Kurosaki?" he asked.

"Just non-life threatening experimentation." he replied with a tone of annoyance. That order had been definitely a hindrance. Finding a painful experiment that couldn't endanger, that in itself had been extremely difficult.

"So while Kurosaki was spewing blood all over the ground, he wasn't in the slightest danger of dying?" Yamamoto questioned.

Mayuri avoided the question, "I don't see why you make me keep him alive personally. He could do much better to me dissected and-"

"You really want to know why?" Yamamoto interrupted.

Mayuri simply nodded.

"Do you know how long Ichigo Kurosaki has been a shinigami?"

"Of course I-" Mayuri started to say.

"Less than a year."

Mayuri nodded. "I knew that."

"And in this time he's defeated shinigami who have been training for many more years than he's even been alive? Am I correct?"

"I know all that, so what's the poi-

"The point is he has the potential to be a shinigami captain at the least!" Yamamoto exclaimed, then lowering his voice after his outburst. "If you kill him, we loose the potential. The raw potential that's being tainted by a troublesome inner hollow. I have a job for you Mayuri." Yamamoto stated, his eyes meeting Mayuri's with a deep purpose.

"Find a way to separate Kurosaki and his hollow. When you do, kill his hollow."

Mayuri nodded and left Yamamoto's office, with an idea of just how to do it.

"Hueco Mundo? Are you insane?" Hichigo asked her, his eyes wide. He knew about the world of the hollows, but he had no idea how it would keep him alive when he hadn't had the antidote.

"You could.. You could go to Aizen..." she mumbled, unsure of why or how she had ever though of this.

Hichigo shifted uncomfortably on the cold floor from just being nervous. "Why would Aizen help me?"

Rukia looked down, ashamed that she had even thought of this. "You could pretend to be on his side Ichigo. He'd keep you alive then."

Hichigo felt like this was wrong to go to the enemy, but then he remembered, 'Why am I concerned about joining the enemy? I'm in the shinigami's damn research lab.'
He just knew it for sure now. His personality was merging with Ichigo's. He wasn't even finding that he needed to try being Ichigo. It just was natural.

"Opening a garganta to Hueco Mundo is the same as opening one to the soul society... Right?" he asked her, seeing that he'd opened a similar portal to the soul society not so long ago without even thinking.

"I have no idea..." Rukia said. "I'm not capable of it anyways."

"Well you're a shinigami, of course you haven't." Hichigo then said, soon realizing his mistake.

Rukia looked startled. "Ichigo, how strong has your hollow been lately? Can you still hear him?"

"I have no idea..." Hichigo lied. "He's just...-"

"I get it. You probably don't want to talk about him. Seeing that he's ruined your life and all." Rukia mumbled.

'I feel so loved.' Hichigo thought, not knowing really what to say to her after that.

Approaching footsteps broke their attention as Mayuri walked up, slightly infuriated. "Kuchiki! Didn't I tell you that you weren't allowed to see the subject without me?" he questioned.

She stood up, and looked him in the eye. "Yes." she answered.

"I'm going to speak to Yamamoto about ending your unnecessary visits. For now, get out of my lab."

She nodded and walked away, her head hung low. She couldn't imagine not seeing Ichigo; he made her., Happy somehow.

"You've got that girl wrapped around your finger, don't you hollow?" Mayuri stated, peering down at Hichigo from outside the cell.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Hichigo said, knowing one slip up, whatever it would be, would probably end up being shown to Rukia. Somehow.

The scientist cackled. "You think you're so smart? Don't you? Don't you? When I split your soul in two, let's see who's happy then?"

With that, Mayuri walked away, cackling in his usual eerie tone. But this time, Hichigo was spooked.

'Split your soul in two?'

Mayuri was consumed by his task to find a way to split a soul. He wasn't going to give up, until he had finally found a way. He would have been lost if it wasn't for the fact he'd been experimenting with soul splitting for quite some time now.

That's why, again, Rukia was able to sneak in and see Hichigo, without Mayuri.

She walked up, and as usual he sat, not doing much of anything.

"Rukia..." he happily greeted."Good to see Mayuri not here."

She nodded. "I don't have long." she then stated. "Yesterday, I found were Mayuri keeps his keys."

Hichigo's eyes widened. "Where?"

"In a room near the normal exit actually. They're all hanging on wall, but today, the door was locked. With a kido barrier."

He stood up. "Do you think you could break through it?"

"With time, but how would I know which key to grab?"

"Just grab them all." he replied.

They were silent for a bit, considering what they were thinking of doing.

"You'll have to distract Mayuri. Then get him away from you somehow."

"I can do that."

Mayuri was done. Finally what he had labored over for hours, was complete. A procedure that could split a soul that was in a pill size. It had taken him the time it had only because, he had went through the possibility after going through some reports, and finding out about something called a 'viazard'. He only could dream of finding some normal idiot to test it on. But that hollow... That hollow was going to be his first real test.

'Soon... He will be-' Mayuri's thoughts were interrupted by a hell butterfly making its way into the room.

-Hollow hybrid subject is attempting suicide. Test subject life risk.-

"I guess I'll get to test this a little earlier than I thought." Mayuri said with a grin. Grabbing a pill, he went to go test it.

For the last five minutes Hichigo had been hitting his head against the wall, trying his best to distract Mayuri and give Rukia some time. Blood was gushing out of his nose, but he didn't care.

Distract Mayuri!

This was the key to his freedom. He made it as convincing as possible.

"What in the hell are you doing?" Mayuri said curiously, walking up to the cell door, the look on his face telling the rest of the story.

Mayuri looked almost happy. But Hichigo didn't answer and continued to hit his head on the sekiseki wall.

Getting slightly irritated, Mayuri had enough. Opening the cell door himself, he prepared himself to face Hichigo, but he had a plan.

Hichigo as usual launched himself in a vicious attack towards Mayuri, seeing no zanpakutou, he hoped to overpower him quickly.

Mayuri sidestepped and Hichigo crashed to the floor. "Out of practice hollow?"

"Not in your life!" Hichigo spat, going after Mayuri once again.

But this time Mayuri went on the offense, his hand forming a fist, and he sent a direct punch towards Hichigo's jaw.

It connected, and Hichigo was sent hurtling backwards. Fatigue and overall weakness from his time immobile, the experiments, and the sekiseki rock had given Mayuri the advantage by far.

While Hichigo was reorganizing his thoughts, he felt something going down his throat.

"What… what did I just swallow?" he stated, in pure shock.

"Ichi-!" Rukia came running back, only to see Mayuri towering over Ichigo, who seemed to be trying to cough something up.

"It's no use hollow. You noticed too late."

Rukia ran up to Ichigo, a look of pure concern in her eyes. "Ichigo... What did he do? What's-"

Mayuri pulled Rukia back away, much to her protest. "When the split occurs, it'd be best not to be too close. If you died down here, Yamamoto wouldn't be pleased."

Rukia was pulled back, only left to witness what happened next.

Ichigo was having a full out what looked to be a seizure. He twitched uncontrollably and looked to be in an incredible amount of pain.

"You bastard!" Rukia screamed as she fought against Mayuri's hold. "This is torture!"

"It's a hollow. This really doesn't concern me." Mayuri stated without emotion.

Then, it stopped. Ichigo was motionless, his eyes were blank, his chest unmoving, not breathing. His spiritual pressure, non-existent.

Rukia held back a scream.

Mayuri sighed. "A failure. Yamamoto won't be pleased…" Turning around, he prepared to walk away, when a figure stood.

White hair streaked with stripes of orange, a grey sclera and an almost golden iris, a man stood up from his presumed dead copy. An exact copy in all physical aspects.

Walking over to Rukia, he ignored the shocked Mayuri. The man got down to her level, saying only "Thank you Rukia." when his face was an inch from hers. Without even a reason, a purpose, or even a motive, he leaned in slowly.

After a moment of silence, he did what he intended to do; his lips gently met the petite shinigami's.

She didn't push him away, hugging his larger frame, she wasn't going to let go. His larger frame wrapped around hers, and the embraced for the time. Their kiss, not passionate in any way.

Just a few seconds later he pulled away. Reluctantly, she let him go, and he once again stood at his full height.

With the swipe of his hand, a rip appeared in the air. Black and ominous, an obvious garganta.

"Thank you Rukia." He stated, looking back for a second.

He then turned back away, but before he could move even a foot...

"Wait!" she said, causing him to turn back.

"What?" he answered, in the definite normal Ichigo way of doing things. Not like the man that had just kissed her.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Hichigo Shirosaki. Thank you Rukia."

With that, he stepped through the garganta, having it close up behind him.

Rukia stepped into 4th division barracks just like she had done every day now for awhile. Going to the last room, she opened the door, and greeted the sleeping inhabitant.

"Hey Ichigo, how ya feeling?" she asked casually, knowing she wouldn't get an answer from him.

The shinigami was in a coma, and had been for a week now ever since the incident in Mayuri's lab. His once bright orange locks now dull and streaked with grey. His eyes were a strange color also, but since they had been closed, Rukia wasn't sure what they were now.

She knew the truth. The one she had been seeing in Mayuri's lab was Ichigo's hollow.

The one she had trusted was Ichigo's hollow.

The one she did her best to protect was Ichigo's hollow.

The one man, who had kissed her, was Ichigo's hollow.

Going over to his bed, were he hadn't moved, other than to breath, she ran her fingers through his hair.

"You idiot… "

She grabbed his hand.

"Why won't you just wake up?"

She squeezed his hand.

The shinigami who had been in a coma for a week, blinked.

"R-rukia?" he struggled to say, his voice coarse and barely audible. His eyes blinked a few times trying to focus his vision.

"Ichigo!" she exclaimed, hugging him unexpectedly.

"What..." he coughed, "Are you doing?"

Her face turned beet red. "Um…" she let Ichigo go, and he struggled out a laugh.

"It's alright... I never said it was bad." He replied. "I've missed a lot, haven't I?"

Rukia punched him in the shoulder. "No kidding strawberry."

"Hey! Don't re-injure the injured."

"Yeah alright…" she agreed reluctantly.

"Do you understand the conditions of this agreement?" Aizen stated from his throne, staring down.

"I think I do. Antidote developed by Szayel for my services, I think that's pretty clear."

"Well then, welcome Primera Espada, Hichigo Shirosaki."

Fin.

That is the ending to The New King. Finally, I completed a multi-chaptered fanfic. Thanks to all of you that reviewed, and to all of you who didn't, well, I hoped you enjoyed it also. As you all should notice, I left it very very open for a sequel. if you all want me to write a sequel, leave a review stating so. Otherwise, i'll just leave this where it is. The beginning of this story was my first post to fanfiction. It's been a fun journey, and i'll most definitely keep writing!

Just to.. Make an end note comment... This story, I believe anyways, has really reflected how i've grown as a writer as I started writing on this site. Hopefully, this will be just a start to my fanfiction writing. So goodbye for now, and leave me a review! (: