Chapter 6: Invasion.

Grimmjow looked on his student with some slight discomfort and pure joy. On the one hand the thought of fighting someone who get this fired up over something as unimportant as some woman ignited the fury in his own soul. But on the other hand, he knew in the back of his mind that this would spoil their inevitable fight. When they fought he wanted this hollows undivided attention something that could never happen so long as he was lusting after some girl. In a sense Grimmjow was rather jealous. Fortunately, for this case, he was willing to be patient as well.

"So what the hell are you waiting around here for?" He asked the hollow when it finished shaking the very foundation of the world around them. The hollow breathed deeply and quickly for some time trying to calm down and regain its composure. Grimmjow continued, to make the silence slightly less awkward. "You're fighting on par with an Arrancar, and a rather powerful one at that, if I do say so myself. I seriously doubt whoever took her from you has the power to keep you away now. Who took her anyway?"

The hollow remained quiet and pensive for a short time. He still didn't really consider these memories to be his own, and he was hesitant to search them. But he did know that these impulses and feelings he felt at the thought to the black haired girl were coming from the deepest parts of his soul. He would have her; that much was certain.

"Soul….Society." He finally answered in his calmer slower voice.

"What?" Grimmjow said, a little taken back. "Did they rescue her from you or something?"

"No…. They kidnapped her." The hollow answered and then he told Grimmjow his story. Or at least, he told him a story, he still didn't think it was his. He told Grimmjow that he had been a human who could see ghosts and that one night he had been attacked by hollow. He told him about how the black haired girl had shown up to save him and had been horribly injured trying to protect him. He told him about he had become a Death God to save them both and his family. He told him about all the adventures fighting hollows and saving his friends he had had with the black haired girl. Then he told him about the horrible night when warriors from Soul Society, the girl's own brother, had come to arrest her. He told him how he had almost died that night and how soon; the black haired girl would be put to death for saving his life.

The story took a rather long time to tell. It was a long enough story as it was made all the longer by the hollow's erratic manner of speech. Grimmjow remained quiet throughout it. When it finally ended, hours later he thought about all he had heard for a moment, and then burst out laughing. The hollow glared at him.

"And here I thought you were just some poor shmuck who was unlucky enough to get caught up in a battle between hollows and Death Gods. But you are something else. You've been a Death God and were cut down for it. Now you're coming back as a hollow. That's real cosmic irony right there. Still, you must be nuts to do this."

The hollow rose up on its legs and tensed every muscle in its body, growled and dared Grimmjow to explain why that was so. Grimmjow just smiled at the sight of such antagonism. In the privacy of his mind, he thought that this crazy bastard might just pull it off.

"Soul Society is the home of the vast bulk of all people who have died. That is an insane number of people. Millions of them are then gathered as Death Gods who spend decades sharpening their skills in constant battle. They all live in a massive, damn near impenetrable fortress. They are led by twenty six of the most powerful people in the whole damn universe. People, even I wouldn't challenge lightly. And you want to take them all one, to save a girl: who has spent decades being taught that beings like you should be killed on sight and has been preparing to do so?"

"She…Will…Be…Mine!"

"That almost sounds believable." Grimmjow finished with a smile. "But you can't do it as you are now. If you really want to take on all of Soul Society, you're going to have to learn a bit about yourself."

Grimmjow stood up and took off into the air. The hollow followed him preparing for an attack that seemed inevitable. It never came. Grimmjow simply took him up to the tallest branch of a massive tree. They were higher up than the hollow had ever gone on by himself. They were so high up that he could see the great sand ceiling that separated the hollow forest from the great desert of the Adjunchas.

"When Death Gods, and humans fight," Grimmjow began to explain after he took a seat on a branch. "They use weapons and magic spells to empower themselves. This focuses their destructive potential making them stronger, but it also makes them reliant on their weapon, which weakens them. Hollows don't need to pervert ourselves with such things, but we do need the focus such weapons provide. Instead of using machinery and weaponry, hollows use biological changes to our bodies. Even our ceros are partially alive.

"Your body already knows what weapons would serve it best, and given enough power it will manifest them. To gain the power you must learn how to dominate the souls that you have consumed. At the moment you can absorb power from your meals like a land lord collecting rent, but you can do better than that. If you break the lingering wills of the souls you have consumed you can fully manipulate them. You can force those souls to sacrifice themselves as a cero blast, you specialize them into power plants, and you can give them free reign over part of your body to transform it into a specialized weapon. This way you can gain the power of a Death God's Soul Slayer without having to rely on an actual weapon.

"I can't teach you to wield those special powers. Your own body will develop them when you need them and not before. But it can't reveal those powers till you have tamed the souls within you."

"How?" The hollow asked.

"Simple, you have to go to sleep."

"Sleep?" The hollow repeated, a little hazy on the subject.

"Normally, hollows don't sleep, so this might hurt a bit."

With that Grimmjow drew his sword and spoke harshly to it. "Grind…" The hollow never heard the rest, as his words were drowned by a sudden explosion of smoke and power. The next thing the hollow saw was what looked like a big cat's paw rushing towards his face then it all went black.

Skip

In the living world three projectiles went flying out of a small humble shop across the sky. They twisted about the air and quickly made their way over to three humble houses with open windows. A few minutes later Inoue, Chad and Ishida gathered at the entrance of the Urahara shop. Inoue and Chad were wearing their casual day to day clothes. Ishida wore a white suit complete with gloves and a cape. Yoruichi was waiting for them.

The black cat nodded to them and led them inside the shop in somber silence. When they got all the way down to the large desert training area beneath the shop where they were warmly greeted by Urahara himself. He then snapped his fingers and caused four stone pillars to snap together forming a large square behind him.

"This will be your gate to Soul Society." He explained, "Normally only Death Gods and pluses can make the trip guided by a hell butterfly. To turn you all into pluses we would have to kill you all and leave your bodies behind. This gate will transform you bodies into spirit particles and allow you to make the trip. Once I open it I can only keep it open for a very short amount of time so please move quickly. Don't touch the walls and pray that the janitors have already come and gone."

"Have you heard anything from Ichigo?" Chad asked.

"I have as a matter of fact." Urahara declared, while Ishida asked himself how anyone as un-resourceful as Ichigo could've gotten his hands on a means of communicating between the world of the dead and living. "He has already infiltrated the court of pure souls by disguising himself as a Death God stationed there. He's currently looking information about where Rukia is being held as well as a way to sneak you all past the main gate."

"Tell him he doesn't have to worry about that." Yoruichi stated, shocking the others. "I already know a sure way of getting into Soul Society."

"If you use the way I think your thinking off you won't be able to easily meat up with Mr. Kurosaki."

"That probably doesn't matter." Ishida declared, knowing that they might not meat Ichigo over there at all at this rate. "Once things get serious I'm certain we can just follow the trail of destruction to reach him. Besides its more important that he finds out where Rukai is being held."

"A wise suggestion Mr. Ishida. Now if you all could get ready and I will open the gateway." They prepared, and the gate opened.

Skip

There was a heavy fog here. He stood up and felt very strange. He felt vulnerable, exposed and weak. He felt his face, there was no mask there. He felt his chest, it was whole. So he was himself again? He laughed at himself and looked around. He was standing on the side of a building. The building was cracked and overgrown with strange vines. As he stood up he saw a lake in front of him and behind him was the sky, dark and overcast with thick black clouds.

"This place sure has gone downhill." He said to himself in a voice that sounded almost alien.

"Not really, when the king changes its only natural that the world should change with it." A more high pitched, erratic voice answered him. He looked and he saw a version of himself that had gone through a negative filter. Its skin was white, not light tan like Europeans have, but as white as a sheet of paper. His teeth were black and his eyes were golden. He seemed alien, but at the same time, strangely familiar.

"You're my instincts right?" He asked his ghost self.

"More or less."

"I don't suppose you have a name?"

"Why would I need one? I know who I am and so do you."

"I guess that's true."

"Yeah you guess. Just like you guess that it would be a good idea to rescue that girl."

"What do you mean?"

"I thought stopping you from meeting him would make this world mine, but you're still king for some reason. I can't stand it. Here I am, eating souls, getting stronger, keeping us alive, and you go and throw us from one dangerous situation after another. You made us fight that Shinigami, instead of running. You made us kill that hollow, instead of escaping. And you made us train under that sadistic bastard instead of killing him when we had the chance. And why do you make us do all this? To save some girl who will probably try and kill us when you're done."

"Everything I have asked you to do has made us stronger. Am I really such a bad king?"

"You're not the only one any more though."

"For now."

"What makes you think I'm going to let you kill them, and not simply empower them, or myself to replace you?"

"Simple, you don't really want to rule. You're my instincts. You want control to protect us, and to be honest, I don't really care if you keep it. But you don't want to actually be in charge."

"Why not?"

"What would you do with it? Eat humans and run through the desert? We may die doing what I ask, but I know you won't let that happen, and at the end of it all we will be much more powerful."

"And what would you do with that power?"

"Not sure yet, maybe well slay the moon and slice up the heavens. Who cares? We'll burn that bridge when we cross it."

"Hmph." The golden eyed creature smirked to itself, "So, what are you here to do?"

"What any good king should do. Crush some rebels and feed my horse."

"Fine. Go ahead. They're in the water over there."

"What underneath it?"

"Don't worry, I won't let you drown. Unless you lose."

With that he jumped off the side of the building and gravity was kind enough to take him into the water. He could breathe in it, and so could all the souls around him. They were practically faceless and formless. Vaguely human shaped grey blobs. They had no eyes but they did have mouths, screaming mouths. Some were larger than others. Some were chained together; he guessed these were the hollows he had been eating. He cracked his neck and knuckles and took a deep breath. Then he got to work.

It wasn't fighting. The souls around him could barely move in the water. They were weak and slow and their bodies were weak and fragile. He crushed them easily enough. Smashed some and snapped others into pieces. When he did their bodies would break apart and dissolve into the water. The more he broke the stronger he felt. No matter how many hundreds came after him, he kept it up quite easily. Before long their ranks began to thin and they started to flee from him.

He didn't let them escape. He shot through the water with his sonido and continued the slaughter. After a short time he had to leap quite far to find anyone to break. Still he felt great power remaining in the water around him. He followed it to the source. Despite how closely he paid attention to the energy, it still got the drop on him.

It was very large, twice his size at least. It had several other souls chained closely around it. It had a face, but not a notable one. It was losing its power and identity in this water just like the others, but it was still holding together well enough. It grabbed him by the leg and slammed him into the side of a building. It then rushed forward and punched him in the gut. He had the wind knocked out of him, and then it threw him down to the ocean floor at its feet.

It stood on his chest like it was trying to hold him down and drown him. But it wasn't working. It wasn't heavy enough to keep him from breathing and the water still offered his lungs little trouble. He calmed down from the initial surprise and grabbed his foe's leg and whipped him off.

"You're the grand fisher aren't you?" He asked.

"I was- no I am and you killed me!" It answered.

"Yeah I did, ate you too while I was at it."

"Of all the indignity, you will pay for this! I will kill you and become the king of your body!"

"Is that what he told you?"

"Who?" The fisher inquired with a confused look on its half face.

"The instincts- I mean the white guy on the building up there."

"What makes you think I have a partner?"

"When we fought in Heuco Mundo, I defeated you rather easily. Something must have changed if you think you can beat me in my own world after so much of your power has drained."

"I don't need anyone's help to defeat a pathetic little worm like you."

"I bet you thought the same thing in the living world; right up till I cut through you."

"What are you talking about?"

"You mean you don't remember me? I'll give you a hint, you killed my mother."

The fisher paused and thought about this for a while. Then his half formed eyes lit up in realization. "You're that-"

"Yes I am."

"Good gods of hell." The hollow gasped.

"Yeah, so that means that you are never going to get out of here. I will never forgive you for what you did, and I will never cease to torment you for it." He concluded, rushed forward and ripped the fishers head off. He then swung down with his other hand and cleaved what was left of that body in two.

"That was easy enough." He remarked as he turned on the floor of the sea. He knew that all of the human souls that had been here were now gone, but he sense something else. There was still great power in this water that he didn't control. So he followed it to see what was down here.

After a short burst of speed he came to a door. It was large and heavy and well sealed. It was it designed to hold something in; not keep someone out, so it opened easily enough. On the other side, he saw a body in the distance. It had long dark hair, and seemed to be wearing a black cloak of some kind. It was chained to the walls, and its hands were tightly bound. It looked up at him, but before their eyes could meet, someone grabbed him from behind. It was his negative self.

"Not so quick there partner, you're not ready to meat something like him. What you've done today is good enough. So you can head back now."

He blacked out at those words. As the darkness closed in he turned away from that black smile back at the prisoner. He felt like he should know him for some reason. He didn't know why, but he really wanted to meet that man in the black cloak. Maybe next time.

Skip

Ikkaku and his partner were now standing on the top of the building that had so diligently guarded for at least eight days now. Eight long boring, hollow free uneventful days. Eight days that they would rather forget happened at all.

"We should've done this ages ago." The elegant Shinigami declared to Ikkaku.

"I know I know, enough already. We're going now though; so shut your trap already."

"Hurry up and open the gate already!"

"I would if you will just shut up already." Ikkaku ordered as he thrust his sword into the air before him, ordered it to open and turned his sword sideways. Nothing happen.

"Well what are you waiting for?"

"It's not working."

"What do you mean it's not working?"

"The door won't open."

"Try again." He did, and nothing changed. The other Death God tried with his own sword, which didn't work either. "What the hell is going on?" He demanded to know.

"Wait a minute." Ikkaku said, causing his partner to pause mid panic. "I think I remember someone saying something like 'seal all the portals so they can't get back,' when I called Soul Society last week."

"WHAT!"

"Yeah I'm pretty sure someone said that in the background."

"Quick try our squad portal!"

"That's the one I tried already."

"Well try some other squad's gate."

"I don't know any codes to the others."

"You mean that were stuck here in the living world?"

"That's what they're trying to do."

"Ye gods! I don't want to spend the rest of my life out here without proper hair conditioner!"

"Don't blow your top just yet. I know a secret way back into Soul Society."

"What? Why do you know a secret way back in?"

"Everyone should know a secret way into Soul Society, what if hollows ever took over and forced us to mount a counter attack from the living world?"

"I think we would be up a -t creek without a paddle."

"Besides that I mean. Anyway, back in my home neighborhood there was this crazy medium. He would make the trip over from time to time trying to get in contact with the dead ancestors of his clients. All us kids living back there made friends with him and he taught me the spell to open up the portal if we ever wanted to get back there."

"Ikkaku,"

"Yes?"

"Didn't you live in the sixty ninth southern district of the Court of Wandering souls?"

"Yeah and your point is?"

"That's a five day walk back to the Court of Pure Souls!

"I'm sure we can find some conditioner for you on the way."

"Yes but not my brand!"

Skip

The hollow's muscles jerked into life after an hour or two of sleep. Grimmjow had returned to his normal form and was watching over his apprentice like a mother hawk over her eggs. Red and black lines of power radiated out of it, and Grimmjow smiled when he felt how malevolent and aggressive the energy was. The power continued to leak out till finally the hollow's body exploded in a burst of darkness.

When the shadows cleared the hollow was standing up. The hollow looked only slightly different. The entire right half of his mask was covered in black and red lines and marks. His teeth were sharper and better defined, more like fangs than human teeth. Black and red lines ran down his arms to cuffs of orange hair around his hands. His shoulders were much broader and the spikes on his black were longer and more noticeable. His tail now had a red tip to it.

The power was quite different though. It was both subtler and more noticeable at once. His power was no longer pounding and constant. But it was also much more sinister and forceful. One could completely fail to feel such power, till it was right in front of them. Then it couldn't possibly be ignored. Grimmjow loved it and burst out in a wide smile and erratic laugh at the sight of him.

"Now that is a proper transformation. No beating around the bush. No flashy wasteful, vulnerable body parts. Just what you need to be efficient in fighting and killing. I love it. Now about those powers of yours. All we have to do is beat them out of you!"

The hollow returned Grimmjow's smile at the thought, Grimmjow wasn't even certain how it was possible to smile with teeth like that but this just made all the better. They rushed each other, claws and fists at the ready. But at the last possible moment the hollow fell back. Grimmjow halted at the sight of such uncharacteristic hesitation. Then he paid attention to the world as well and felt it. Someone was trying to force their way into Soul Society.

"Friends of yours?" He asked. The hollow took off in the direction of the disturbance. Grimmjow grabbed him before he got too far.

"Their already long gone friend," He explained, "Besides, there's a janitor in that portal, they might not even make it at all."

"I have to go!" The hollow declared in its erratic powerful voice, trying to tear itself free of Grimmjow's grip.

"Why? You've still got several more days till the execution, who cares what fools like that do to themselves?"

"I DO!"

"Maybe I won't let you?" Grimmjow suggested, and just barely managed to dodge the claws reaching for his eyes. But before the hollow could get much farther the energy vanished.

"See? They're already gone, or dead, it doesn't really matter. Now then let's—" Before he could finish another idiot tried to force their way into Soul Society, and the hollow was already moving to intercept it.

"Of for the love of—"Grimmjow started as the hollow took off, "You need more time!"

"I don't have any! I will make do with what I've got." The hollow answered. Grimmjow stopped and smiled as he remembered that this was exactly what he loved about this little bugger.

"Fine then!" He called out after him as he sonidoed to his side, "at least take this with you." He added as he set his hand on the back of the hollow's neck causing a burning sensation to erupt.

"I've got some friends over there in Soul Society; this mark will let them know not to kill you. If you live though this come and see me, maybe even bring that stupid chick so I can see what all the fuss is about."

The hollow nodded. He dug his hand into the air before him and tore open a portal into the portal to Soul Society. All around him purple walls were closing in. Up ahead he could see two men making their way towards a bright light. Just before a wall swallowed him up he took off at his highest speed and crossed though the light well ahead of the two who had opened the portal, and entered Soul Society.

End