"Well it could be worse."-Speaking

'Don't say that you fool...'-Thinking

"Pathetic"/"What the hell?"-Hollow/Weapon Form talking

"Fight!"-Zanpakuto/Yelling/Attack Name

Chapter 8: Ichigo unleashed! The Demon Sword

It was a fairly peaceful night in the streets of London. The cobblestone streets were silent, the roads were empty expect for the few cars that traversed them during the dead of night, and the houses, shops, and historical sites were silent.

All so peaceful…and there was a clock shop on fire.

Okay then…not as peaceful as one would expect.

But as the flames enclosed the shop, a single figure leaped out of the inferno at a amazing speed. Landing on a nearby street light, the figure twirled his cane in annoyance. Things were not going as he had hoped.

Adorning his body was a particular set of clothes. A pair of high dress pants and shoes from the mid-1900s along with a straight jacket, not to mention the gigantic hat he wore upon his head. Limbs as thin as tubes of cardboard yet as long as a few yard sticks with gears sprouting from his back and arms, twitching like broken mechanisms and clockwork. And that nose, good god that man has a huge nose.

This was Tarrant Hightopp, a former owner of the resident clock shop. This of course was before the man's eventual fall into insanity and reformation as an evil human. While before he was a nice fellow that enjoyed seeing his creations helping others keep time, this monster of a man was now obsessed with gathering the souls of others, hoping to expand the ever shrinking clock that was his life.

For the last couple of days, this 'Mad Hatter' had spent his time creating unstable and unholy monsters out of gears and the bodies of the victims he had already killed. Monstrous creatures of rust and pain, they hunted nearly anything that had a soul, always on the prowl at an exact hour during the twilight hours of the night.

But these creations were the very reason why the DWMA had located the sociopath in the first place. While hunting down a lesser known target, a duo of students was attacked by these strange creations and in the resulting struggle they were able to capture one of them in one piece. With a certain scientist's efforts (which included taking the creature apart and putting it back together multiple times) the source of these vile creatures was determined and a single warrior was unleashed to deal with this threat.

Which of course brings to our current situation.

"Look at this travesty! This abomination of destruction and calamity! Do you realize what you have done?" Tarrant screamed in rage, the destruction of his workshop would set him severely behind schedule.

Stepping out the flaming inferno was the very man who was sent to deal with this evil human…not that he wanted to anyway. Hell, he would rather be asleep in detention due to the antics of a certain blue haired excuse for a ninja.

Tossing one of the hatter's destroyed creations to the side; Ichigo gave the madman a simple shrug. "Honestly? I more concerned about that giant nose of yours…"

"My nose? How dare you! You insolent little twit!" The Hatter instantly exploded into a massive rant, screaming at the young shinigami about various things that concerned time, his intelligence, and various other outdated insults.

"Hey King." Ichigo tuned out the rambling of the steam punk wana-be and turned his attention to his inner world.

'What?'

"You ever read that old story 'Alice in Wonderland'?"Ichigo nodded, he had read that story once before in middle school, it was a fairly interesting read for an old fairy tale.

'Yes…'

"Does this guy remind you of anything? I swear that huge hat reminds me of something from that book…"

Ichigo thought for a few seconds about it. It had been a long time since the last time he read that book, so it was difficult to remember the exact characters from it. But there was always that diseny movie that he used to watch with Yuzu…ah, good times.

"Stop Ignoring Me! You insolent little pile of trash!" Tarrant roared in rage. His time had already been wasted by this fool, but was he seriously ignoring him now? That's just insulting!

In response to his rage, the man pointed his cane at the young youth. Flicking a small switch located on the device, the top of the cane popped open with a click. Seconds later a massive stream of flames burst from the small device, preparing to engulf the boy in its burning fury. But this was no issue for Ichigo, for with a simple burst of shunpo Ichigo was out of the range of the attack in a matter of seconds.

"You're going to need to better than that." Ichigo called to the hatter, having landed on a nearby lamppost after he dodged that inferno.

But Tarrant wasn't amused, it even looked like steam was going to explode from his ears in a fit of rage (and seeing how altered his body was…that may have been possible).

Quickly snapping his fingers, the hatter's grin expanded as the burnt remains of his workshop started to shift as something moved from beneath the ashes. Two large figures then lifted themselves from the house's remains, revealing themselves to the shinigami.

It turns out that these two creatures were the latest of the bazaar and disturbing experiments that the Hatter had been working on before he was caught.

The figure to the left resembled a large humanoid rabbit…or at least it might have before the hatter got his hands on it. Now this creature was a mess of flesh and gears, the lower portion of both of its legs had been replaced with mechanical limbs. Its left arm too, was now nothing but a slab of metal, although this one had a blade as a replacement for a normal hand.

The one to the right also had an animal-like appearance; this one was a very large mouse…although it too was twisted with the hatter's mechanical madness. Instead of having a normal set of legs, this critter had a set of wheels attached to its lower body. Its tail too had been replaced with a random series of tubes and tape, and there was even a key designed for a windup toy attached to its back!

It only took one glance for Ichigo to turn back to the Hatter with a disgusted look on his face, "You have some serious issues!"

The hatter just shrugged and waved off the insult, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but your little insults will never hurt me."

"But you on the other hand…Hare! Mouse! Send this brute back to wonderland in a body bag!"

The metallic monsters just stared at their master in confusion, not really understanding. The Hatter slapped himself in annoyance; perhaps messing with their minds to such a degree wasn't the best idea.

"Silence this vermin! Kill him!" The Hatter yelled at his minions before turning away and jumping off the street light. But even after the madman vanished into the shadows, his voice could still be heard saying something along the lines of…

"And be quick about it! It's almost tea time."

The two minions quickly nodded at their master's order and charged at Ichigo (although the mouse lagged behind a little bit, he might have fallen asleep a few moments ago...lazy mouse).

The Hare's amazing jumping ability easily allowed it to join Ichigo atop the lamppost. Swinging its bladed arm at the young shinigami, the Hare's attack would have cleaved through any human in a bloody display. But Ichigo easily deflected the blade with Zangetsu and followed up with a well placed kick to the creature's head. The Hare staggered backwards for a moment (nearly falling off the lamppost in the process), giving Ichigo a clear opportunity to tear the monster in half with his sword and put it out of its misery.

But before he could do so, the lamppost started to buckle and fall. Looking downward Ichigo saw the other creature, the mouse. Using its newly metal teeth, the Mouse easily tore through the steel like it was cheese.

"Son of a bitch!" Ichigo cursed before leaping from the falling structure.

Materializing the reiatsu in the air, Ichigo created himself a nice sturdy place for his to stand on. But he didn't have a chance to enjoy this brief moment of peace.

Using the falling post's falling momentum, the Hare pushed off the falling frame and shot towards Ichigo. But as the beast flew towards the shinigami, Ichigo reared his sword back and swung Zangetsu, unleashing an unnamed Getsuga at the monster.

The blue arc of spiritual energy collided with the robotic Hare in a huge explosion, but it was not enough. The Hare (with its flesh now burnt into nothingness, all that remained was the metallic frame that the Hatter had installed) continued to sail towards the young shinigami, its blade prepared to slice up its target.

However, the Hare's speed was nothing that Ichigo hadn't seen before. With a simple sidestep; the Hare completely missed its intended target. Underestimating Ichigo's reaction time would be this machine's worst…and last mistake.

It was like slow motion. Ichigo lifted up his blade as the robotic Hare's eyes widened. A quick slash was all it took, for in a single moment the Hare was sliced in two before each section of the hare exploded in a bright light.

As the smoke cleared, Ichigo turned his attention to the remaining monster that the Hatter had unleashed on him. But he didn't expect what he saw.

The robotic mouse-type thing…was asleep!

"Ok…didn't expect this…" Ichigo muttered. You'd think a robotic death machine that was built by an insane time obsessed evil human would be more…fearsome, more destructive…more active.

Still, Ichigo wasn't complaining, this just made his job even easier. A sleeping mouse made for an easy target. Lifting up Zangetsu, Ichigo prepared to finish the robotic monstrosity as quick as possible. But before Ichigo could launch his attack the mouse's eyes suddenly shot open and with a screeching sound, the monster's back ripped apart with a sudden display of gears and wires.

In gruesome fashion, the creature's spine slowly (and painfully) separated into two parts before slowly rising upward. Somehow defying all the laws of physics (not that it was new or anything), the rodent's spine had morphed into a pair of metallic rods that were housing two identical steel cases.

Which then opened up into two identical missile launchers...that were pointed right at Ichigo.

"Well…crap."

Explosions erupted in a destructive display as the Mouse emptied its weapons onto the shinigami. There must have been at least twenty or thirty of the explosive projectiles, enough to easily demolish a small block or two.

Gazing up at the flaming cloud of destruction that its weapons had created, the Mouse waited for his enemy to show itself again. While the Hare was impulsive and fairly thick headed, the Mouse had a fairly complicated mind and a laid back personality (too lay back if you asked anyone else). It had a good hunch that its attack was nowhere near enough to defeat his enemy, and was prepared to continue its assault.

Reloading the launchers attached to its back, the Mouse slowly approached the position that Ichigo had been previously residing. Never taking its eyes away from the dwindling cloud (the wind was making short work of the black mess that disturbed the night sky), the robotic rodent primed its missiles and…

-Slick-

…suddenly found itself sliced in half by a massive oversized cleaver of a sword.

The machine had nearly no time to react to such an odd situation before its mind degraded in a pile of nothingness. And with an explosion that nearly matched its Rabbit themed counterpart, the Mouse drifted into a more…lengthy rest.

And up in the sky, the cloud of ash that the Robotic mouse's missiles had created finally vanished, revealing an basically unharmed Ichigo.

Reappearing next to his sword (which was now stuck in the ground), Ichigo took a hold of his Zanpakuto's hilt and pulled it free from the stone covered ground. Taking a quick glance at the surrounding alleyways and empty streets, Ichigo made sure that there that none of the Hatter's weird metallic creations were preparing to ambush him.

However after a few minutes there was no sight of any more of the Hatter's crazy machines. Taking a brief moment to sigh in relief, Ichigo then turned his attention to a much more important task. Find that big nose freak, aka: The Hatter.

"Fantastic…I look away for five seconds and that freak vanishes." Ichigo grumbled.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the Hatter had indeed taken the opportune moment and vanished from the local area. Now that seriously annoyed Ichigo. Due to the alterations that this Evil human had done to his body, it was extremely hard for even the most adapt sensors to locate this monster's evil aura. And seeing how Ichigo wasn't the best at sensing spiritual energy, it just made his job even harder.

Still, it's not like Ichigo could just say 'screw this' and leave. Nope, he had to bring the head of this madman (or his soul, whatever came first) back to the academy as proof of his mission's success.

But as Ichigo briefly thought to himself about where in the hell this madman could have run off to, he didn't quite notice a small shift in the remains of the Hatter's shop.

Rising out of the smoke induced remains was a giant metallic machine. It was made of large rusted pieces of metal; all put together like a welder had been in a drunken rage while at a scrap yard.

Attached to its left arm was a giant metallic fist, a giant blood covered fist of metal. And the other arm? A giant drill. Yep, a giant boiling drill was attached to its right arm. And finally, standing on the very top of the metallic monster was the Hatter himself and boy, he was pissed.

"Such a waste." The Hatter rubbed his forehead in annoyance, "My store, my workshop, Hare and Mouse…Do you have any idea how much work you've just wasted?"

Ichigo didn't say anything. Honestly, he was getting real tired of all this guy's complaining.

"Ten years…TEN years!" Hatter screamed in rage, "Ten years! 3,652.42199 days! All of it WASTED! All of that time…you owe me now! And it's about time you pay me back!"

Sinking into the machine, the Hatter grabbed the monster's controls and prepared for his revenge. Pressing a few buttons caused the machine to roar to life. The arms screeching as the metal shifted and tore against itself as the limbs lifted themselves for the first time. The drill started to spin and the fist smashed a nearby house in preparation. All of it meant one thing, this machine was preparing to tear his enemy a new one.

But really, Ichigo wasn't impressed. With all the weird technical weirdness that this Hatter had created...Ichigo expected something more than a giant robot. Still, Ichigo lifted Zangetsu off his shoulders and turned it toward the Hatter's giant.

It was time to end this.

[Let the Madness Resume! Your Soul is Mine you pathetic little Twit!]- The Hatter's voice roared out of the machine's speakers, echoing throughout the empty streets. Although, there was a new sound that his giant machine caused him to miss.

"Pum-Pumpkin..."

[Your time is Up! The Gears of Time have dealt you your final hand!]

"...Pumpkin..."

[Now You Shall Di-]

"Halloween Cannon!"

Without warning, a large orange beam exploded forth from the giant machine's torso. If one was to look at the scene from a different angle, they would notice that the beam was not coming from the machine itself, but it had ripped right through it. In a destructive display, the power of this surprise attack tore the machine to pieces (with the limbs going limp, arms falling off, and the chest portion [where the Hatter was] basically exploding into a fireball).

As the gigantic machine collapsed into a pile of junk, something small and smoking suddenly flew out of the machine's destroyed chest area and headed straight toward Ichigo. Quickly returning his weapon to his back, Ichigo caught whatever had flew at him just before it would have slammed into his torso.

Looking at the strange thing, Ichigo was annoyed to find out that the thing that nearly slammed into his chest like a cannon ball was actually…the Mad Hatter's head.

And even worse…he was still alive (somehow).

Ichigo glanced at the head with annoyance, "Well…that was anti-climatic."

"DON"T YOU MOCK M-"

The hatter started to scream at the shinigami, but Ichigo wisely dropped the head onto the ground in a effort to shut him up. And before the Hatter could roll over to his side and continue his rant, Ichigo lifted his foot and stomped on the hatter's head (Splitting it in two like a pumpkin, finally killing the Hatter).

"Man, this guy had a bigger mouth than Kon..." Ichigo mumbled, kicking the remains of the Hatter's head off his foot (inwardly glad he was made of gears and not...well, blood).

"Hey Ichi!"

Walking past the broken remains of the Hatter's machine, Blair gleefully approached Ichigo with smile on her face. Having been brought with Ichigo on this mission, Blair had been tasked to deal with the Hatter's weird monstrous creations while Ichigo dealt with the Hatter and his more important creations. In fact it was actually Blair who destroyed the Hatter's base (who accidently caused a chain reaction when she destroyed a few of the Hatter's Tea-pot machines).

Blair was so happy that Ichigo had brought her along for this mission. Combine the time she had gotten to spend with Ichigo (School had been really cutting into the time Blair had wanted to spend with Ichigo, much to her annoyance), she also got to kick some major ass!

"Like my new hat?"

Confused for a second, Ichigo glanced over to Blair and noticed that she had somehow retrieved the Hatter's oversized hat from the inferno and was now wearing atop her head. It wasn't that surprising that the oversized thing looked a lot better on her then it ever did on the Hatter himself.

Ichigo shrugged, "It looks nice."

Blair gleefully bounced on her feet at Ichigo's words before transforming in a 'poof' and returning to her kitty form. Perching on Ichigo's shoulder, Blair took notice of the empty streets and total depletion of the Hatter's monsters.

"So...are we done here Ichi?"

Ichigo, having just placed the Hatter's soul into the containment device that Shinigami-sama gave him on his first day (which of course looked like shinigami-sama's goofy mask) just gave her a simple shrug. "Pretty much, I think we are done."

Their mission was entirely made for them to hunt down and defeat the Mad Hatter, so now that he was dead...their job was pretty much done.

"Really?" Blair ask, getting a nod from Ichigo, "Yay! This place is too boring!"

"You think everywhere is boring!" Ichigo said, which got a fake look of hurt on Blair's face.

-Death City: A few days later-

It had taken a few days but soon enough Ichigo and his companion were gladly back inside the protective walls of Death City. Sure, he had to stop at a few places on the way back (Blair spotted a few places she wanted to visit), but still they were finally back (too bad it had to be nearly midnight though).

Ichigo had to admit, he was starting to warm up to this place. Sure it wasn't Karakura town or anything, nowhere in all of heaven or hell could take that place in his heart. Ichigo spent the most of life there, he grew up there...that place was where his mother was. And his friends, Orihime, Chad, Uyru, Tatsuki, they were all still there. Karakura town would always be his home.

But still, Death City was starting to grow on him. People like Maka, Soul, and even Blair were good friends and it was safe. Hell, there weren't even any hollows here! That was a factor in itself! And sure, things were crazy at times, but for Ichigo...things had to be a little crazy for him to feel normal these days.

So with Blair riding on his shoulder, Ichigo gladly started to make his way back his apartment. If there was anything Ichigo was looking forward to was a night of sleep in his own bed. He didn't even care if Blair tried any of her normal crazy stuff this time, all he wanted to do was sleep.

'BEEP BEEP' 'BEEP BEEP'

The familiar beeping sound resonating from his pocket nearly made Ichigo stop in his tracks. Why? Why now of all times did this have to happen!

"Ichi...is that?" Blair asked, her tone really not liking that sound (especially not at this time at night).

"Yep." Ichigo grunted, reaching his hand into his pocket and pulling out a familiar (and still goofy) mask that the Headmaster of the DWMA had given him on his first day. Whenever a message was being sent to the device the eyes gave off a weird red glow and made the most ANNOYING beeping sound. And there was only one reason why a message is being sent to it.

Shinigami-sama needed a job done.

"Ugh! Ichi do you have to!" Blair asked, coiling her tail around Ichigo's arm. She was really tired, but she also didn't want Ichigo to go off and do another job without her.

"Yep..." Ichigo grunted, still not liking it.

"Can I come with?" Blair asked. She knew how Ichigo would answer her, but she still felt like trying.

"Nope." And with that Ichigo made his way back to his apartment, set Blair down on his bed (she tried her normal tricks to get Ichigo to stay, but they didn't work...as well this time) and prepared to set off. Slamming his badge on his chest, Ichigo vanished in a burst of shunpo.

-The DWMA, the Death Room-

"Ok boss, you've got five minutes to explain why I'm not in my bed asleep before I knock your ass into next week." Ichigo ask the elder shinigami with a scowl, he was not in the mood for this crap.

Ichigo had arrived a few minutes ago with a huge scowl on his face. He instantly arrived at the Death room via a few quick bursts of Shunpo and soon came face to face with three people. Stein, Spirit, and Shinigami-sama were waiting for him.

"Ichigo, you should really treat shinigami-sama with more respec-" Spirit told the young boy, but got the tip of Ichigo's Zanpakuto pointed right at the center of his face.

"One more word perv, and I'm tossing your head though a window." Yeah...Ichigo really wasn't in the mood for any of this.

Feeling the tension in the room, Shinigami-sama decided that it was about time for some explanation for why he had called the three here. He was certain that besides Spirit, none of them wanted to be here (Stein was busy with a experiment and Ichigo wanted to get some sleep) to maybe it was about time to give them some reason.

"The Demon Sword has appeared."

Stein and Spirit instantly became serious at this news, but since Ichigo had no idea what a Demon sword was he still didn't see the point of summoning him at this time at night. Noticing the lack of caring in Ichigo's expression, Shinigami-sama decided to give him the short version the story.

"A Demon Sword is a meister and weapon that are one step away from becoming a Kishin. The whole point of creating this school was to stop this from happening, so it must be stopped as soon as possible."

And just to add some tension...

"The Demon Sword has also appeared at the same location that Maka and Soul are currently at while on a mission."

Now that was something that got every ones attention.

"So, I'm sending you three as back up for Maka. With the Demon Sword on the loose, I need my best men to go assist them." Shinigami-sama explained, but Spirit still had an important issue to bring up.

"Um...how do you expect us to get there in time? It would take hours to get there!" Spirit yelled, completely enraged at the fact that he may have no way to help his daughter.

The shinigami raised a non-existent eyebrow at the question, "Oh, that's simple."

Shinigami-sama waved his glove over toward his mirror, release a bit of black energy in the form of electricity. As the energy touched the mirror, the frame of the mirror started to shift and morph. The frame started to expand and shift upward while the glass mirror started tochange from its normal refletive apperance into a black void.

When the transformation had ended, the mirror now resembled a doorway, but to Ichigo at least...the mirror now resembled something else, something he was far more familar with.

A Garganta.

"While we supply the students normal ways of transportation when it comes to their missions, sometimes a more...direct approach is needed." Shinigami-sama's voice rang out, collected the three's attentions' away from the doorway.

"Indeed Spirit, this is the Dark Doorway To Salvation...or DDTS for short."

Spirit still looked utterly confused by all of this 'Door' business, "And it does...what exactly?"

"Well, due to the fact that my Death room is basically a separate dimension, this doorway allows me to open up a portal between anywhere in the Living world and my death room, allowing for instant travel."

Soul and Stein were amazed at this concept and the fact that it was actually possible (although Stein was more concerned with the fact that Shinigami-sama had been able to develop one sooner then he did). Ichigo on the other hand was concerned with something else...

"Why does it look like a Garganta?"

Shinigami-sama looked surprised at Ichigo's question while Spirit and Stein looked even more confused then they already had been.

"Well...I got the idea from a quite brilliant source. While I am unable to use a Senkaimon do to my obvious...differences with the Soul Society, I needed a similar way to connect my Death Room with the living world...so the next possible idea was using a garganta."

Ichigo rubbed his head with annoyance because of that answer. It didn't seem possible. Gargantas didn't work this way, and how someone was able to get something like this to actually work would have taken one hell of a mind. And besides, the only people that were able to open gargantas were Arrancar, Mayuri that one time, and...Wait a friggen minute.

"Did Urahara help you with this?"

Shinigami-sama shifted in his place for a moment, "Well...maybe a little."

"When I get back, I would really like a full explanation of all the stuff that nut is involved with." Ichigo told the elder shinigami before turning toward the gate. He was really getting tired of learning that Urahara of all people was the cause of most of the things in his life that broke all laws of physics.

"No promises." Shinigami-sama said as Ichigo walked away, 'smiling' at the trio.

"Figures..." Ichigo muttered before stepping into the void, Stein and Spirit following behind him (they were hushed away while Shinigami-sama answered Ichigo's question, not wanting to get even more confused than they already had been).

It turns out that despite the difference with the workings of the portal, the typical way a garganta looked was actually kept intact. The darkness, the endless void, the pieces of spiritual energy that floated throughout the darkness was all still there. The only major difference was that the walkway was now fully integrated into the path (when beforehand a person would have to shape their own path themselves).

But all thoughts about the gateway soon vanished as the trio approached the portal's exit. Exiting through a nearby mirror, the trio soon found themselves facing the empty streets of a town.

-Meanwhile...the Church-

'What now...what are we going to do now?'

Those were the words that were vibrating through Maka's mind. How could such a simple mission go down the drain so quickly?

Maka and Soul had been sent to the town to hunt down a evil human, nothing too big or anything. The mission was fiarly simple, they quickly found their target and eliminated him in no time. But it was at this point that things started to go wrong.

Maka soon felt an abnormal Soul wavelength coming from a nearby church. It was filled with what felt like more than three dozen human souls...and two others that felt like Miester and Weapon. Despite it not being a part of their mission (Soul even thought it could have been BlackStar doing something stupid), the duo quickly arrived at the location and were meet with a bizarre scene.

In once single moment, all the souls that Maka sensed earlier...vanished.

Despite bing overwhelmed with a feeling of dread, Maka and Soul soon entered the church and confronted whoever was in there. But what they found was not what they were expecting, for instead of finding a Meister and a weapon Maka and Soul found a single person standing in the center of the church.

This made Maka scratch her head in confusion for a few seconds. She still felt as if there were two souls in this church besides her and Soul, souls of a Meister and a Weapon. But her confusion soon subsided into realization as she connected the dots...

...whoever this boy was...his weapon was inside of his body...

The boy didn't even look at the two as they entered, completely ignoring them. He even started to talk to himself for a few moments before erupting in a tremendous amount of pain. Maka and Soul could only stare in horror as this boy's back suddenly exploded in what looked like...blood, black blood.

But instead of falling to the ground in a sick puddle, the blood curved upward above the boy's body and formed a body for itself. Attached to the boys back was now a large muscular figure with a large white 'X' over its head and two large white orb-like eyes.

Maka warned the two of what they were doing and the consequences that would come of it, but they did not care a bit. The figure then exploded into a fluid form again before reforming into a large black Claymore. He took the weapon and stared down Maka with a twisted look on his face.

The two pairs instantly engaged in combat, with Maka overwhelming to boy fairly quickly with her advanced agility and skills. But this did not last long, because the moment Maka tried to cut the boy in half with her weapon...something changed. The boy's blood hardened to the point that despite putting all of her strength into her attack, Maka could not breach the surface of the boy's skin.

It was at this point that things took a turn for the worse.

Being unable to inflect any notable damage onto her enemy, Maka was forced to go on the defensive. But when she blocked the first attack that her opponent made, she discovered a shocking revelation.

Her foe's weapon could produce vibrations at such a high level that by even touching Soul weapon form...he could cut into it, harming Soul. Unwilling to allow her partner to be harmed by such a thing, Maka refused to use Soul to block any of the boy's attacks and resorted to dodging any incoming strikes. But that wasn't enough, nowhere near enough.

Due to the isolated area of their battle and the fact that Maka couldn't attack or defend, she had only one option left in this fight.

Run.

But it turns out that even this was impossible now. For her enemy soon informed her that the doors of the church that they were currently fighting in were only able to be opened from the outside...which means...

She was trapped.

With fear keeping up her spine, Maka could only watch as her foe gleefully raised his weapon into the air, preparing to end her life. Soul screamed at her to guard, but she refused even at this desperate time...even with her life on the line she refused to allow her weapon to be harmed in place of her.

But when the weapon the boy was wielding was brought downward on this enemy, it was not Maka's blood that was spilt.

Soul had taken her place, and protected his meister.

Maka could only stare in horror as her weapon fell to the ground in front of her, a large bloody wound on his torso. Catching her weapon, Maka muttered apology after apology to her friend, terrified at the outcome she had allowed to happen. She couldn't even look up as her enemy descended onto them with one final attack, the one that would end their lives.

"Soul, I'm sorry..."

-Slick!-

"Wha? What happened? My Body?..." the boy's suddenly asked, utterly confused.

Confused by the lack of pain and the sudden sound, Maka looked upward in surprise. Out of nowhere, a large black Blade suddenly exploded form from the door behind Maka, impaling the young boy's torso.

The two didn't even have time to question what had just happened because in yet another second a fairly large foot came busting through the door, kicking the boy in the face and sending him flying across the church. Utterly surprised, Maka looked toward the source of such a kick and saw a pair of familiar figures walk into the church.

With his massive sword resting on his shoulder, Ichigo enter though the busted door with Stein following close behind. But at the sight of Stein, Maka came to a conclusion of what the blade that saved her was.

"So this blade is..."

In a flash of light, the massive curved blade suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a man in a black suit and red hair standing in front of Maka. This was of course, her father...Spirit.

"Papa has arrived!" Spirit said in pride. Spirit had been looking forward to his valiant display, this was a sure fire way to get back on Maka's good side. There was no way that she could still hate him after seeing him heroically save both her and her weapon partner!

"Professor Stein! How is Soul?" Maka asked her teacher, dreadfully worried about her partner.

"The Wound is pretty serious, he is going to need proper treatment soon or he may not make it." Stein told her, removing his coat and covering up the wounded boy.

...Too bad that idea went out the window when he realized that she wasn't even looking at him (Maka was in fact paying far more attention to Stein, who had rushed over to the wounded Soul the moment he entered the Church).

Sighing at the lost chance to impress his daughter, Spirit soon turned his attention back to the wounded boy. Despite being impaled though his torso, the child was surprisingly already on his feet.

"Hey! Where are my thanks? I hardened the blood around the wound and stopped it from bleeding!" A sudden voice called out from the Boy's torso, revealing the figure from earlier manifesting from the boy's wound.

"T-thank you..." The boy muttered.

"Very Much!" The figure screamed before putting the boy in a headlock, "I'll beat the crap out of you! Very Much! Say it!"

"T-thank y-you very m-much...Ow! Quit it! That hurts!" The boy replied again, trying to pry the figure off his head before any damage was done.

The duo continued despite the audience that they had before them. Maka stared at the duo for a few moments before turning to her teacher with a question. What was this guy? How could he do such things with his blood? How could he have a weapon inside his body? It made no sense! But before she could ask a single question a sickly cough caught her attention.

Soul seemed to be in worse condition then Stein had first thought. Quickly removing his coat from Soul's torso, Stien cursed as he examined the wound. "Shit! It's worse than I thought...we need to get him medical attention right now."

"What!"

Stein then turned his gaze on the one member of his group that they had yet to be recognized. "Ichigo! Can you handle this guy until we return?"

"What? Professor you can't be serious!" Maka screamed, the idea of leaving Ichigo to deal with this guy alone frightening her to the core. She understood that they had to get Soul to a hospital or something, but they couldn't leave Ichigo alone in all of this!...could they?

Ichigo, who during all of this had been standing across from the boy briefly, looked back to Stein with a hardened gaze. With a small nod, Ichigo returned his attention to the floor in front of him, his eyes filled with a emotion he hasn't felt for a while.

"Alrighty then." Stein said before gently picking up Soul, "We will be back as soon as we can, just hold him off till then!" And with that said Stein quickly ran out of the church with Maka (reluckently) and Spirit in tow.

As soon as the trio had vanished into the streets of the town, Ichigo let out a small sigh. Lifting the massive sword off his shoulders, Ichigo let the massive blade slam into the church's floor in a loud crunch. That sound also caused the duo bickering nitwits to finally snap out of their shouting and turn their attention to the only remaining person in the church with them.

"You know..." Ichigo called out to the two with a regretful tone, not even looking at them. "I was told that I was only brought on this mission to stop you, nothing more...nothing less."

"But after what you did to Soul and Maka..." It was at this point that Ichigo stared at the duo, his gaze finally meeting them.

"I am going to Break you!"

Ichigo instantly got the sound of a annoying and sadistic laughter as a response. The large black figure was laughing at him and his threat (While giving his partner a noggie), "Break me? You think you can break me? That's hilarious you retard!"

The black figure instantly disappeared back into his miester's body, "Come on Crona! Beat the Hell of of this guy or I'll wake you up once every hour for the next week every time you try and sleep!"

The now identified Crona seemed horrified at the very idea, "But the rings under my eyes will get even darker! I don't know how to deal with that!"

"Then do it and end him!"

With that final statement, Crona looked at the orange haired boy in front of him and charged, "I've never seen a boy with orange hair and a sword that big before! I don't know how to deal with that!"

"EAT him! EAT him and then we can go after the ones that ran away!"

With a small yell, Crona swung his weapon at the boy standing before him. But instead of bringing his own weapon to counter this one, Ichigo did something far easier. In a sudden flash, Ichigo completely vanished from the boy's sight, leaving Crona completely shocked as his weapon impacted the ground instead of his target.

Crona instantly tried to look around for his target, but before he could even catch a hair of the boy he suddenly found something strong grab his head.

"No, no you won't."

Ichigo, having reappeared behind Crona via a burst of shunpo, lifted the boy into the air via his head. With a heavy toss from Ichigo, Crona soon found himself flying though the air toward a very thick wall. But before the timid boy slammed painfully into the wall, a familiar orange haired figure appeared in his path.

Lifting his arm into the air, Ichigo slammed his fist into Crona's face as he flew toward him, knocking the boy once again into the air. Quickly retrieving his sword, Ichigo launched himself into the air above Crona and lifted his blade upward.

"If your blood can protect you from being cut, let's see how much punishment your body can take!"

Swinging his sword forward, Ichigo released a unnamed Getsuga Tenshou. The Blue ark of energy slammed into Crona's torso before exploding on impact, propelling the boy back to the floor. Crona's body smashed into the ground with a sickening crunch, leaving the boy in a small crater that his body created.

Ichigo dashed through the air in a burst of speed toward Crona's prone form, content on continuing his beat down. But when he was about a yard away from the boy, he caught something in the corner of his eye.

Coming to a sudden halt in mid-air, Ichigo was met with the sight of a long black spike nearly impaling him in the head. Tracing the spike back to its source, Ichigo was surprised to see it come from a small puddle of blood.

"His blood..."

"Ichigo! Move!"

Hearing his Zanpakuto suddenly scream, Ichigo quickly vanished in a burst of Shunpo. Reappearing near the church's entrance, Ichigo saw why Zangetsu had warned him. At the very spot Ichigo had been floating a second ago was over fifteen spikes...all. If Ichigo hadn't moved...then he would be swish cheese right now.

"Ichigo, I can feel that beast's soul in each drop of that boy's blood!"

'Damn, why did Spirit have to impale this guy? That just makes it more annoying.' Ichigo's thought as the spikes slowly shrunk back into their individual puddles of blood. Due to the fact that Spirit impaled Crona when they arrived, there were multiple puddles of blood scattered around the church.

Lifting Zangetsu over his head, Ichigo prepared to clear the church of not only all the blood but Crona as well. But before he could unleash his attack, something caught him off guard. Floating in the air were multiple small orbs of blood, all in which were surrounding the young shinigami. With small sharp spikes on the tips of the orbs, a sudden high pitch voice screamed out.

Bloody Needle!

Crona's weapon Ragnarok watched gleefully as the orbs of blood launched their needles at his enemy. He told that moron that he would didn't stand a chance! That douche was so stupid! Now he was about as usefully as a pin cushion. Maybe his soul would be tasty even if it had some holes punched in i-

"That's a nasty trick you got there..."

"WHAT?" Ragnarok screamed in rage, his pupil less eyes widening at his enemy. How could he still be alive! He didn't dodge, he didn't move, he just stood there! He should be dead!

But he wasn't. Ichigo was just standing there, not moving an inch since the attack was launched. But there was something different about him...something changed, but Ragnarok couldn't anything! All he could see was a strange looking shoulder pad being gripped in Ichigo's hand.

"Using your blood as a weapon, that's a new one..."

Ragnarok was enraged. Taking a closer look, he noticed that his Bloody Needle attack were frozen in place. They weren't moving or attacking, they weren't even responding to his commands...why? They were a part of him! Why we they not killing him? It made no sense!

"...but you want to know something?..." Ichigo asked, starting to slowly walk toward Crona and his weapon. It was at this point that Ragnarok noticed something utterly freighting.

As Ichigo walked past the orbs of Blood that had been surrounding him, they disappeared. No, that isn't a correct assessment, it was more like they turned to ash...falling apart. Why were they falling apart?

Suddenly in the blink of the eye, Ichigo suddenly appeared in front of Crona in a flash. It wasn't the same shunpo that he had used before; he just appeared...as if it was just speed itself. Crona was so freaked out by the sudden closeness that he nearly fell on his behind. But fortunately (or unfortunately) for him, Ichigo was there to catch him...by lifting him up by his shirt.

"I'm sick of bullshit tricks like that!" Ichigo sneered at Crona.

And then without any warning Ichigo threw Crona like a baseball, sending the boy flying through the air at tremendous speed. But this time, Crona was sent flying through the Church's entrance, landing quite painfully on the stone streets of the town. Sitting up from the recent ass kicking, Crona felt his head spinning like a top.

"Ugh...I think I have a concussion...I don't know how to deal with that..." Crona muttered while Ragnarok tried to snap the timid out of it.

"Damn it! He rattled your brain!" Ragnarok shook Crona's head in desperation, "Hurry and come to your senses!"

"I don't think so..." A sharp voice made Ragnarok freeze up for a brief second before slowly looking back toward the church. Its fears were realized because there, at the entrance of the church was Ichigo, his eyes tearing into the weapon's skull.

"You have wasted enough of my time, it's time we finish this." Ichigo called out as he started to approach the two, causing Ragnarok to twitch uncontrollably.

"No! No! NONONONO! YOU ARE FINISHED!" Ragnarok screamed before he completely manifistated himself above Crona. Then in a sudden explosion, Ragnarok blew himself up and transformed into over a hundred of small orbs of blood. These orbs quickly surrounded the orange haired shinigami.

BLOODY NEEDLE!

The massive number of spikes suddenly exploded forth in a massive attack. If you were to compare this attack to the last one, then the former would have been a pile of sticks and the current one would have been a giant haystack of needles. Crona couldn't even see Ichigo anymore, the shear number of needles were just too great.

"HA! How does it feel to be like a needle in a haystack...OF NEEDLES!" Ragnarok laughed like a maniac, "You were so mighty! You said you were going to break us! You stupid dumbass!"

"Actually...it felt rather nice."

Those words make Ragnarok freeze in shock. No...There was no way in hell the hes...any way...

Reforming his head from Crona's earlier wound, Ragnarok stared at the giant haystack of bloody needles. There was nothing for a few seconds; you could hear a pin drop it was that quite. But like the sound of shattering glass, a small portion of the needles suddenly exploded into nothing.

"How...the Hell?"

With a simple swing of his Zanpakuto, Ichigo shattered and destroyed the rest of the bloody needles before walking once more toward the duo. Noticing Ragnarok still shaking in fear (and Crona was still light headed from getting tossed around like a rag doll), Ichigo prepared to end this needless struggle.

Too bad someone else beat him to the punch.

Stepping a few feet further towards the Demon Sword, Ichigo felt the sudden appearance of a Soul Wavelength, and despite his current 'condition', Ichigo could easily tell that this one was a very powerful one. Looking upward towards its source, Ichigo was raised a eyebrow with what he saw.

Floating right inform of that insane moon was a woman on a broom. She had her face hidden by a hood, but Ichigo could clearly see the long Blond hair she had along with some kind of strange tattoos on her arms. But what surprised Ichigo the most was her soul wavelength, not only was it powerful but it also had a similar feeling that Angela had...which meant one thing.

She was a witch.

"I must say, you put on quite a show Strawberry-san." The witch called out to Ichigo, causing him to sigh in annoyance. Ichigo really hated it when people gave him nick-names.

Ichigo narrowed his eyes at her, "That's nice, I always intend to up on a good show. But before I continue this performance, may I get your name madam?"

The witch gave out a chilling chuckle before shaking her head, "Oh in due time little boy, in due time." Then the witch turned her head toward Crona, "But before we continue this conversation, I need to pick something up." And with that said, the witch began to chant a weird set of words while waving her arms.

"Snake-Snake, Cobra-Cobra."

"Snake-Snake, Cobra-Cobra."

At first Ichigo didn't understand what the witch was doing with these words, but then he remembered the chants that Blair normally does before she fires any of her attacks. Ichigo was about to get a first hand test of a Witch's true magic.

Suddenly, the strange tattoos on the witch's right arm suddenly came to life before Ichigo's eyes. With the ink transforming into a gigantic snake-like creature, Ichigo watched in confusion as it slowly reached down to the ground a picked up Crona.

Lifting the Demon Sword back up to her, the Witch gave a small chuckle before turning back to Ichigo "Well Kurosaki-san, I'm sorry to say that it's time for me to depart, I'm sure I'll be seeing you again soon enough though." And with that, the witch and Crona began to float away on her broom, but a single question caused her to stop in her tracks.

"How do you know my name?"

The witch turned her head with a creepy smile, "Oh Ichigo, I have been watching you for a long time now, it shouldn't be that much of a surprise that I know your name."

And Ichigo just grunted in annoyance before swinging Zangetsu behind his back.

"I hate being watched by someone I don't like. You weren't the first. That man has a special place in the worst portion of my mind, and I'm sure you won't be the last, but that's besides the point..."

Ichigo continued as his tone turned from calm to furious in a few seconds, as his rage continuing to build. His Zanpakuto glowed blue with his spiritual energy and the ground itself started to dissolve.

"And what is your point?" The witch asked.

"The point is...I killed the last man who spied on me in a rather painful way; don't give me a reason to do the same to you!" Ichigo roared, swinging his Zanpakuto in anger.

Getsuga Tenshou!

The massive arc of energy was propelled in a destructive force, much larger than any of his previous attacks could even hope to be. The Witch's eyes widened at the sudden attack and quickly got to work to try and counter it. Quickly moving her hands in rapid succession, the witch called out a spell as a insane number of black spikes of energy shimmered into existence.

Vector Arrows!

The exact numbers of the energy arrows that she produced was uncertain, but the mass numbers she mad could have blocked out the sun if she did it during the day. They raced through the air at a unimaginable speed, racing to rival the massive attack Ichigo had unleashed.

As the two attacks finally collided, the explosion was immense. It filled the sky with fire and destruction that would make a couple of war grade missiles look like some Fourth of July fireworks. And even when the explosion finally ended, the smoke that it left behind still filled the air.

Realizing that the smoke would give the witch a huge chance to escape, Ichigo swung Zangetsu with enough force to make the smoke vanish in an instant. But by then it was too late, the witch and the Demon sword (Crona) were gone.

"Damn."

Shaking his head at his failure, Ichigo walked back toward the remains of the Church (it kinda got damaged during the explosion). Lying near the busted entrance was something that had been a part of Ichigo for a few weeks now, something that he hadn't taken off since...that incident.

It was a metallic shoulder pad; some specially designed by old Hat and Clogs himself with a single purpose. The purpose of keeping Ichigo's powers in check. Now it wasn't something that was forced on Ichigo by Urahara, no...Ichigo wanted it for himself.

When Ichigo learned the Final Getsuga Tenshou, he did it for the sole purpose to kill Aizen...and that was it. But somehow, he did it without using that power...but now, Ichigo had no idea how to use it. He had seen what Aizen could do with his power and Ichigo's was even greater then Aizen's at that point.

It's just too much for a single man...too much for a teenager. Especially one that wants to protect everyone around him...

Clamping the device back on his shoulder, Ichigo imminently felt a rush of power leave him. But to him it felt normal, it felt right...and it also brought to familiar voices back to his mind. Voices that whenever Ichigo removed that seal vanished into the void, making him feel so...alone.

"Ichigo!" The sudden sound of a new voice quickly brought Ichigo out of his inner thoughts (much to his relief) and back to the real world. Looking for the source of that new voice, Ichigo let a small smile come to his face when he saw Maka running toward the church.

"Hey." Ichigo greeted the young girl as she walked up to the ruined church.

"Ichigo! What happened? Where is the Demon Sword? And what happened to you? I couldn't feel your soul wavelength for a while! What happened?"

Maka bombarded Ichigo with multiple questions, something Ichigo had expected to happen. Combine the recent events (the battle with Crona and Soul being harmed), sensing Ichigo's soul wavelength suddenly vanish and the massive destruction that was now present surely must of caused some questions to appear in her little head. But before she could get too deep with her questions, Ichigo grabbed her by the shoulders and brought himself to her level (a thing he had to do a lot with the students at the academy seeing as he was taller than most of them).

"Maka first things first, how is Soul?" Ichigo was far more concerned with the status of her partner then answering all the questions she had for him.

Maka stopped her barrage of questions for a moment (looking quite embarrassed as she did so) and thought back to Soul, "Professor Stein has gotten him stable for now, he should be fine until we get him back to the academy."

"That's good." Ichigo gladly replied, happy to know that his friend was okay. Letting out a brief sigh of relief, Ichigo patted Maka on the back and started to make his way back towards the portal that Shinigami-sama made earlier.

"Ichigo wait, what happened?" Maka tried to ask the shinigami what was wrong, but he just shrugged her off.

"Maka, I'll tell you tomorrow." Ichigo waved back to her as he walked away, "Right now, I'm going to bed."

And with that remark Ichigo disappeared in a burst of shunpo, if there was anything on his mind at this very moment...it was how much sleep he could get in before he had to go to school the next day.

And there we go, Chapter 8! I'm sorry for how long it took.

If any of you guys have any questions on this chapter and my logic in all of this, please send me a PM or a review (That I can reply to), I'll try with the best of my abilities to answer them.

Oh, and don't expect Ichigo to remove that seal a lot. That is going to happen a very few times in this fic, this instant was just the first out of a very few times you will see it.

I'm sorry I couldn't add any Bleach characters in this chapter, it just had a nice ending point in my mind and by adding a character would have made it run on too long. But trust me, next chapter you guys will have a Bleach character appearing! (and no, not Kenpachi YET, I have plans for him).

And if anyone of you guys have guessed, the Mad Hatter and his two robotic minions were based on the characters from American McGee's Alice, although made to fit the Soul Eater Universe (also that Robot was also from the squeal, Alice: Madness Returns).

Edit: Also, I'm looking for a picture for this story (via the new Image manager for this site), If anyone has any ideas just say so!

So that's it for this time my friends, I'll try and get the next chapter out sooner then this. So see you all then!