Chapter 2: Teal Hair and Bad News

After explaining what happened in the best way Ichigo could (even he didn't know what happened), Toshiro stood in shock.

"So let me get this straight. You were fighting Grimmjow, then your inner hollow pulled you into your inner world and attacked you. You stabbed each other, and your souls merged?"

"Um. Yeah." Ichigo just stood there, having no idea what to do. Suddenly Toshiro turned around and stuck out his sword, turned it ninety degrees, and opened a senkaimon. "Where are you going?"

"To report to the head captain of course." Toshiro said cooly. "It is my duty as a Captain. Obviously."

Ichigo remained silent as the captain walked through the senkaimon. He looked up into the sky. The sun was setting. Uh oh. "MY BODY!"

He sonido'd back to school as fast as he could, noting that he could no longer flash step. He returned to school and saw an ambulance outside. Damn it. He had hoped this wouldn't happen.

He dashed to his body and got inside just before the paramedics shocked him with a defibrillator. "HEY HEY HEY I'M FINE!"

"Ah! What the hell?" The paramedics yelled.

Ichigo jumped up before they could restrain him, dashing out of the crowd and running in the direction of home.

He reached the door and paused. He went up and put his ear up against it. Slowly... slowly... he opened the door. And sure enough: "WELCOME HOOOOOOME ICHIGOOOOOOOOOOOOO! YOU'RE LATE!" Ichigo leaned to the right and his dad flew right past him.

He walked through the door. "Hey Yuzu, what's for dinner?" He lifted his leg behind him into his father's incoming groin as he once again leapt at Ichigo.

"What the hell old man?"

Isshin ran and smacked himself up against the picture of ichigo's mother. "MASAKI! OUR SON IS SO MEAN TO ME!"

"I WOULDN'T HIT YOU IF YOU WEREN'T CONSTANTLY TRYING TO CRIPPLE ME!" Ichigo yelled.

"Calm down Ichi! Dad, you need to stop being mean to Ichi!" Yuzu pouted.

"Yeah that'll happen. Maybe when it starts raining children." Karin entered in her ever sarcastic tone. "Ichi-nii, can you hit him harder next time? Maybe he won't have the strength to get up and complain to mom's picture.

Isshin just turned around and sobbed into the picture of his late wife sobbing something along the lines of his family turning against him.

"I'm going to my room." Ichigo turned and walked up the stairs.

He didn't feel that tired, but when he sat down on his bed, he fell over asleep.

Where am I? He woke up in an odd space, similar to his inner world, but there were no skyscrapers. It was instead formed of mountains. Some of them were massive, some were more like large hills. But he noticed in the distance a dark cloud. A very dark cloud. He started walking over but, to his surprise, he was there almost immediately. It was then he realized he was dreaming.

He looked around the land, and he noticed that wherever there was a shadow under the cloud, it wasn't just dimmer. It was pitch black. Then something caught his eye. A white ghostly figure walked just around the corner of what he figured must be a mountain (it's not like he could see it). Just as he was about to follow, he heard a very familiar voice say ,"Wait."

"Old man Zangetsu? What are you doing here?" Ichigo asked, actually startled.

"If you walk into that darkness, your soul will split again, but this time your hollow will be much stronger than you. There is no question he would take control. That ghost you saw was an echo of the hollow's will, which of course wants your soul to split so he can be in control."

"Oh. Thanks for warning me." Ichigo was greatly alarmed. He had almost brought a blight on the world that would require several captains to stop. "What is this place?"

"This is your new inner world. When your soul merged, its fundamental properties changed. That's never happened before, as far as anyone knows, so it would make sense that many things would change. But there is one last thing I need to do."

"And what is that?" Ichigo asked.

"Let me ask you: what do you think Soul Society will do when they hear that a soul reaper fused their soul with a hollow?"

"I just want to keep being a soul reaper." Ichigo was confused. He hadn't yet realized what really happened

"That's not what I asked. Let me ask a follow up question. What happened when a soul reaper bound their soul to a hollow?"

"Like the vizards? They were banished from... Soul... Society. Oh. Shit."

"Exactly. Now that you have fused your soul with a hollow, Central 46 will undoubtedly order your execution. What I need to do is give you the power to protect yourself."

"How will you do that?" Ichigo was not only confused. He was confused and worried.

"I'm going to fuse my soul with yours." Zangetsu drew his sword – which was kinda weird since he was drawing himself.

"Wait! Does that mean you will disappear too?"

"No. There will be an echo of my will as well. It will not appear as often, but 'I' will be there. When I fuse my soul with you, you will have power greater than that of every hollow in Hueco Mundo, every soul in Soul society, and every living entity in the world of the living combined. You will have to be careful though. When your soul merged with the hollow's, your combined reishi was condensed so small that a single particle of your new reishi is equal to 500 particles of your new reishi. When I fuse with you, one particle will be equal to 5000 normal particles. You originally had power greater than twice that of a captain. You will now have over 10,000 times the power of a captain. Exerting 5 percent of your power will crush the head captain to the ground. 10 would kill every being in any given realm. 15 percent would crush the earth."

Ichigo was almost speechless. "How will I keep control of all of that power?"

"I will seal away 85 percent when I fuse with you, and my echo will seal 10. The last five you will have to control yourself. Let's begin." Zangetsu literally threw himself at Ichigo's chest. Hoping it worked like it did with his hollow, he raised his sword straight in front of him.

They impaled each other at the same time, and the same reishi transfer occurred. Suddenly, Ichigo felt an immense pain on his chest and face.

Ichigo's eyes opened and he gasped for air. When he looked down, or attempted to, he saw his father with his elbow in his face, and shoulder on his chest. His father had knocked the wind out of him, and given him a bloody nose. Damn goat.

"What the hell old man?" Ichigo was pissed. Which was bad. Very bad. His own spiritual pressure was crushing his father onto his chest.

Ichigo took a deep breath, or tried to, and lowered his spiritual pressure.

"Ichigo. What was that?" Isshin asked him a little too calmly. Like, Unohana calmly. Ichigo shuttered at the thought.

"I'm going to be late for school! Bye!" He dashed downstairs and grabbed a quick egg that Yuzu had made. He ran out the door with a burning hand and ran a solid block before he slowed to a walk. He probably had 3 broken ribs.

"SUPERSPEED!" An adorable voice yelled. Ichigo looked up.

"Oh, no." He said just before he felt a face shaped mask slam into his chest.

"ITSYGO! NEL'S SO SORRY!" Nel was at the verge of tears. "Don't worry I'll fix it!" Nel ran at Ichigo and began to drool.

"Nel it's okay! Im fine!" Though Ichigo's high speed regeneration that he gained from fusing with his hollow wasn't nearly as fast in his body as it was in soul form, but it was still there.

"Are you sure Itsygo? Nel can fix it!" Nel fretted, still drooling. She was like an evil toddler.

Realizing she wouldn't stop unless he made her, he exerted a fraction of a fraction of a percent of pressure, figuring it wouldn't take much to stop in child form. She did pause, but she started up again after a moment. He released a little more, and an odd look appeared on her face. Suddenly a pink aura erupted around her. Ichigo watched as her small form grew and became much more... developed.

"Nel's big!" She said in surprise. "Thanks Ichigo! Your spiritual pressure seeped through the crack in my mask and sealed it! I think I need to be around you relatively often to keep it sealed though." Nel grinned. Then she threw her arms around his neck and tackled him. "I've missed you so much Ichigo! You seem... different."

"Well, I did fuse with my hollow... so that's probably why my reishi sealed your mask." Then he realized something. "Wait Nel! Why aren't you in Hueco Mundo? Don't you need to be there to eat?"

"No. Arrancars don't have to eat souls to survive. Though it is the most effective method. We can eat food, we just have to eat more." Nel explained.

"Oh. Ok. Are you hungry?"

"A little." She replied.

They went to a fast food restaurant a few blocks away and ordered. Ichigo got a quarter pound hamburger with Swiss cheese and lettuce (cause tomato is gross), and Nel got about 4 pounds worth of French Fries, burgers, and a fish sandwich. Weird combo.

"Wow. You weren't lying when you said you had to eat a lot," Ichigo said as he felt his significantly lighter wallet.

"Sorry Ichi. I just haven't eaten in a long time. Even when I do eat, the crack in my mask releases the bulk of what I consume." She started to lift up her shirt to show him her ribs.

"Hey hey hey! You don't have to show me I believe you." He said quickly, utilizing his apparently greatly enhanced reflexes to stop her from lifting it anywhere above her belly button. (When she had grown some energy was used to form more wholesome clothes.)

By the time Nel had finished eating her mountain of food, Ichigo noticed that when he focused, he could feel a slight decrease in his spiritual pressure. He then realized the slight increase in Nel's. Ah hah! He had just found another way to control his spiritual pressure.

They spent a while walking around, catching up on what had happened in their lives, and felt a small spike in the density of reishi in the area. Ichigo checked and made sure he hadn't let a little extra slip out of himself, he closed his eyes and, when he opened them, looked through all the spirit ribbons in the immediate area. He saw three red ribbons.

Nel looked up, sensing what was coming. "Um... Itsygo?" the teal haired arrancar whimpered.

"I know. This is bad news."

He slowly felt the pressure grow closer, and immediately suppressed as much reishi as he could. "Nel. Suppress your reishi. Quick!" Nel immediately complied, only a trickle of energy radiated from them now, but they were still approaching. "Run!"

They started sprinting to Ichigo's house. Which, of course, was pretty predictable. As they arrived at the house, they saw Toshiro Hitsugaya, Soifon, and Sajin Komamura. All of them had their zanpakuto drawn. "Sting all enemies to death! Suzumebachi!" She swept her hand along the now very sharp stinger. "Ichigo Kurosaki, come with us. Bring the arrancar as well."

Ichigo, protective as ever proclaimed, "I will go with you but leave Nel alone."

"I'm sorry Ichigo, but it's the head captain's orders." Toshiro said. But he was looking at him carefully. Even he didn't trust him.

Fine then. Ichigo tore a garganta out of reality, grabbed Nel, and threw her through after giving her a solid amount of reishi to keep her form. About a weeks worth. That was all he would need.

Well guys, there it is. I'm warning you now, this will not continue to update every day. I just had an idea in my head bouncing around for a while so the first few words flowed like magic, it will get slower. Also, I need a beta, so if you want a to get the next chapter a little early, pm me and you might get picked. Thanks!