Translations:
Ōbushīrudo – orb shield
Kyohi kabe – rejecting wall
Kakusareta shīrudo – hidden wall.
Lanzador Verde – Spanish: green lancer. Japanese: Jade lance.
Salvaje Verde Atravesar - Savage Jade Pierce.
Midarana sutoraiki – Lustful Strike
Danza de la Muerte Verde – Jade Dance of Death
Hey there friends, thank you for the feedback on the last chapter, and here you go.
"… What's wrong... will... okay?... how bad... it?" Ichigo could hear Nel's voice faintly, as if from the other side of glass. He opened his eyes to a blurred world.
He sat up – or tried to – and instantly felt pain lance through his whole body. Unable to contain a scream, he spasmed on his bed and threw up. Luckily, he managed to turn on his side so he didn't start choking.
It was then that the others in the room noticed he had awoken and rushed to his side. They barraged him with questions of if he was okay, what had happened, etc. He barely registered their questions. His bones felt heavy, and his body felt cold. All of this was for one reason: he could hear laughter. It was not the light, carefree giggles of a child. No; it was the menacing laughter of the white-haired bastard that had terrified him for so long... the thing that had overtaken him in hueco mundo, and scared Orihime. The monster that he had thought had disappeared.
And it was back.
Not only was it back, but it was strong. He could feel its faint influence even now, when it had just returned. He knew it would only get stronger.
Suddenly, the laughter faded, and his body was totally his again. He was relieved, but he knew it would return. He would address that issue later. He returned to reality and looked around. He saw Nel, Kisuke, and Orihime gathered around him. All three had worried looks on their face. Of course his dumbass father wasn't there. He opened his mouth but it took a second to find the words to formulate the question. "What... what happened?"
Nel took his hand and explained, "Yesterday you passed out when you walked into your room, and I laid you down on the bed... I called Kisuke and Orihime, but he doesn't know what's wrong, and Orihime's powers didn't change anything." It was obvious she had been crying. Ichigo had never seen Nel cry in sadness in her true form, and he never wanted to.
He looked into her eyes. "I'm sorry I made you worry," he said quietly. She smiled softly.
"It's okay." She kissed his forehead and backed away.
"Kisuke... I need to talk to you. Alone." Ichigo had taken a serious look on his face, akin the that of when he was fighting Aizen, but with no anger.
The two girls walked out of the room, and Ichigo closed his eyes. He said in a lowered voice, "I heard him."
"I see."
"What should I do? I'm... I'm scared – no – terrified for the first time since I fought Ywacht."
Kisuke hid his face behind his fan. "We can't let the Soul Society know... they would try to kill you and only get killed themselves... I'll need to run some tests to see how primal your Reiatsu is, but I have a feeling almost nothing can be done from out here. You may have to confront him again," he finished softly.
Ichigo agreed to the tests quickly, feeling terror spread through him. This wasn't the kind of fear that someone feels as a child after a nightmare. That petty fear could be solved with a hug from mommy or daddy. This was true terror; the kind that feels like being hunted by a killer, and the killer knows your address.
All Ichigo had capability to do now was sleep for a while longer. Kisuke left the room after extracting some Reiatsu, and Ichigo closed his eyes to the two girls rushing back in.
Ichigo dreamt. He had prayed for a dreamless sleep like before, but whatever god had indulged him previously had better things to do now. His sleep was riddled with night terrors. The kind of nightmare you can't remember, but the fear is worse than if you could. There was one dream, however, that he did remember.
Ichigo sat up. He turned to get off the bed and stood. It was morning, and birds were chirping. He wasn't sure what day it was, but he knew it was a school day, so he took a step towards the door and he was in the bathroom.
The funny thing about dreams is that they only make sense while experiencing them. Waking up and remembering them confuses the brain to no end, but the most ridiculous jump will make sense during a dream.
Ichigo took his toothbrush and began to brush his teeth. He looked at himself in the mirror and frowned inwardly. He looked far to disheveled to keep up his non-caring image. He finished brushing and bent down to rinse out his mouth. He opened a drawer to grab his brush, and started to run it through his hair as he looked back to the mirror. He suddenly jumped back, slamming into the wall, ripping the brush out of his hair and throwing it at the mirror.
Instead of glass breaking, he heard a warbling laughter. The white face he couldn't stop staring at was laughing at him back through the mirror. The white figure began to climb through the mirror and Ichigo ran. Unlike before, however, he seemed painfully slow. It was almost like running through loose sand.
Ichigo finally made it down the stairs and out of the door, running in some random direction. He soon realized he was approaching the school, seeing kids in uniform walking in the same direction. They didn't seem to notice him sprinting between them.
He made it to the school and saw his friends. Running up to them, he hurriedly told them to run. They opened their mouths asking questions why, but he had turned back to the gate to confront the white monster following him.
He didn't see him. He turned around and saw all of his friends lying lifeless on the ground, the white monster standing in the middle of them all. Overcome with anger and grief, Ichigo charged the monster, but before his fist connected, the intended recipient was gone. Ichigo found himself standing among all his friends' bodies, and looked down. He was covered in blood. Their blood.
He had killed them.
Ichigo bolted upright. He knew he hadn't just had a dream. It was a premonition of what was to come if he didn't do something about the hollow inside him. Despite it being but an echo of what it once was, it was surprisingly strong. He would have to stop it before it surpassed him.
Orihime had immediately hugged ichigo the second he sat up, and Nel had just noticed. Her eyes were tired. It looked like she hadn't slept since he passed out. But as Nel saw Orihime, her eyes lit with a new fire. "He's MINE!" She screamed in a warbling voice as she slapped Orihime across the cheek with such force she was thrown across the room to the closet door.
Ichigo looked at Nel with surprise and fear. She looked back with an almost identical look. "I'm... so sorry... I don't know what happened." Nel looked shaken. As Ichigo had seen before, she hated senseless violence, so her actions surprised both of them.
Ichigo suddenly felt an uncontrollable swell of pride in having such a strong girlfriend, and couldn't help but kiss her. Right in front of the already physically and mentally wounded Orihime. The pride he felt quickly faded, and he rushed to Orihime's side. She recoiled and dashed from the room sobbing. Just because she knew they were together didn't mean it didn't hurt. She would always love Ichigo. Even if he hated her, she would love him.
Ichigo was hit by another wave of pain before he could catch Orihime's hand, and their fingers barely brushed. Nel just barely caught him as darkness took his senses again.
It appeared he was only out for a few seconds, for when he opened his eyes, he was still in Nel's arms. He immediately tried to rush after Orihime, but his legs failed him. He then heard a crash downstairs.
"Nel... help me down the stairs please." Ichigo had just remembered what his predicament had made him forget. He had a house full of hollows.
Arm around Nel's shoulder, Ichigo limped down the stairs. Grimmjow was in the middle of fighting several arrancar in the middle of the living room. Cause obviously there was no where else to fight. Obviously.
His irritation quickly dissipated as his blood started to heat up. He wanted to fight. A lot. Before he could come to his senses he fired a semi-light cero straight at Grimmjow. Light was a relative term. The dark red beam of energy sent Grimmjow through a wall into the garage. The destruction was enough to calm Ichigo's boiling blood.
He blinked, looking at the hole in the wall. He was now really irritated. With the arrancar, his hollow, and himself. He had lost control like he had when he originally had to subjugate his hollow.
The doorbell rang.
Ichigo opened the door and Kisuke stood with a grimace on his face. "Let's get to your room. Nel, I'll need you too." When they got to Ichigo's room Kisuke pushed him down on the bed, and bound him with bakudo.
"What the hell?" Ichigo shouted. "Let me go!" His voice warbled at the end, his irises turning slightly yellow.
"Just like I thought," Kisuke said. "I ran tests on your Reiatsu. It showed that it was incredibly primal. Almost more hollow than Shinigami. Because of this, you are more quick to anger, as well as other more primal emotions." Kisuke frowned. "I didn't expect your mask to start manifesting on its own yet though." Ichigo rose his hand to his face and felt fragments of his mask on his face. He immediately dispersed them.
"What can I do?" He asked. He cast a worried look at Nel expecting to see sadness or fear, but he didn't see any of that. What he did see was burning anger.
"How DARE he try to take you from me?! You are mine and mine alone!" She almost screamed. Ichigo looked at her in surprise, and Kisuke with curiosity.
"Huh. Your voice doesn't usually revert to its primal state. In fact it shouldn't be able to," Kisuke spoke quietly. "However, if you are feeding off of the Reiatsu Ichigo subconsciously releases, your Reiatsu should be changing as well." Kisuke paused, as if in thought. "Okay. Ichigo, you are going to need to go to your inner world every night, all night. During the day you need to train your body and mind. That's where Nel comes in. Every night you need to bind him and sleep with him. If he breaks free, his hollow could take his body and start trashing things, so make sure he doesn't move. During the day, you need to do something that tests his resolve. A strong hollow will crush a weak resolve with a single finger."
"Okay, got it," Nel responded quietly. She had calmed quickly after her outburst, shocking herself into silence. She laid down next to Ichigo and wrapped her arms around him, snuggling into his chest.
Ichigo forced a smile. "See you in the morning," he whispered as he entered his inner world.
There you go friends. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, because I enjoyed writing it. This will hopefully be my last chapter without a beta, but I'm not sure when Astromormy will get back. Just drop a review when you are. :)