Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, or any of its characters. Tite Kubo does.

Torn

Chapter 17: Primal Rage

"Well, I'll say this much," the spiky-haired Captain said as the two berserkers broke apart from their latest clash, each of them sporting about five new wounds. "You definitely have more guts than Ichigo. What exactly are ya, kid?"

Hichigo snorted, beginning to whirl his inverted Zangetsu around in a circle over his head by its hilt-strap.

"Does it matter?" he asked sharply. "All you should be worried about right now is staying alive, maggot!"

The Hollow hurled the blade towards Zaraki, who caught the top of it in his bare hand and smiled widely. Pulling hard, he intended to draw his enemy in closer and throw him off balance before moving in for the kill.

Hichigo had anticipated that, however, and used the extra momentum he gained from the Soul Reaper's pull to fuel a speeding dropkick that connected with Kenpachi's face and resulted in a sickening crunch. As the Captain was rocked backwards from the blow, Hichigo used his recoil to his advantage and yanked as hard as he could. His mouth curled up into a smile bleeding with twisted satisfaction as his zanpakuto was forced from Zaraki's flagging grip and returned to him, the end dripping with blood. Bringing the tip right up next to his face, the Hollow extended his tongue and slowly licked the dark substance from the end of the sword.

"Delicious," he hissed, his pupils dilating briefly at the sensation. "There's a lot of power running through your blood, Soul Reaper," Hichigo finished as he charged once again, "and I'm gonna take it all!"

Kenpachi's eyes widened as he blocked the powerful strike, the blade of his own jagged zanpakuto screaming out as the inverted Zangetsu bore down upon it, trying to break it in half and seemingly about to succeed.

"You want to know what I am, you bastard?" the pale warrior crooned with a berserker's madness shining in his yellow eyes. "I'm every wrathful thought you've ever had. I'm the darkness that gnaws in the back of your brain every time you want to draw your sword but can't, the voice telling you to screw decorum and hack the fucker to pieces. I'm that thrill that sings in your blood every time you lock blades with someone, every time you wound someone or they wound you. I'm pure instinct, Soul Reaper, and that's why I'm gonna butcher you!"

The Eleventh Division Captain slid back a few inches as the Hollow pressed forward, and it seemed like he was beginning to crack until a huge smile appeared on his face and he began laughing like a lunatic.

"Pure instinct? Really?" he shouted. "That's great news. If all you have behind your blade is instinct, this shouldn't be a problem for me at all!"

Kenpachi broke out of the deadlock and let Hichigo's zanpakuto follow through, angling his head so that it cut his eyepatch strap before jumping backwards. The surge of reiatsu that resulted was nothing short of titanic, but the Hollow remained confident.

"I've seen this before, Kenpachi Zaraki," he spit scornfully, readying his zanpakuto for another clash. "Show me something new!"

Kenpachi just continued to laugh and rushed forwards, raining down a furious string of hacks and stabs that pushed a shocked Hichigo onto the defensive.

"Just like I thought," Zaraki taunted as he followed through on a stab that ripped a chunk out of the Hollow's shoulder. "You bark all day when your opponent's dumb enough to let you have the offensive, but mad dogs like you always lose their bite once the other guy decides to stop messing around and get serious for a change!"

"Shit!" the pale warrior cursed as he almost lost his dominant arm, jumping back at the last possible moment and catching his breath as Kenpachi just stood there, looking like a demon in all of its bloodstained and manic glory.

"What's wrong?" the Captain asked disdainfully, whipping his sword downwards to get the blood off of it. "Why don't you use kido, or flash-steps? I won't think any less of you, little Hollow."

"Fuck you!" Hichigo yelled, striking now with desperation and the bitter frustration befitting a man trying to punch through a concrete wall with just his bare fist. "I don't need kido or flash-steps to kill you, Zaraki! I'll rip you apart with my goddamn teeth!"

"Your teeth?" Kenpachi shot back, an incredulous look on his face. "Since when is anything yours, Hollow? All I see when I look in your eyes are the base emotions Ichigo rejected when he forced you out of him. You're nothing more than a shadow, an empty shell. Strip away your instinct, and there's nothing there. You are nothing, and that's why you never had a chance against me from the very beginning."

Before Hichigo could so much as blink, he felt an almost calming pain ripple out from the center of his chest. Looking down slowly as his pupils dilated again, this time from shock rather than the high of battle, he saw that the Captain's zanpakuto had pierced him clean through his chest.

"Interesting," the Hollow heard Zaraki mumble faintly as his hearing began to go fuzzy, "I gave you enough time to block that, but you didn't. Maybe you finally get it, kid."

If the Captain said anything else after that, Hichigo didn't hear him. He was on his back looking up at the sky, the soft clouds going hazier and hazier as his blood flowed out into a cushioning pool beneath him. He'd gotten beaten down so easily it was sickening; whenever he'd fought with Ichigo he'd always had the upper hand, and that sneaky bastard had only won by pulling some miracle trick out of his ass. As that thought bounced around in his head, the Hollow sighed in bitter understanding.

Maybe that was the problem. The only person he'd ever fought had been Ichigo, someone he knew like the back of his hand because, in some ways, they were the same being. But in other ways, they couldn't be more different, and yet, Kurosaki had always been his anchor. He had defined his entire existence by being precisely everything Ichigo wasn't, and that was it. That spiky-haired bastard was right: without Ichigo, the pale warrior was nothing more than a mass of primal emotions. He might have had a body, but the Hollow had no sense of self.

"Who the hell am I…?" Hichigo breathed out, bitterness and confusion lacing his voice. He was about to pass into oblivion, and most likely welcome death, when a sharp, sudden pain slammed into his midsection and jolted him back to awareness.

"Wake up, whitey!"

The Hollow shouted in surprise and gagged, blinking a few times to clear his vision and seeing that a small, pink-haired sprite had perched itself on his chest.

"Who the hell are you?" Hichigo rasped out, drawing a giggle from the strange girl.

"I'm Ken-chan's Lieutenant, Yachiru Kusajishi," she exclaimed cheerily, "and I'm gonna patch you up!"

"What the fuck…?" the yellow-eyed Hollow mumbled in confusion at this sudden turn of events. "Why would you heal me when I just tried to kill your boss, kid?"

"You don't have much of a brain up there, do ya, whitey?" the miniature Lieutenant said snarkily. "Ken-chan wanted me to patch you up so that you can get stronger and fight him again some time, so that what I'm doing! He needs more friends than just Ichi, after all."

Part of Hichigo wanted to shove this little pixie off of him and chop her in half, but he lacked the strength and, frankly, didn't feel like it. As he struggled with this odd contradiction in his head, the Hollow was given yet another shock as the sensation of pain in his chest faded into nothing more than a whisper, replaced by a cool, soothing feeling. Craning his neck upwards, Hichigo saw Yachiru mumbling steadily with her hands hovering over the wound, chanting a soft stream of tranquil words.

"What're you doing?" the wounded warrior asked, before shouting out in pain as a fist crashed into his forehead.

"Shut up, whitey!" Kusajishi growled. "If you keep flapping your yap, I'm not gonna be able to heal you and you're gonna die. And if you die, Ken-chan'll be really upset and I can't let that happen!"

Not wanting to be further humiliated by this bizarrely strong girl, Hichigo sighed and let her continue. A few moments later, the cooling feeling abated and the Hollow felt the pressure on his chest vanish.

"All done!" Yachiru chirped. "If you don't mind, I'm just gonna—Ichi! What're you doing here?"

The prone, pale warrior wanted nothing more than to curl up and die as the smug laughter of his brother floated over to his ears.

"Hey, Yachiru. Did you take care of him all by yourself?"

"No, that was Ken-chan. I just healed him."

There was another one of those damn chuckles.

"That's too bad," Ichigo replied, a shit-eating grin in his voice. "I can take it from here, Yachiru. Tell Zaraki I said… actually, don't tell him anything," Kurosaki finished hastily, his voice nervous as he realized what he'd almost just said. The Lieutenant vanished a moment later, leaving the two brothers alone. A few seconds later, Hichigo's vision was filled with a grinning face, a pair of shining, mirthful brown eyes and a shock of unruly orange hair.

"Hey there," Ichigo said teasingly, and Hichigo scowled.

"If I could move right now, my hands would be around your throat and squeezing slowly," he hissed, but it didn't come out with as much conviction as usual. The Hollow wrote it off to fatigue, but his Soul Reaper counterpart was puzzled. Ichigo kept his questions to himself, however, and hoisted his comrade to his feet over the Hollow's protestations. As he limped along, braced by his brother, Hichigo couldn't stop asking himself why he was still alive.

"I asked myself that question for days after my fight with Kenpachi," Ichigo spoke out, as if he'd read the pale warrior's mind. "You know what the answer is?"

"What?"

Kurosaki sighed as he replied, turning his face to look into his brother's.

"There isn't one. Kenpachi let you live because he wanted to, that's all. It has nothing to do with you. Let it go, and move on; we have too much to worry about right now."

Hichigo nodded reluctantly as he moved away from Ichigo's support, but there was little certainty in his eyes.

Something had begun to change in him, and whether or not he knew what it was, there was no stopping it now.

A/N: It's back, ladies and gentlemen. Sorry about the long hiatus, but writer's block, schoolwork and my traitorously overactive imagination got in the way. Sorry this chapter was so short, but rest assured that the next one is already underway, the fight everyone's been waiting for: Ulquiorra vs. Mayuri. Still, I hope you enjoyed this chapter despite its brevity, and as always, please review!