Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. Tite Kubo does. I do, however, own the OC thus far.

Chapter 2

Wake up.

Wha-?

Wake up, you fool!

I opened my eyes, and I saw clouds in the bright, yet sunless sky. Did I really sleep till past noon?

"You're finally up. Took you long enough." The voice said. Now that I was thinking clearly, I could distinguish it as a female voice. I turned my head to the side and saw a beautiful elf-like creature with long, silky blue hair, blue wings and pale skin. She was tall, taller than I was and clothed in a white yukata with intricately designed with images of birds. Her large eyes were a deep violet hue, complementing her hair perfectly. Somehow, I felt like I knew her from somewhere.

I sat up, and realised that my body felt seemingly weightless. Looking around, I discovered something that I would've preferred to be kept in the dark from.

I was sitting on air.

Half expecting to fall, I got onto my feet, albeit slowly. I was trembling visibly. Don't blame me, blame my acrophobia.

I turned to the woman who was smiling faintly, amused by my fear. Still feeling a little unsteady, I asked her a simple question.

"Where the hell are we?" Crap, even my voice was quivering.

"Now don't be so rude. Instead of 'where the hell', you could just have used 'where', you know." she chided, looking arrogant. "Anyway, to answer your question, we're in your mind, of course. Where else would I be?" she stated.

Geez, talk about touchy.

"So who are you?" I asked. "Wait, the proper question would be 'What are you?"

"How rude." She sighed. Silence was all I heard the next time she spoke.

"I beg your pardon?"

She then shook her head. "Apparently, you still can't process my name. Does your soul not accept it? I wonder…." She looked deep in thought. Her head snapped up after a moment and she spoke.

"Anyway, enough of this fooling around. You need to start moving. Your mind is collapsing and if you don't stop it, you're going to become a Hollow."

My eyes widened at her implications. Become a hollow? What does she mean?

She read my expression perfectly and replied, "No time. Just hurry. Find the sword."

And with that, a few million crates, all of them a pristine white, dropped from above. At the exact same time, I started falling, plunging headfirst into the depths below.

How the hell am I supposed to find the crate with a sword among a few million crates? Scratch that, how am I even supposed to open a crate when I was falling?

This place seemed to be clouds, clouds, and more clouds. I couldn't even catch a glimpse of land, and I'd been falling for more than a few minutes.

Suddenly, the space directly below me opened up, and I was thrust directly into a void, all the crates following soon after.

In here, I felt choked, as if I was trapped in space. The black void prevented me from breathing, and I desperately fumbled around in the darkness to open crate after crate. Each crate contained a different item. I found a watch, three books, an empty bottle but no sword.

Think carefully, Shiro.

It was the elf's voice.

How the hell am I supposed to think carefully? I can't even breathe to begin with.

I'm not supposed to do this, but let me give you a hint. Try to distinguish the colours.

Colours, colours…

Wait, if this is my mind, then that means this is also my soul. Now, if the black void is the representation of the black spirits, or Hollows, the white crates the representation of white spirits, or humans, the sword has to be the red spirit. If I recall correctly, the punk with the huge sword was a red spirit…

I closed my eyes and scanned around for something red. There were no results, however. Feeling hopelessness and despair, I decided that it was an impossible task, and my world turned completely black.

Kairi… I'm sorry.

I saw the carrot-top again, but somehow, I didn't feel like me. His sword was raised, poised to strike.

I heard an eerie, high-pitched laughter, and with horror I realised that it originated from my body. I felt pain pressing in from all sides, and yet, my body wasn't under my control. A white substance seemed to be leaking out from my face and forming a mask. Was I becoming a Hollow?

Hell no. I will NOT allow this to happen!

"Too late, King. I am thou, and thou art I. But now, I have complete control."

My body jumped forward with astounding speed and kicked carrot-top with incredible power, more than I would've been able to muster. He flew straight into a nearby building and there was a massive crater as his body slid down the wall. There was blood flowing out from where I kicked him, and I was sure he was unconscious.

From the corner of my eye, I saw his sword hurtling across the air. My body automatically leaped high into the air, caught it and threw it at the human whom was with carrot-top. Damn it, that girl better be able to defend herself.

"Bakudō number eight, Seki!" the girl yelled.

A small ball of glowing energy appeared above her hand, and she used it to strike the incoming sword, which was knocked to the side. That was good. I didn't want her getting hurt.

At this point, half of the vision of my right eye was already obscured by the mask. Without wasting any more time, I decided to fight for the control of my body.

The moment I made my decision, I was immediately warped back into the black nothingness. This time, however, I had absolutely no problems with breathing.

"Must you be so persistent? I already told you, King, that it's just too late." He said in a mocking tone. He looked exactly like me, only black-and-white. The creepiest feature however, was his eyes. The eye whites were completely replaced by eye blacks, and the pupils were a disturbing yellow. So, that's my Hollow self.

"Liar. If it was too late, I wouldn't be back here now, would I? I replied.

"Tch." Was the only response I got.

I'm guessing that my assumption was right. Well, here goes. Time to bring the house down.

"How are we going to settle this?"

"We fight." He then materialised a sword from thin air, and jumped toward me.

"How the hell am I supposed to fight back?! I don't have a sword, you moron!" I protested as I dodged his attacks.

"Not my problem." He said, continuing the onslaught of slashes, thrusts and strikes.

"It's not fair. Can't we settle this by playing tiddlywinks? I'm pretty good at that." Whew, close one there, almost got cut into half.

I continued to dodge his attacks and resumed giving him a plethora of ridiculous suggestions. With each one his brow began to twitch more and more. Finally, he lost it. He lowered his weapon.

"Fine! Just shut up. I'll go with the arm wrestling one." He admitted defeat. It's a good thing I knew how to be annoying, or I'd probably be evading that sword for the rest of my life.

A white table appeared between us, along with two chairs at equal heights. Taking my seat on one side, my Hollow took the other, his sword disintegrating into the air in the same fashion it appeared.

I took his hand and quickly counted down.

"Three, two…"

"One." I started employing force against his hand, as he did the same. Quite some time passed, and I realised that neither of us had budged even a little bit.

I mentally face palmed. Of course there wouldn't be a difference. He is I and I am he, so that means we have the same physical strength.

He seemed to realise the same thing, so we both nodded and let go.

"Since that didn't work…" He held out his hand, and I had a feeling he was about to re-summon his sword.

I quickly threw out a scissors sign.

"Scissors beats paper. I win. Give me back my body now."

His eyes hardened at my words and they seemed intent to kill. However, as one of the suggestions I threw at him earlier was rock-paper-scissors, he had no choice but to accept the loss.

"It's not over, King." He seemed to disintegrate slowly, the broken pieces forming a light in the darkness. The light soon spread across my world.

If you can't win by might, use your wits. The pen is mightier than the sword.

I was then pulled away from my mind and thrust back into the real world.

I was standing over the body of the human girl, who had been knocked unconscious. I held the carrot-top's sword in my hands and judging from the scenario, I was about to take her life.

The mask had stopped forming just in time to avoid my left eye from being covered. But enough of this nonsense. This ends now.

Break.

It shattered into smaller pieces and fell to the ground.

I heard a slow clapping coming from behind me and whirled around, only to find a man wearing a dark green coat and undershirt, matching long pants and a green and white striped hat. He had medium-length light blonde hair and was carrying a cane.

"Congratulations. It seems you've avoided becoming a Hollow. So tell me, how'd you do it?"

"I don't know." I replied. I tried to change the subject. "You're not an ordinary human, are you?"

"Kisuke Urahara, at your service. I'm merely an honest, handsome and perverted businessman who owns a shop nearby." He answered, sidestepping my question. His eyes narrowed slightly then. "Your turn. Who are you?"

"Shiro Aragaki." His eyes betrayed a hint of surprise at my name, but it was gone in a moment.

"Well then, Shiro, isn't it time you moved on into the afterlife? You might find what you're looking for there, you know."

What the hell? How'd he know I was searching for something to begin with?

"Let's just say an acquaintance of mine told me about you." He explained, reading my reaction correctly. "I was told to say that." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "She wants to remain…anonymous, one would say."

"Will I be able to come back?" I pushed forward the crucial question.

"It depends on circumstances."

Well, it's worth a shot. If there's a possibility of coming back, then there's nothing wrong with expanding my search range.

"Fine, I'll go."

He blew a kazoo before putting it away. Wait, where'd he get that from anyway?

He turned back to me, a smile plastered on his face.

"Good for you. If you're ready, you can go now…" He reversed his cane so that the curved end was pointed towards me, and I nodded in response.

I just realised something. My chest chain, or as the midget said, soul chain, wasn't there anymore. There wasn't a hole there either, like the hollows have. And I wasn't hungry anymore, either. Well, questions later, konso now.

He pressed the end of the cane to my head, and I experienced the whole unburdening feeling for the second time.

This time, I didn't fight it.

A/N: Whoo! So the main character's name is Shiro Aragaki.

I intend to pace this story abit unevenly, depending on the events that take place. As most of you can probably tell, the OC went through Hollowfication without attaining his Zanpakuto. He tricked his Inner Hollow quite well, I would say.

Frankly speaking, I still have a long way to go before I become as good as I want to be, so please be patient and stick around. Reviews, again, would be extremely appreciated. =D