**8 months ago**

Orihime sang one of her favorite tunes as she skipped to the grocery store. Inspiration struck before she had begun making dinner and it was imperative that she buy some cranberry sauce for her newly invented ramen recipe. She was busy debating the pros and cons of making her own sauce versus buying canned when she felt a massive burst of reiatsu nearby and slowly came to a stop. A moment later she sensed Kurosaki-kun exiting his human form, going straight into his bankai as he headed toward the attack. She realized the burst of hollow reiatsu had come from the direction of the middle school and immediately set off toward the school.

Several minutes later, she found herself at the edge of a soccer field and spotted a dark haired shinigami leaning over a familiar orange head on the ground. Her eyes went wide in fear as she sprinted across the field to them. She slowed slightly as she noticed the man was already preoccupied with a healing kido. She walked up from behind the strange man and paused a moment to catch her breath. "Ano..." she began timidly. "What happened to Kurosaki-kun?"

The man stiffened before replying, "Oh. You can see me…"

"Hai... I don't remember seeing you around Karakura before, who are you?" she asked as she moved closer to try and catch a glimpse of the shinigami's face.

He glanced over his shoulder for a brief moment before returning his focus back to healing. "I might ask you the same question, pretty lady."

Orihime blushed slightly at the older man's compliment. She took a few moments to observe the man's healing abilities before realizing his outfit was a bit abnormal. He was not a 4th division member. "Please tell me what happened so I can heal him," she insisted.

It took a second before the man realized what she had said and ceased his kido. "Oh! You must be Inoue Orihime! I've heard a lot about you... The idiot got ambushed and let his guard down. I think one of those pseudo-arrancars had a poisoning ability."

Orihime sat beside the man as she began her healing incantation, "Shun'o, Ayame. Souten Kisshun. Watashi wa kyozetsu suru." Her faeries soared out from her hairpins and the transparent orange shield quickly formed. "What division are you from?" she persisted. "You seem familiar somehow…"

"Uhh... About that…" He let out a sigh before continuing, "Well, I guess there's no point hiding it anymore… I'm Kurosaki Isshin, Ichigo's father."

She turned to look at him in surprise, finally getting a good look at the man's face. "Nani? Kurosaki-san? You're a shinigami? I- I had no idea…"

"Yea, well… Neither does he." He said pointing at the unconscious teen.

She turned back to look at her friend as she took a moment to process what his father had just revealed to her. Kurosaki-kun was shinigami/human hybrid? His father hadn't bothered to mention this important fact to him before? She noticed the last of Ichigo's cuts had already closed. "Can you reject the poison from his system, Shun'o, Ayame?"

"It shouldn't be a problem, but it may take some time," Shun'o responded.

"That's quite the ability you have there," Isshin observed. "Your hairpins are quite similar to a zanpakutou. Have they always materialized like that?"

"Hai," she replied reluctantly.

"To put it simply, that is the most impressive healing ability I have ever seen," he continued. "You can really reject anything that has happened to the person?"

"There hasn't been anything I've been unable to heal as long as I'm given enough time," she murmured, keeping her focus on her shield. Orihime hoped that the man didn't expect her to keep his identity a secret from his son. She didn't want to have to be the one to tell Kurosaki-kun either.

Several minutes later, Isshin broke the awkward silence that had fallen between them. "I'm sorry I couldn't save him."

"Huh?"

"Your brother... He was all you had and I'm sorry I wasn't able to do more for him."

"It's... alright," she said. "I'm sure you did your best and I've gotten by. I'm just glad that Kurosaki-kun was able to help him find peace when he was turned into a hollow. It's still hard to imagine all of the hollows in the world were once human." Orihime paused a moment but smiled as she continued, "These hairpins were actually a gift from my brother. At first I was unable to remember what had happened the night he came after me, but my powers began to develop shortly after and the memories returned. Sometimes I wonder what all the hougyouku affected."

"It's a mysterious thing, the hougyouku..."

"The poison has been removed from his system," Shun'o announced. "I'm not sure when he will regain consciousness, however." Orihime quietly thanked her faeries as they returned to her hairpins.

"Thank you for taking such good care of my son."

"N-no problem at all, Kurosaki-san," she insisted, blushing and flailing her arms erratically. "It was the least I could do."

Isshin popped up in an energetic fashion, pointed to himself emphatically as he proudly declared, "You can call me Papa Isshin! Feel free to stop by the house anytime!" He bent over to heft his son effortlessly over his shoulder and turned to flash a smile at the young healer. She stared at him for a moment, bewildered by his sudden change before he added, "I have a long conversation ahead of me tonight. You should hurry home before it gets any darker."

Orihime noted the sun setting behind the energetic man before coming to her senses. "Hai… Good night, ano… Isshin-san?" she replied, hoping that he would be happy with the compromise. Orihime didn't feel comfortable calling the man something like Papa Isshin, no matter what the man had said.

"Good night, Orihime-chan!" he yelled in a sing song tone as she watched him bound off into the sunset.

"Are you sure you don't want to try them with a bit of wasabi?" she asked, offering him the wasabi.

"Errr… No thanks. Uhh… Eating wasabi in the morning makes me sick." Ichigo had been unable to do anything the last couple minutes but stare at the girl. She hummed a familiar tune as she smothered her strawberry pancakes in wasabi and syrup. He simultaneously felt sick and amused as he watched Inoue eat her breakfast, quickly deciding to focus on eating his own pancakes before he lost his appetite. He should have known she was serious about the wasabi, but even he hadn't expected her to cover her pancakes so excitedly with the stuff. The green wasabi looked so strange against the red of the strawberries.

"Awww! That's too bad," she pouted. "It's really tasty!" She took a few more bites of her pancakes before working up the courage to ask, "Ano… Kurosaki-kun, does your hollow have a name?"

"No," he paused. "Why do you ask?"

"Well… I met him yesterday but I didn't know what to call him."

"I don't know. He seemed to think he didn't need a name if he didn't have a body," Ichigo said before taking another bite. "He did say he was Zangetsu once… but it didn't make any sense to me."

"So what do you call him?"

"Uhh… Usually something like, teme, bastard, or hollow."

"That's not very nice, Kurosaki-kun," she scolded with a frown.

"He tried to take over my body!" he defended. "Besides, who knows what the bastard would do if left to his own devices..."

"Seemed nice enough to me..."

"He was nice?" Ichigo asked her incredulously. "Wait a minute. How close did you get to him anyways?" His eyebrows knitted together, concerned about what all his hollow did while in control of his body. He set down his fork and began to stare at it intensely.

"Well, I was worried when he took over so suddenly and your hollow seemed like he was in a lot of pain. I didn't want Ulquiorra to hurt you, so I attacked him."

Ichigo's mouth hung open in surprise. "You attacked Ulquiorra?"

"I had to do something. I distracted him so I could construct a barrier around the two of us. It didn't take long for Ulquiorra to get irritated and fired a cero at us in his resurrección form. His resurrección is kind of like a bat by the way. I don't think I would have been able to keep up the barrier without your hollow's help reinforcing it though…"

"How in the world did he reinforce it?"

"Umm… I think he just poured his reiatsu directly into the shield. I'm not sure exactly. Anyways, your hollow started attacking Ulquiorra but got distracted when Szayel attacked me. Ulquiorra kicked your hollow and blew up part of the group with this green glowing weapon he had. That's when your mask hardened and your hollow went berserk."

"Huh? What happened with my mask?"

"Oh… well, at first it was kind of floating and drooping over one side of your… or his face? It covered your whole head and had horns. It was white with 2 black stripes down either eye." She illustrated what she was saying by drawing two lines down both of her eyes with a finger.

Ichigo clenched his fists and reluctantly asked, "He didn't hurt you did he?"

"No, he attacked the Espada but made sure to protect me. Ichimaru-san popped up out of nowhere to hit you with a kido and escaped before you could kill Ulquiorra. Your hollow began to break out of the kido and seemed like he wanted to go after them even though they were already encased in the negación. I timed Tsubaki to break the mask as soon as he broke out of the kido," she finished explaining.

"I'm just glad you weren't hurt," Ichigo said, finally able to look her in the eyes again. Orihime swore that look was going to be the death of her. Her heart began to race erratically for the second time that day, but this time she couldn't tear her eyes away from his and just nodded. A minute later he realized he was staring and looked down to resume eating his breakfast.

They finished their breakfast together in a comfortable silence. Orihime looked up at the strawberry that was currently impaled upon her fork then glanced over at Ichigo eating the last few bites of his breakfast. "I wonder how the strawberries feel about being eaten by an Ichigo-kun. It's kind of like cannibalism," she wondered aloud.

Ichigo was about to reply when caught the sight of Nanao entering the room, clipboard in hand and a familiar look on her face… That look never meant anything good. "Oh shit," he cursed and dropped his fork. Confused with his sudden change in behavior, Orihime turned around to follow his line of sight and began to laugh when she saw the look on the lieutenant's face. He shot out of his seat, grabbed Zangetsu before uttering a quick, "Later, Inoue." Ichigo flung the over-sized zanpakutou over his shoulder mid-flash step, knocking over his plate in the process, and was out the door like a bat out of hell. He heard Nanao's yells melting away into the background as he bolted away.

After a quick bit of shunpo and a short walk through the woods, Ichigo found himself along the banks of a small secluded lake just within the confines of the newly constructed kido barrier. Ichigo jumped up to settle himself upon one of the larger branches of a nearby tree. He closed his eyes and relaxed against the tree as he concentrated on reeling in his reiatsu. Even after all his training, suppressing his reiatsu was still a difficult and uncomfortable task. He exhaled and visualized the breadth of his reiatsu. Ichigo focused and began to compress the sphere-like shape until it was as small and dense as he could bear.

He opened his eyes a minute later, gazing out at the sun's rays glinting off the surface of the lake. He let his mind wander; attempting to focus on anything other than the suffocating sensation reiatsu compression invariably caused him. A smile graced his lips as he envisioned a scene from an old family trip to the beach two years ago. His sisters played along the shore as their father chased them with his polka dotted swimming trunks and favorite ducky inner tube in place. It was still hard to believe that stupid old man was once a powerful shinigami.

Ichigo tried to imagine what a normal life would have been like without all this shinigami and hollow madness. No hollow attacks, no soul society, no Rukia, no Aizen, no war, no inner hollow… He'd just be a regular high school student. He laughed at the thought of going back to being a normal high school student after everything that had happened. Studying, tests, prom, girls- it all seemed so pointless to him now. Last night was probably the closest he'd ever been to any girl before and shuddered to think what Keigo, or anyone else, would have said if they had seen him together with Inoue like that. 'It's not like that though. I... I just want to keep her safe,' he thought to himself.

Sure, King. Whatever you say.

Shut up.

Look, you can try to lie to yourself all you want, but you can't lie to me.

I said, shut up! Ichigo insisted.

I just don't get it. You like Hime and she obviously wants you. The hollow complained.

I don't like her like that.

Just because you are some freak of a teenager that doesn't act like a complete pervert, doesn't mean you don't like her. Hell, even I like her now. That's saying something, Aibou.

WHAT!

You heard me. I like the princess. Unlike you, I'm not afraid of it. I'm glad I finally got to meet her in the flesh, just wish we could have met under… better circumstances. She's sooo damn sexy, King. If you don't quit being so damn fuckin' stupid, I'm going to take over the body and give her what she wants myself.

I'll never let you do anything to hurt Inoue.

Did I say I'd hurt her? I said I'd give her what she wants. But if she likes it rough, I'm not making any promises. Seems like the closet-pervert type to me. The hollow cackled.

Shut up.

No, you shut up! I know it turns you on- I saw what flashed through your head just now, so don't even try to deny it. Hime wants you bad, King… She wants us. You're too fucking stupid to even see it. Always moping around, thinking you're not good enough. We're damn sexy, King. If you weren't such an emotionally-stunted baka, we could've been tappin' that months ago.

That's it! I'm coming in there and kickin' your ass, bastard, Ichigo told the hollow as he focused on entering his inner world.

GOOD! I'm fuckin' bored! the hollow ranted. You never come and play with me anymore. Zan won't even spar with me anymore.

Because you're a pervert, Zangetsu accused, popping up near the hollow.

"Hey! Just because I grabbed your ass that one time-"

"The fuck?" Ichigo exclaimed as he materialized within his inner world. "What the hell are you two doing in my head when I'm not here? "

"Come on Zan," his hollow begged, "this is what I mean. Let's play and make his brain explode, ne?"

"No."

"Ma... Neither of you are any fun at all!" the hollow fumed and pointed at them accusingly. "Why did I have to get stuck with such sexually repressed freaks?" He turned around and threw his hands up in frustration.

Bright blue eyes rolled as the Zanpakutou spirit spoke, "You do realize that if his brain explodes, we would all die, correct?"

"So we can play in private, would that be better?" The hollow asked after turning toward Tensa and moving his white eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

"So… You're just a horny hollow that would have sex with anything that moves aren't you?" Ichigo accused as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Oi! I have standards!" the hollow defended. "The princess is hot, we're hot, and Tensa here is kinda cute too. I don't really look at anybody else. It's your fault I'm like this!" Zangetsu shook his head at the hollow's comment.

"How is your rampant sex drive my fault?" Ichigo demanded.

The hollow stared at Ichigo like he had some sort of mental deficiency for a moment before explaining, "We're two sides of the same person, dumbass. Obviously you repress whatever sexual feelings you have. They have to go somewhere, King."

Ichigo scowled in contemplation at the hollows words for a few moments before speaking his thoughts aloud. "That still doesn't explain why you molested Zangetsu…"

"He's here." The hollow said simply. "And he's fun to mess with," the hollow added a moment later as an afterthought.

"That's so flattering- I think I may have reconsidered." Tensa retorted.

"Can it!" the hollow snapped. "Sarcasm doesn't suit you, Zan."

"Can't we just talk about what happened yesterday instead?" Ichigo pleaded.

"That's not nearly as amusing," the hollow whined. He pouted and turned to take a seat on edge of the building they were standing on. Leaning back on his hands, he stared out across the seemingly endless line of sideways buildings. "The buildings changed colors after the second battle if you were wondering," he informed the teen, turning to look at Ichigo, standing a few feet behind him. He scowled and asked, "You didn't even notice, did you?"

Ichigo took a seat next to the hollow and looked out at the buildings of his inner world. The building they were sitting on was the same blue as before, but several nearby buildings had turned black. Off in the distance he noticed that the buildings were white and red. "What the hell did that prick inject us with," Ichigo grumbled to himself.

"No idea, King… All I know is that it hurt like hell and there've been some bizarre side effects… I don't even have to concentrate to see what's going through your head or know what you're thinking or feeling anymore," the hollow said in a solemn tone. Ichigo turned to face his hollow with a frown.

"When you were forced to take control and Ichigo lost consciousness," Tensa began, standing close behind the two teens, "this world was thrown into turmoil. The winds were harsh while lightning struck repeatedly and the rain poured down in sheets. Some buildings crumbled while others were swirling with different colors. Your hollow seems to own a small portion of this domain now. It seems to have had little lasting effect on me however."

Ichigo leaned his head back and saw a pair of blue eyes looking back down at him. He leaned back and lay down, covering his eyes with his arm. "Just what the hell do these bastards want?" he muttered.

The hollow joined his counterpart and stared up at the black building above them. "They're making me stronger. I don't know why the hell they think that making me stronger will benefit them in any way. They're dead wrong if they think I'd ever join them," the hollow growled. Ichigo moved his arm and turned his head to look into his hollow's black and white eyes. "I don't care if you believe me or not, Aibou. Aizen is just a big pussy who rarely ever fights his own battles. I'm not going to let some pansy like him use me," he grit out. "I'd rather be your horse than his pack mule."

"I'm not sure that this is entirely the drugs fault," Tensa said after a few minutes of watching the two stare at each other. "Something happened during the first battle as well," the Zanpakutou clarified as he looked at the hollow. "The way you described what you felt reminded me of what materialization and bankai training felt like in the beginning. It could be possible that there is a second level of hollow release."

"What?" They said in unison, both giving Tensa an incredulous look.

"Whether you see it or not, you both have grown closer in recent months. You each seem to be feeling the other's emotions on a more consistent basis. Ichigo, you have become a more skilled and ruthless fighter during your battles. You both stopped trying to kill and sabotage each other months ago… I never thought I would see a hollow feel human emotion, but you've become more interested in your counterpart's life outside of battle as well."

"You're saying that there might be a second level of release, beyond using the mask?" Ichigo asked, letting his sword's words sink in.

"That's what the evidence indicated. I think this injection seems to have simply sped up what was already occurring."

"From what Hime was sayin', after I lost consciousness, the mask hardened and became something completely different…"

"What the fuck gives you the right to keep calling her Hime? " Ichigo demanded after whipping around to glare at the hollow.

"Don't get jealous… That's what you want to call her when you make the princess our queen," the hollow cackled. "It's also her name, baka King."

Ichigo bolted upright, rage flowing through his veins. White-hot anger threatened to make them burst. He clenched his fist and smashed it into the building with enough force to make it crack. The hollow grabbed the back of Ichigo's shihakusho, slammed him back and pinned him against the building.

"Do not let the anger get the best of you," he said, inches away from Ichigo's face, silencing the teen with a serious look. "Anger keeps triggering all of this weird shit. Whatever they injected us with is giving us both anger management issues, ne? So calm the fuck down, King," the hollow let out with a growl. He could feel the rage melt away as his king relaxed. A huge grin spread across the hollow's face and he slowly relaxed the pressure his arm was exerting to keep the teen down. The hollow licked his lips as he gazed down into chocolate brown eyes. He quickly realized that although he was very much in tune with his shinigami partner, he was lucky the same could not be said for Ichigo.

Tensa rolled his eyes before interrupting the pair, "Back to the conversation…" The two looked up at him in surprise and Zangetsu had to force himself to withhold his laughter. Twin expressions reflected between nearly identical faces. "Either way," he continued, "You should be careful Ichigo. The only thing that is certain at this point is that the enemy is planning something for the two of you."

"Yea…" Ichigo agreed. "Get off of me, idiot," he grunted as he pushed the hollow away.

"That form could have been an incomplete form of second level release. It's unfortunate neither of you were conscious during the incident… You should begin training to master this form as soon as possible," Tensa recommended before taking his leave.

"Kinggg," the hollow whined. "I don't wanna see those damn vizards again,"

"Well I don't want to see that damn perverted shopkeeper, but we don't exactly have much of a choice."

"Oh well… As much as I love night time cuddles, we probably have a better chance to hook up with the princess back home!" the hollow said excitedly.

Ichigo stood up and sighed in frustration but made sure to keep his anger in check as he addressed the albino, "Why the hell do you care about her so much?"

"I don't see what the problem is. You like the princess and she obviously likes you. So hurry up and go get us some action already, King." the hollow urged.

Ichigo brought his hand to his forehead with a loud smack. He rubbed his eyelids before pinching the bridge of his nose as he muttered, "Too fucking weird... My hollow is trying to give me advice about girls..."

"Weird? You want weird? I want the princess- that's cool. I like Zan a little- I can deal with that and explain it with the fact that there is literally no one else around. But…" he trailed off then slowly began to smirk as he silently approached Ichigo. "I want you too, King. Does that make us bi? Or is it just some weird version of vizard masturbation?"

Ichigo's eyes shot open, cheeks burning with embarrassment as he began to stutter, "Wha- You… I… SHUT YOUR PERVERTED MOUTH!"

"What's wrong, Aibou?" the albino sneered as he walked forward, forcing the flustered teen to back up. Ichigo panicked when his back hit a newly manifested wall. "What's wrong, Ichigo?" the hollow cooed with a grin. A pale arm suddenly appeared beside Ichigo's head, the other pressed firmly against the teen's chest. "You look as red as a strawberry," the hollow mused. Cocking his head to the side, he licked his lips and murmured in a deep, lusty tone, "Makes me wonder if you taste like one too." Ichigo stared at his hollow as he leaned forward slowly. Panic set in and he quickly snapped his mind out of its state of shock, barely avoiding the hollow's kiss. Ichigo could hear his hollow's snickering fade into the back of his mind as he vanished back into reality.

I hope you enjoyed the little flashback at the beginning. (I'm pretty sure it's directionally correct btw.) There will be more flashbacks in upcoming chapters. I skipped quite a bit ahead and there's a lot that has happened that I still would like to cover. I had part of Ichigo's conversation with his father written out as well but I'm not sure what I want to do with it. I'm not a big fan of making up facts that are still unknown in the manga. Let me know if you want to see it and I might write it out and include it in an upcoming chapter.

I hope you liked the chapter and I'm sorry for the long wait. I was hoping to get it out a while ago but the holidays were crazy and it gave me just about as much trouble as chapter 2 did. There wasn't much Japanese in this chapter. I put Orihime's incantation in the Japanese, but that was explained. Uhh… I guess there's the one "Ma…" You can read it as "Jeez..." or something. Everything else has been explained previously. Sorry for being a horrible tease at the end, but I didn't want Ichi's head to explode yet. ;p

Thanks for all the feedback, it helps keep me motivated and I really appreciate it.