Chapter 4 Teaser

"So this is the place, eh?" asked the infamous 11th squad captain Zaraki Kenpachi as soon as the battered looking warehouse came into view.

"Yeah, there's no mistaking it. The sheer amount of reiatsu oozing out of the place is probably them trying to make up for my horrible lack of talent in the area…" said the bleach-headed shinigami while gritting his teeth at the almost insult.

"Hooo, even I can feel it now. With that much reiatsu stuck in one place I'm surprised that the building is still standing. I'm almost tingling in anticipation now! I'm really gonna cut loose on the first person I see in there," said Kenpachi, his voice picking up momentum as his bloodlust rose. His visible eye was wide open and almost seemed blood shot. His hands, balled into fists, were hanging on either side of his large body and seemed to shake with barely contained excitement. Everything about the man spoke of enthusiasm and anticipation of a level that transcends simple obsession. From the beginning he was the type of man who fought to live and lived fight. It's just who he was. Few could stand before his awesome power. Even less could comprehend it.

"Knock yourself out. Just don't kill anyone Kenpachi! They might not want to keep me around if the person I bring into their domain happens to kill one of their own," came the shinigami substitutes' tense reply. The teenager's jaw was set in rigid determination. His eyes were hard like diamonds; anything caught in their gaze would be cut, ground, and shaved into nothingness. His will was iron. No, it was something infinitely stronger; something completely unwavering, solid to the core. Ichigo was intent on a goal. He had a goal and that's all that a man such as himself needs. His chosen path is that of power on the battlefield, and such is his personality that, as long as he has a goal in mind, his potential is unlimited. Forever meeting the bar of expectations and constantly raising it up and into the endless sky. Where will the bar stop? Nobody knows… not even Ichigo.

The two titans of pure, god-like, and unadulterated strength stepped into the cool embrace of the seemingly abandoned warehouse.

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The door noisily slid shut. It was hardly noticed by the two central beings in the room such was their focus.

"Good job finding this place, Ichigo. But, it seems that you have brought a visitor. You were supposed to come alone," spoke a voice high above them in disappointment. As Kenpachi's gaze lifted towards the origin of the voice he noticed that there were 7 other beings besides the speaker. He may not be able to track or locate someone by reiatsu, but that doesn't mean that the 11th division captain has no ability to sense strength. No, Kenpachi senses strength with his finely honed instincts. Just glancing at a few of the Vizards made his instincts scream in ecstasy and the hairs on the back of his neck bristle in glee. These bastards are strong. The whole lot of them! This is turning out to be better than I could have ever expected! Such were the thoughts of Zaraki Kenpachi, the immortal.

"Visitor, eh? Don't assume I came here just to talk. I'm here for my own reasons," said the 11th squad captain, his face hidden in shadows.

"Ara? What reasons are those? Are you havin' hollow problems as well?"

"Hollow problems?," repeated Kenpachi tonelessly. "Why would I be having those? If I have an inner hollow he probably cheers me on. I'm here to pick a fight!"

"Hey dickhead, are you stupid? Why would you pick a fight with us of all people?" interrupted a short vaizard with pale blond pigtails.

Kenpachi's face twitched in irritation. The hell? Did a 12 year old girl just call me a dickhead? "Fight time Yachiru go find somewhere to watch. Oi! You with the fang front and center."

The diminutive vizard's face quickly grew crimson. No one makes fun of her fang and lives! "It's part of my womanly charm you freak!"

"Womanly? You're about 10 years too early for that," said Zaraki smugly. "Charm? That's ridiculous. It's bullshit even. If you don't like the things I say about you then bring it! Otherwise, shut the fuck up, and let the adults do the talkin', stupid gaki."

With a roar, reminiscent of a wounded hippo, the short vizard charged the eagerly awaiting shinigami captain. As the two locked blades Kenpachi looked at the blondie over the sparking steel.

"Oh, did I say something to anger Ms. Fang the toy poodle?"

Breaking the deadlock the vizard began to shout a word for ever swing she made. "My. Name.Is. Hiyori!

"Well, Hiyori, if you have time to be talkin' then you're not fightin' hard enough! Come on is this all you got?"

Growling, Hiyori pressed the attack as hard as she could in her current form, but nothing made it even close. The man's reaction speed was insane, and his sword arm was most swift. She tried everything: altering the angles of her attacks, unpredictably changing speeds, and mixing up the types of attacks she used. Yet, it seemed useless as his heavily chipped blade always nullified her attacks. After a failed slash to the man's right side, Hiyori flash stepped behind the giant thinking to catch him off guard with a quick stab.

Kenpachi knew that the girl was somehow holding back. He was initially planning to take his time and be patient, but Zaraki Kenpachi is not a man known for his patience. He watched the blade out of the corner of his eye as it dove for his unprotected skin. Yes, if he tried he could get his zanpakuto around for a parry, but where's the fun in that? Instead, he opted to merely grab the blade with his bare left hand. Ignoring the biting pain from his hand the psychopath yanked the blade off course and in the process pulled Hiyori in closer. With surprising speed and coordination Kenpachi planted his left foot and pivoted around bring his nameless zanpakuto around to stab the helplessly falling Hiyori right through the chest.

From Hiyori's point of view she knew she was in trouble the moment that the captain grabbed onto her blade and began to pull. She was no match for the man's pure brute strength. Instead of fighting against the flow she threw herself towards the direction he was pulling her in, while arching her back to its fullest extent. The point of Kenpachi's sword missed her by a hair's breadth, but she couldn't avoid the serrated edge and received a rather wicked gash horizontally along her lower back.

Despite avoiding being skewered, Hiyori knew she was still in grave danger. After all, standing toe to toe with a blood thirst driven killer, while he holds your weapon hostage, is not a favorable position to be in. The cycloptic killer instead surprised her by talking, instead of ramming his zanpakuto up to the hilt into her chest. "I know your holdin' back. The whole 'hide my true strength' bit is growing old. The only way I'm gonna let go, with you still alive, is if you promise to fight me at full strength. I wanna see the power that's drawin Ichigo to you guys. The power that he wishes to obtain."

"Fine," said Hiyori resignedly as she watched the man's blood run down the blade of her zanpakuto and drip down to form a puddle between them, "I'll admit that you're strong. Just don't regret asking to see my hollow mask."

Kenpachi laughed hysterically, "Oh, I won't. For this I think I'll be takin' the eye patch off." Resting his left hand on the clasp of his eye patch he waited for Hiyori to make her move.

The increase in her power, as she pulled a hollow mask out of nowhere, nearly made his jaw drop.

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Ichigo and Shinji, the dutch styled vizard, both shook their heads in exasperation as they watched Kenpachi initiate the fight with an irate Hiyori. When Ichigo finally looked up he saw that Shinji had fixed him with a serious stare.

"So, Ichigo I assume that you've decided to join us seeing as you showed up.

"Not a chance!" said Ichigo resolutely.

Shinji nearly fell on his face in surprise before he recovered by asking, "The…. Then why are you here?"

"Simple enough. I'm going to force you to teach me how to suppress my inner hollow," said Ichigo with confidence.

"Oh, and how do you think you'll accomplish that?"

"I'm gonna beat it out of you!" exclaimed Ichigo as he popped out of his living body and emerging in his usual shinigami robes.

Wasting no time Ichigo shot forward, toward Shinji with Zangetsu trailing off to the side. Shinji kicked his own Zanpakuto up off the ground and caught the sword by it's sheathe. Leaping forward, to meet the shinigami's charge, Shinji drew his blade in preparation for the ensuing clash. Shinji and Ichigo meet in an explosion of sparks before pushing off in exchange for more space to set up their next set of attacks. The two took to the air in exchange for even more space to give to their jousting competition. An uneducated observer may believe the battle to be fierce but, to anyone worth their salt in a fight, it was obvious that neither Shinji nor Ichigo were trying very hard to hurt each other. Their fight was slightly interrupted when the southern end of the warehouse erupted in reiatsu.

"Woah. Guess Kenpachi took the eye patch off. Hope your friend is up to the challenge. He is quite scary when he takes that damn thing off," commented Ichigo as if he had not a care in the world.

"Hiyori seems to have gotten serious as well. I'm not worried for her at the moment… but, Ichigo… you need to release your hollow or we won't even consider teaching you anything," stated Shinji softly.

"…and why not?" asked the orange haired shinigami in confusion.

"Merely because we need to see the power of your hollow. Nothing more nothing less. If we don't know how powerful your hollow powers are then we would rather just not take the risk of letting a weak person join. A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link after all."

"I'm a captain level shinigami," said Ichigo in exasperation. "How much stronger do I have to be to join?"

"Weren't you listening? We aren't testing your strength as a shinigami. We're testing your strength as a damn hollow! Captain level this, captain level that! Who cares. All I know is that, as a hybrid, I am much stronger than your 'captain level' shinigami in soul society," stated the blond-haired blue-eyed vizard in a hushed and dangerous tone.

"Is that so?"asked Ichigo incredulously. "I haven't seen any evidence for this supposed power that you speak of."

"Wow, I didn't expect you to be this stupid or stubborn. Nor did I expect that I would be giving you a demonstration on my power as a vizard…" as he spoke Shinji slowly extended his hand up above his head as if to grab the edge of his hat. Instead of pulling on his hat he pulled an Egyptian style hollow mask out of thin air and over his own face. "Prepare yourself Kurosaki Ichigo. Cause I'm gonna BEAT the hollow out of you!" Shinji's voice was now overlaid with a sort of creepy sounding warble that caused the hairs on the back of Ichigo's neck to rise up.

The speed of Shinji's sudden rush surprised the hell out of Ichigo and he was hardly able to get Zangetsu up in time to block the sidelong blow. The next thing to come to his attention was the fact that the masked man's attack sent him slamming into the barrier enforced wall.

"Why are you hesitating," inquired Shinji as Ichigo picked himself up off the floor where he had fallen. "You aren't even using your Ban Kai. What's wrong?"

"Nothin's wrong," Ichigo was having a hard time talking through his gritted teeth, "I just don't feel like showing you my Ban Kai."

"Then you're even more stupid then I originally thought. You stand no chance against me in your current form." As if to prove his point Shinji blurred out of sight and reappeared in front Ichigo. Before the shinigami could react the masked vizard hit Ichigo in the stomach with a super-powered uppercut sending him straight up into the air. Ichigo tried to turn in mid air to face his opponent, who he thought was still on the ground, only to realize that the vizard had appeared above him preparing a vicious looking axe kick. The force of the kick sent Ichigo back down to earth like a ping pong ball creating a minor explosion of destroyed concrete and dust.

Shit that fucken hurt haven't been hit that hard since Grimmjaw…but I can't go Ban Kai. Everytime I do the hollow tries to take over. Thought Ichigo as he slowly and agonizingly picked himself up off the shattered concrete of the 10 foot wide crater. His body felt like it was broken in a hundred places, and blood was leaking into his eyes causing them to sting.

Watching the shinigami raggedly pick himself up off the ground Shinji realized something. "You're afraid, aren't you? What is it that might scare the mighty Kurosaki Ichigo? What could the bold invader of Soul Society fear?" He now had the orange-haired shinigami's complete and undivided attention. "Many say that you are fearless. You stormed the very gates of seireitei, defeated 2 fukutaicho and 2 taicho level opponents, and achieved Ban Kai in 3 days while under extreme pressure." Ichigo's brow was now knit in anger, his teeth clenched in frustration. Bastard's dead accurate.

"I hate it," growled Ichigo through his clenched teeth.

"Ara? What is it exactly that you hate?" asked Shinji in a leading manner.

Glancing off to the side, the teenager grudgingly admitted, "I hate losing control. I can't stand not having control over my own body."

"Ah, so the young hero has control issues," smirked Shinji, "and of course when you say 'someone' you mean your hollow right? Interesting. Well, I have a proposition for you. All I ask is that you lose control just this one last time, and if you do that then we, the Vizards, will teach you how to surpress your hollow. Hell, we will even teach you to harness your hollow powers like we do and allow you to join our ranks if it's strong enough. What do you say?"

"How do I know you can uphold your end of that bargain," asked Ichigo distrustfully as he propped himself up using Zangetsu as a walking stick.

"Baka! That should be blaringly obvious. Do I look possessed to you? Honestly man, use your brain."

"Well, here goes nothing…" spoke Ichigo before willingly relinquishing control to the ever present hollow in the back of his mind.

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Author's Notes:

Ok, so there is the full chapter 4 sorry for the wait I don't have any excuses. I actually had to cut this one down a bit for it to make better sense. I don't want to mislead anyone with the title but this fic will have 2 main characters so to speak. Ichigo and Kenpachi of course and they will grow to be good friends in their own way. The romance is coming soon don't worry. I just have to get everything started before I introduce that element in. Warning! Romance is my great weakness…. So yeah. Anyways the pairings so far is IchigoxTatsuki and either KenpachixUnohana or KenpachixSoifong. I like the idea of both of those. So its either opposites attract or it's the tough guy tough girl relationship kinda thing. Well, well time to respond to reviews.

Ralf Jones: yeah sorry I knew that kenpachi's zanpakuto is stuck in shikai, but there can be two separate release modes on a zanpakuto I though. For instance think back to Tousen's two different shikai attacks or to urahara's own double shikai attacks. that's actually what I was trying to get at :). Thanks for the help though man seriously.

CO Raven: I sent you a private message about the translating. Get back to me if you can please!

So uh yeah everyone RR(and by everyone I mean like the 4 people who have this on story alert so far D)