This War's Not Over: Chapter 17

The Inevitable Outcome

Hi everyone!

Here's another update and thanks as always for your reviews!

Isshin had sensed them coming.

He tried to remain calm as he watched his feet take him to the inexplicable place he always knew he would end up. He stealthily evaded the heavy guard with a couple of silent flash-steps, before continuing his route down into the darkness of the cave. Again, as he saw the heavy guard clotting the bars of the prison, he easily slipped through, and only tensing when he made his way into the dark room.

He could see the figure, staring at him with his mocking brown eyes, strapped to the chair he was seated on. The figure's eyes narrowed with interest. "What brings you to visit, Kurosaki Isshin?"

Isshin looked at the figure up to down, his eyes showing nothing but uneasiness and worry.

"Are you afraid for your son?" the figure smiled slyly.

Isshin ignored the taunt, taking a step forwards. "I have a proposition for you. Aizen."

Ichigo shuffled forwards, his eyes wide as he made his way around the corridors of the 1rst Division barracks after the messenger. He wished the corridors would never end, and that he would never have to meet this "messenger from the Royal Guard."

His stomach started to knot up when the messenger halted in front of two sliding doors with simple pink blossoms and birds on them, signaling for the teen to enter. Ichigo stiffly reached for the door, knowing that he had to get this over with sooner or later. The teen slid the door open, his heart thumping, and entered the room quietly in order to hopefully not be noticed.

But since there was no one in the room, to Ichigo's confusion, the teen paced across the space, looking around cautiously. Ichigo shivered. This place gave him the creeps. He was glad he had brought his zanpakuto with him.

"Behind you," a voice made Ichigo jump.

Ichigo whipped around, his hand immediately reaching for his sword. He could see the person now, standing in front of him with his hands respectfully crossed behind his back. How could Ichigo have missed him?

"Remove your hand from your sword. You must act more civil if you ever wish to come with me, Kurosaki Ichigo."

Ichigo's eyes narrowed, reluctantly moving his hand away from Zangetsu, and forcing it to fall loosely down his side. Ichigo sized the messenger up, looking him from up to down. The messenger was dressed in a garb shaped similarly to a typical espada uniform, apart from the scarlet red replacing the usual whiteness of it. His skin was very pale, his black hair pushed to one side.

Both stared at each other, since the messenger seemed to be assessing Ichigo as well. The weirdo finally broke the silence, a smile disrupting the usual stone coldness of his face. "I never expected you to be so young, Ichigo-sama."

Ichigo flinched, taken aback by the hint of sudden respect in the messenger's voice, immediately stiffening. "Don't call me that."

His opinion about how he should be called was ignored, as the messenger gave a small bow to introduce himself. "Isamu Jun, here to take you back to the Royal Dimension, Ichigo-sama."

The teen was about to shout back that he didn't care about the messenger's name, but then stopped as what followed the messenger's introduction caught his attention. His brows knitted tightly together, taking a step back. "Hold on—you're not taking me anywhere."

The smile on Jun's face immediately vanished, but this time, Ichigo wasn't afraid by the messenger's glacial expression. The teen took a step forwards, his voice more sure of himself. "I'm not going."

"You are the Oken, Ichigo-sama. It is inevitable, either way, whether you come with us civilly, or if we have to threaten your friends to make you follow us," Jun smiled, but this time, it was sly and full of bad intentions.

Ichigo's eyes narrowed dangerously, barely managing to stop himself from spitting and snarling at Jun. He was glad that he was no longer in espada form to add to the discomfort. How dare he threaten his friends?

Ichigo resulted to simply tutting at the messenger, keeping his shoulders relaxed to show that this didn't bother him—he had plenty of training in Hueco Mundo after all. He made his eyes go emotionlessly cold, staring at Jun with as much mockery as he could muster. "Tch. That's all a load of crap."

He tried to maintain that blazé look even after Jun had disappeared from his sight, only to have him reappear by Ichigo's side, a hand on his shoulder. Jun gave Ichigo that sly smile again. "Not shocked? Wow. You're good."

Ichigo continued to stare at the place where the messenger had been the second before, maintaining his cold stare. He allowed himself to copy his inner hollow's toothy grin. "I've had a lot of practice."

The grin wasn't as good as Shiro's, but to someone who had never seen it to begin with, it was good enough. Even though he was no longer in his espada form, he was thankful for his hollow instincts, just this once. It was clearly putting the messenger off. He could just see his hollow's evil smile at the back of his head. "Not bad. Now, reiatsu."

Ichigo raised his reiatsu on queue, trying to hide his amusement at being under the hollow's sudden instruction. Put off by the weight, Jun retreated back to his former position, clearly surprised. Ichigo made his reiatsu retreat, since it was only a warning for the messenger to back off.

"Don't touch me," Ichigo said, his eyes narrowed.

"Impressive, Ichigo-sama," Jun said, smiling using the corners of his mouth.

"I know you're doing all this just to assess me," Ichigo murmured, tensing up again.

"Your hollow has more influence on you than we thought," Jun said, his green eyes glinting. "But don't worry—we'll get rid of it as soon as we arrive at the palace."

Furious at the thought, Ichigo walked past the messenger and out the door. "You can forget it. I'm not going with you."

As Ichigo stormed down the hall, he could here Jun call after him: "One whole day, Ichigo-sama. I give you one whole day to say your goodbyes."

Ichigo was not going. He shut the door to his room, plopping himself onto his chair and sat there staring out into space.

He had stormed out of Soul Socitey with a confused Renji and Rukia at his heels. They had separated at the Senkaimon, where Chad and Uryu were waiting for him. Nel and Grimmjow had apparently wished to remain in Hueco Mundo after the soul reapers assured them that Ichigo was in no danger.

Everyone had returned home, and Ichigo couldn't be more thankful. Everything had returned to how it should be. He did his best to put Jun's warnings out of his mind, but it seemed to hover over him like a heavy fog. Everything had gone by so quickly, it all seemed like a dream to Ichigo. But what if Jun's threats were actually true? Would he come and hurt his friends and family?

"Well that was…interesting."

Ichigo shot up three meters in the air at the voice, turning around with creeping horror when he realized that the voice was no longer inside his head.

He watched with wide eyes as his hollow sat there on his carpet, in flesh and bones (not really), and soaking wet. The two stared at each other for a while, before Ichigo finally snapped out of his shock. "What. Are. You. Doing. Here."

Enjoying Ichigo's expression of complete surprise, Shiro simply settled for shaking his snow-white hair to get rid of the droplets of water in it. Seeing as Ichigo didn't react and continued to stare at him like Shiro was a dinosaur, Shiro finally got up and grinned sarcastically. "Sightseeing. What do you think?"

Ichigo tried to get his head around the fact that his hollow had just come out of his mind. He stared dumbly at the hollow. "What am I supposed to think then?"

Shiro raised his drenched shihakusho sleeves to show how wet he was, before stomping down on the accumulating puddle at his feet in order to splash Ichigo.

"It's raining in there," the hollow hissed. "Why would I want to stay in there when I recently figured out how to manifest myself out here and take the piss out of you?"

Ichigo gave the hollow his dirtiest look before widening his eyes again. "Manifest? You mean like Zangetsu?"

Ichigo only got a sly smile in reply, so Ichigo snorted and rested his head on his desk. "Just leave me alone."

"Oh. So you're not gonna fight back or anything?" the hollow sneered.

This made Ichigo turn back around again, to Shiro's satisfaction. "He threatened to hurt my friends if I resisted."

A mocking toothy grin spread across Shiro's face, the hollow immediately turning his head to look out the window, slipping his hands in his sleeves. "Pathetic."

"Well what would you do?" Ichigo snapped, only to see his hollow's eyes narrow evilly at him. "Actually, don't answer that."

"As I said, pathetic," Shiro taunted.

With that, Ichigo threw himself at Shiro, fist raised and eyes flashing with anger. "Shut up!"

Shiro easily dodged Ichigo's weak attempt at hitting him, watching mockingly at the shock in Ichigo's eyes to find that Shiro's was no longer in his previous location. The hollow, who couldn't pass over a good fist fight, let the angry teen take his frustration out on him. Shiro threw a punch, Ichigo narrowly avoiding it as the wood under his carpet snapped in two.

They tussled for a couple of minutes before the two teens both froze when they heard Yuzu's voice coming from behind the door. "Nii-chan? Are you alright in there?"

Without a moments thought, Ichigo pushed Shiro into Rukia's closet and shut the door just as Yuzu came in. Yuzu frowned at Ichigo. "Um, I'm making curry tonight?"

Yuzu stared at Ichigo's new yoga stance with rising alarm.

"Sounds good," Ichigo smiled awkwardly.

Yuzu turned around to face the door again, her face puzzled. "If you're sure you're okay…"

As soon as the door clicked shut, Ichigo opened the door to the closet again, his eyes angry. "Look at what you've done! Now Yuzu thinks I'm crazy!"

"You are, considering you're talking to something no one else can see."

His glare met immediately with Shiro's sly yellow ones. The hollow didn't seem put off by Ichigo's outburst, only to smile shrewdly at Ichigo. "Rukia's scent smells good."

This earned him a ticket out of the closet as Ichigo's fist buried itself into Shiro's face, sending the pale copy flying across the room. The counterpart landed lightly on his feet, clearly unaffected by Ichigo's punch. He lent his head back into a bout of laughter, his eyes glowing with pleasure. "What? Did I make you mad? You two are so much fun to piss off."

Ichigo's teeth gritted. "If you came here just to do that, I think you should consider returning back to where you belong."

Shiro hopped lightly onto Ichigo's desk, crouching down as he smirked at Ichigo. "So? It made you forget about Isamu Jun —and how he says he'll dispose of me."

Ichigo stiffened. "Well you've reminded me now. This is all a game for you isn't it?"

Shiro gave out a low chuckle, closing his yellow eyes. The teen watched as the hollow slowly began to disappear, probably returning to Ichigo's inner world. "Just don't forget that this involves me as much as it does you."

After the hollow had completely disappeared, Ichigo flopped down on his bed, doing his best to ignore the puddle that Shiro had left on his carpet to prove that the hollow had actually been there and not simply a figment of his imagination. Ichigo closed his eyes, letting the alluring feeling of sleep take over.

When Ichigo woke up, he was on cold solid ground. Ichigo's face immediately recoiled from the ice that burned his skin, pushing himself up to a sitting position. He glanced around, immediately shielding his face with his arm as frozen wind blew his way. He recognized the place, obviously. His inner world had recovered from the crumbling state Ichigo had last seen it in, but it confused Ichigo that it was still covered in ice.

"Zangetsu? Shiro!" Ichigo called to his powers, but neither of them came, much to the teen's confusion.

Ichigo stood up, gasping as the wind seemed to push him forwards. His hand reached for his zanpakuto as a voice came, almost like as if it was whispering it through the wind: "Come…"

Ichigo's glare scoured his inner world, alarmed. "Who's there?"

"Return…"

Ichigo's search proved fruitless as he found no one, so he dropped his hand from his zanpakuto. "Who are you?"

But his voice was carried away by the wind, and no sound seemed to escape his lips. He strained to hear the voice, not sure whether to listen to it or not.

"Return home Ichigo…" it seemed to say. "Come home Ichigo…"

But then others joined the voice, all screaming one over the other, rising louder and louder enough to sweep Ichigo his feet, the teen closing his eyes and clutching his ears in an effort not to hear them.

"Shut up!"

The teen tumbled out of bed, his covers wrapped around his legs and body. His face smashed against the foot of his desk, sending pain jarring across his nose as he recoiled from the solid object.

He sat up, rubbing his face, before glancing around to make sure no one was there.

"Well someone's been through hell," the voice came, low and mocking.

Ichigo gave a gasp as his hollow sat crouched in his usual position on Ichigo's desk, staring down with fake caution at Ichigo.

The teen's brows instantly knitted tightly together, embarrassed that his hollow had been sitting there watching him the whole time. But instead of a mocking laugh from the hollow, Shiro only slipped his hands in his sleeves, his yellow eyes narrowing. "There are voices aren't there?"

Ichigo's eyes widened with surprise. "What? You've had those too?"

"Yeah. Although Zangetsu and I have to live with them 24/7 in your head. I materialized myself the first time to see if you had them too, but since you showed no sign of it, I left. But now…it seems you can hear them too."

This unsettled Ichigo to the extreme. "And you guys have no idea what's wrong?"

"What makes you think we would? You're the one who's controlling the reigns here, Ichigo-sama," Shiro emphasized on Jun's way of calling Ichigo in order to see the priceless look on his face.

The hollow was gone before Ichigo could even lay a punch on him.

"Ichigooooooooo!"

Ichigo dodged his father's flying kick, instinctively flipping him over into a headlock. He left his father's done-in head on the kitchen tile floor, grateful to have a peaceful morning at home for once. But the dreams he had disturbed him, and Ichigo realized with a small spark of fear that he had reached his "deadline" for his supposed goodbyes.

Ichigo shook his head. He would keep especially close to his family today, since school was off for the holidays. There was simply no way he going to let Jun have his way. He watched his dad drag himself to a chair, using a newspaper to hide his bruised up face from a giggling Yuzu.

Ichigo stared at his father silently from across the table, curiosity suddenly rising in the orange-haired teen. What if his father knew something…? He was very suspicious after all, since Ichigo had no idea about his father's past. Ichigo waited until Yuzu had once again disappeared into the kitchen before deciding to open his mouth.

"Dad?" Ichigo asked stiffly.

His father lowered down his newspaper to look at Ichigo. But instead of Isshin's usual goofy smile, there was a serious face replacing it.

"I—"

"I'll take care of Karin and Yuzu, Ichigo. You go and talk to your friends or something."

Ichigo opened his mouth to word his confusion, since that wasn't what he wanted to ask at all, but closed it when he finally understood. As Ichigo stared at his father squarely in the eyes, the teen could see that there was a hidden meaning behind his father's words.

Ichigo sat back on his chair. He knows? So Isshin knew that Yuzu and Karin were in danger. And his father was right—Ichigo should go warn his friends. Ichigo stood up, opening the door to leave. But maybe—just in case—he should say goodbye? Ichigo halted by the door, glancing at his father who was watching him leave. But then he thought better of it, thinking it was just stupid because he was acting as if he would never see them again.

He turned his back to his family, feeling his father's concerned eyes bore on his back.

When Ichigo stepped out, he was immediately greeted by the sun that shined over his head. He made his way down the road, flipping his phone open to call the team for a meeting when his cell was sliced in two. Ichigo turned, his face plastered with shock as he was encircled with figures wearing red garbs, all with their swords drawn.

Ichigo gasped as a sword found itself inches away from his throat. His eyes narrowed when the only figure he noticed, Jun, made his way towards him. Ichigo could feel the needle in his arm now, and as he lost consciousness, the last thing he heard was Jun's smug voice.

"You're coming with us."

Tadaa~!

Love writing this stuff! 3

Please tell me what you think and review!