AN: I'm baaaack! Believe it or not, i'm finally done with school *-* best feeling ever.

And here is a brand new chapter for you guys. :) I'm so happy with this story. The feedback is great and it's refreshing to read all the nice reviews.

Check out my Deviantart! (Same username as here)

Chapter 19 – Hello, Follower-san

Kisuke sat at his office, working on his paperwork, which was boring him no end. His mind wondered back to Ichigo, and he hoped his friend knew what he was actually doing. It was risky to actually tell hat much of his "past".

His thoughts were interrupted as the ground began to shake slightly beneath his feet, and a faint flare of Reiatsu could be felt. His head snapped up at the familiar feeling of the energy, and he went out of his office and headed to a certain destination, watching carefully if someone was following him. Damn, Ichigo surre had a knack for attracking attention, what was that prick doing?

Training Room:

Ichigo stood panting. The air was thick with energy and he was engulfed in smoke. As said smoke cleared three figures were revealed.

Zangetsu stood proud with his slim black sword in his hand. His coat was dirty and burned in several places. He had a few gashes across his torso and upper arms. He was panting as well.

The next figure was Shiro, a huge grin on hidden beneath his Hollow Mask, that was missing one of it's horns already. His coat was not white anymore and he had several wounds as well.

Last was Shikari. She looked like always. Ichigo knew that she was strong for sure, but he did not want to attack a little girl, that would be against his morals. It was a spar, after all.

"Maaan, Ichigo. That was a hell of an attack, and you sure held back there, didn't ya?" Shiro said before turning to Zangetsu. "Oi Old Man. 'There any chance of beating King-o right now? I'm sure no one of us can power up now and he's been usin' 'Shikai', right?"

Zangetsu smirked before saying: "Well, it technically isn't even a Shikai. I have no idea what this would be called, and I would have never imagined it to be this powerful. But you are right. Ichigo sure surpassed us. He's combined our powers to work against us… I am very proud to call you my wielder Ichigo. " Zangetsu dropped out of Bankai.

Shikari let her small dagger disappear in her hands before she jumped at Ichigo, climbing up to his shoulder and messing with his hair.

"Ichi-nii is soooo strong! He will protect everyone, right?" She cheered at him.

"Yeah, I'll do that. Thank you, Zangetsu, Shiro… I really needed this right now." Ichigo said with a relieved expression.

He suddenly felt a person entering the training room, and turned around to greet Kisuke.

"Hey Kisuke. What are you doing here?" He said.

"What I am doing? What are YOU doing? Are you insane? The whole Seireitei was shaking because of you! And what the hell is that thing in your hand? Don't tell me that… no! What were you doing?!" Kisuke rambled with a stressed expression.

"Oi, calm down, Kisuke! Everything's alright. I just needed a spar… Byakuya pissed me off. And so we decided to use this for a spar, ne?"

Kisuke was shocked. "You call THIS a friendly sparring?"

"Sure."

"A…Alright. Well don't do that anymore, not here! I'll build you another of these rooms… Far away… VERY far away. Everyone was freaking out because of your energy, right? " Kisuke said with a sigh, before he looked at Ichigo again.

Ichigo was still wearing the Academy Uniform, with a heavy black hooded cloak over it, similar to that of his Zanpakuto. The Hood was down and the cloak clearly looked like it had been through a rough fight. But what really catched his eye was the weapon inside the young man's hand. It had the form of a slim sword like his Bankai used to be, but it didn't look like a sword at all. The whole weapon seemed to be made by pure Reiatsu, glowing in a deep black and white with a streak of purple, flaring every now and then, and sometimes even blurring from view. Even the handle was made out of the same material, engulfing Ichigos hand in energy like a glove.

Kisuke was staring so hard at Ichigo's sword that he didn't even notice Ichigo's spirits, who were slowly returning to his inner world.

With a snap, the energy of Ichigo's sword exploded outwards, turning everything dark for a mere second, before he held his sealed sword in his hands, and was putting it away.

"What the hell, Ichigo? That wasn't your Shikai, was it?"

"Ah, well… Not really. But I'll be using it as Shikai while I'm under your name. Zangetsu would be not suited for that. I can't really power him down, and it would be suspicious to have a Zanpakuto with a similar name to Isshin's, right?" Ichigo explained.

"I give you that, but when this was not a Shikai, what was it? It almost felt like.."

"It is. It took me quite some time to master it, but it is pretty powerful. When I came here, my sword merged as you can see, so the powers were combined into one, and I'm using it. Before you ask again, let me explain. You once told me that I need to pump Reiatsu into my sword, or else I wouldn't be able to harm someone with great Reiatsu. And that's exactly what I'm doing, but a little different. Instead of putting more power into my sword, I simply free it's power form the material, so that it's not restricted by steel or something else. Short, I turn my sword into pure Reiatsu. Satisfied?"

It took Kisuke a moment to realize, before he sighed.

"My, my. You sure tend to do "impossible" things. I'm sorry, but I have to leave now, before someone notices my absence. And you should leave, too. Send a hell butterfly when you have a day off. Take care, Ichigo."

"You too, Ki-kun." Ichigo said with a warm smile, before he disappeared in a flicker of Shunpo.

At the academy:

Ichigo arrived in his dorm room just moments after he left. He decided to take a hot shower and change into some fresh clothes.

Byakuya's Reiatsu was next door, and Ichigo actually had to hold himself back, that he wouldn't bash his door in and beat some sense into the young noble, but for now he had to wait and simply hope that he would realize that it wasn't him who had an ill intention towards him. The next thing that crossed Ichigo's mind were his little shadows following everywhere. It was careless to disappear into the training room, and he had to do something about them before they could tell anything about him. Their energies were still outside his window and it was finally time to confront them.

'Mind switching for a moment, Shiro?' Ichigo called into his mind. In an instant his vision went black and he was standing next to his Hollow in the tiny bathroom.

"Couldn't you at least wait until I was ready with showering?!" Ichigo hissed at his naked counterpart, who only sported a huge grin.

With a sigh Ichigo dropped his Reiatsu low enough to disappear from their senses and disappeared with a small noise.

With the stalkers:

Two figures stood out in the dark, hidden in the plants and bushes, staring at a particular window. Both wore black uniforms, that hid the lower halves of their faces, but their eyes and hair were visible. The one sitting closer to the window was wearing a grim expression. He frowned and his dark eyes were fixed on the little window in front of him, while he brushed a strand of black hair out of his face. He glanced at the girl behind him. She hugged her knees and her green eyes looked exhausted, while her light brown hair fell out of it's rubber band and into her face.

"Oi, you're too close to the window, he'll notice you!" She said.

"Bullshit, he's just a lousy student. Like hell he'll notice a master assassin like me."

"Yeah, right Kato-san. Said student we lost just earlier that day! He just appeared again, doesn't that sound suspicious to you, too? We should go and inform Ginrei-Sama."

"Shut up, Miku. You're just cold and you want to go home. It's our job to watch that stupid kid, even if he doesn't do anything interesting. Losing him, was your fault. You were supposed to watch him, while went for some food! But that was too much for you. You're useless, Miku."

"Ahh, you meany." She pouted. "But let's go home, I'm sure he won't do anything until tomorrow."

"Miku-baka! Didn't you listen…"

Suddenly Kato stopped talking as he felt a sword pressed to his chest. In front of him stood a white haired male with mismatched eyes. He looked almost like… but no, the lights were still on.

"My, my. That is not the way you should talk to a lady, Kato-chan." He said in a deep voice.

Miku stared at the stranger with wide eyes, before she reached for her weapon, trying to save her fellow assassin, but she didn't get very far, as she was forced to the ground by something that felt like an unspoken Kido.

"Nana, that is not very nice, Miku-chan… Now be nice and do tell me who you work for, and I will let you go. " Ichigo said.

"No, we won't tell you, scum!" Kato spat at Ichigo. He was prepared to die for his mission because betraying his master was worse than death for an assassin.

"I won't be so sure about that. I didn't intent to hurt you, but if necessary…" With that Ichigo directed a friction of his Reiatsu at the two, careful not to attract any attention.

Miku and Kato's grimaced in pain and sweat started to form on their foreheads, as soon as the Reiatsu hit them. After a few moments Miku decided she couldn't take it anymore. She didn't care that she would get punished for her actions, but she only wanted it to stop.

"G… Ginrei Kuchiki! Now stop this.. please" She spat.

"Miku! No, how could you…"

Ichigo released the pressure on them with a sad expression. It had hurt him to do things like this, but he needed to be sure in order to do something.

"Just as I thought" he muttered. "Now, you be nice and sleep for a while…"
He released a pulse of Reiatsu, knocking them out and releasing their short time memory, before he left and wet to bed.

It was time for a plan.

AN: That's it for now! : Hope you like it.

You wanna see how Ichi looks? Check out my deviantart. Seach for "mspauly" and check out my profile! Go for featured, and you'll find it there. It's just a scrap for now, but if you want me to, i'll do a good version of it.

Love,mspauly!