Ichigo, I whisper to myself, you don't have to kill him. Defeat him, but don't end his life. You're not a murderer!

The pair are standing on opposite sides, tattered and worn and heaving with exhaustion. I cant help but stare in saddened awe at my former captor. His arm was missing, his legs were withered sticks, thin enough to snap in two. He begs the red headed shinigami to end him, but he profusely refuses.

"This is not how I want to defeat you!"

For the first time, I see emotion in his eyes. Its small, but enough to give me hope. All those things he said before, maybe he doesn't believe them now. Maybe he knows...

Those brilliant green orbs slide to see me, and my eyes sting. I let them, I let the thickness in my throat obstruct my speech. I let myself mourn the loss of the empty espada, because he never knew happiness.

Are you afraid of me, woman? His voice echoes in my head, and im not sure whether he said it outloud, or somehow sent the thought for just me to hear it.

I'm afraid, I weep mentally, for you...Ulquiorra.

Ulquiorra...

I jump, and my head bounces from the hard wood floor. "Ow!"

"Woman."

I rub my cheek and scan the room all the way around to find him. I find him, sat back in a chair in the corner of the room where the light doesn't show. "Morning," I yawn, and stretch my arms all the way up.

"You... talk in your sleep." I stop dead, arms half way back down. "Oh," I say, blushing and giggling, "Sorry."

"You said ...a name," he observes in a dead pan voice. I find his eyes in the darkness of the corner, but they seem shadowed. "Whose?"

He stands, and emerges from the shadow. I recoil in silence and surprise. "Ulqui-!"

"Ulqui...orra," he finished. I can only stare. I suddenly feel weak beneath the grey - green eyes, a change that had definitely occurred beyond my imagination. He stopped, and his legs crossed beneath him. I adjust myself to mimic him, and we stare each other in the eye. I don't know what to say.

"Is that...my...name?" This isn't the zombie talking now. This is him. He's intrigued, stunned...scared. The emotion in his eyes triggers a memory.

The dream.

"Your name...is Ulquiorra," I confirm. For some unfathomable reason, tears sting my eyes. I continue to look him in the eye, even when he looks away momentarily. "I knew you. I must have." I remember the way his arm became spinning dust in the light breeze of the baron desert in the dream, and then force myself to assure myself that it must not have happened. It just sounds right. Ulquiorra.

I turn on the spot, and fumble on the desk for the picture beneath my fingers. "And he was there!" I exclaim as I point to the orange haired boy. "Ichigo," I recall. "Maybe he'll be able to shed some light on the subject!"

"Woman," Ulquiorra began, "What...are you...talking ab-bout?"

I show him the boy, pointing to him enthusiastically. "He was in the dream! In the dream you fought each other, and-" I stop myself before telling him his fate. I'd never had a prophetic dream before, and I didn't want to chance this one being just that. If that boy even dared to harm my friend, or whatever he was, I would be on my companion's side. I would defend Ulquiorra all the way.

But the boy didn't kill him. Not really. Ulquiorra succumbed to his wounds.

"And...what?"

I blink away the wetness before it could fall. "And that's when I found out your name. Then it ended." I meet his eyes defiantly. "We need to find him. If we want anymore questions answered, about us both, we need to find him." Without waiting for a reply, I stand, and go to the window. Its deserted, which is good. I grab an armful of sticks and motion for him to do the same. "We're...leaving?"

"We need answers. We need to get you back to health, and then we need to get the world back to how it was." It feels automatic to include him in my future plans now, it feels futile without him there. "Then we can get back to normality and start afresh."

Ulquiorra stands just as I finish straightening the weapons in my belt. I manage twelve on one side, and assumd that to be good enough. I stand straight, and recoil again. I realise how tall he is when standing straight.

His expression softens. "You're jumpy this morning."

"Always am!" I sing, and when he is ready, I lead the way from the classroom.

...

With one swing, Kyoraku's hat blew off, and his brunette hair waved as a few strands followed it. His eyes widened in faint surprise, and after a few moments, droned, "Well Ichigo, I did not expect you to do it that easily."

I continued to stand there, a grin etching its way on my features, but instead chose to concentrate on sheathing my zanpakto, feather light in my hands despite its largeness. "Thanks."

Urahara returned from his viewing station clapping his hand and his hand fan. "Well done Ichigo! 10 points!"

"Id say that was worth 30," Shuunsui cut in. Urahara ignored him. "I'd say you were just about ready. Training complete! Everyone, please follow me inside for a debrief."

Everyone exchanged looks, and followed the former captain up the steps like lost sheep. I caught up with Ishida, who seemed to be thinking intently. No change there. "So, reckon the old man's going to spill what those things are?"

"He'll have too."

"Do you have any ideas?"

He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Perhaps."

He gave nothing more away, and we came back into the small living area. Once we were all inside, the floor closed back up. "Alright. Everyone find a seat!"

"Im alright standing, thank you," Ukitake assured. The other soul reapers nodded in unison, in fear of looking weaker. Urahara stood up front like the teacher, and cleared his throat in preparation. "Alright then! Thank you all for coming-"

"Get on with it, Kisuke," a voice urged from the doorway. We all looked up and down, to find the familiar black cat eyeing him impatiently. "Ichigo hasn't got all day." All eyes returned to the man at the front, blushing lightly. "Right, sorry. Okay! Lets begin." He pulled down a screen, while Jinta switched off the lights and a patch of brightness appeared on the wall. A blurred white square. "Sorry," Ururu's small voice excused, and she adjusted the lens until it revealed one of Rukia's childish rabbit drawings. Kisuke pointed his cane to the one dressed as a soul reaper. "Alright. I'm sure you're all curious as to the explanation of our friends that have been putting in an appearance over the last few months. Thank you to our resident artist, we can demonstrate this much easier. This one here, is a soul reaper. You're everyday joe, got it?" A few sarcastic murmurs, and suddenly I was in an authentic class room. I yawned, and promptly felt a cane to the face. "Focus, Ichigo!"

"Now, as we know, they began appearing a few weeks after Aizen's defeat. Thankfully, I managed to obtain one, and have gathered some rather interesting information. They are all a result of contaminated spiritual energy released from Aizen's being upon being fused with the hogyoku.

Gasps resonated from some, stunned faces from the rest. Except Uryu. He had his eyes closed, and appeared to be deep in thought.

"As this happened, all those who had been directly affected by it, such as the arrancar in Heuco Mundo, have risen as shadows of their former selves, but missing none of their strength. Unfortunately, as hollows feed on souls, instead of the souls becoming like hollows...they become, as modern culture would call it, "zombified."

"What happened to the one you obtained?" Uryu suddenly asked. He had a distrust of Urahara, not so misplaced, but what he implied may have come from a dislike of soul reaper scientists in general. "Have you kept it?"

Ururu flicked to the next slide, showing an image taken by photograph of the creature in question. It was scarred, empty, with long black hair around its face. Male.

"Mizurio," I stuttered. "What...n-no..."

"What we found from him was quite fascinating. We gathered much more from him than we deemed possible. When a human has considerable spiritual pressure, such as this young man, the contaminate fused with it and its intensity kills those without any measurable spiritual pressure. There are not many of that kind in Karakura town, so that is, kind of good. As long as souls don't get eaten, people are still able to defend themselves."

I heard the final few words, but saved processing them until later. "Where is he? When did you find him?"

"We found the boy just last week wondering by the school. We didn't harm him, Ichigo. He's still here."

"How is he?"

The lights switched back on with a nod from the ex captain, and Mizurio's faded face disappeared from the screen. "Lets go and see. Just you, if no one else minds."

I followed Urahara out of the room, and into the main shop area. He pulled out that same device in his pocket used to open secret doors, and just like that one opened out in the centre of the isle. Not steps this time, but a ladder. "Go ahead."

"Is he dangerous?"

"Nothing you can handle."

I nodded, reassuring myself that my zanpakto was with me. I glanced down in surprise. It was a bright room, simple white and minimalistic. It looked just like an extremely plain bedroom. I made my decent down the ladder, and hopped to the ground. I turned, and scanned the small area. "M-mizurio?"

A door swung open within one of the bright walls, and the short boy entered the room. I recoiled in shock. He looked...not dead.

"Miz..urio?"

His grey eyes widened partially, but only distant recognition registered within them. I sure as hell didn't expect him to speak. "I...is that...my na-name?"

I was stunned to silence.