CHAPTER 19

Tired!

It had taken longer than planned. They were tired and Ichigo had gone into Harrys mind to sleep. They had opened the tents and went to sleep also. Ichigo sat on Harrys memory tree. It was very dart and the fog was thick. Harry was worried and Ichigo could feel it. It wasn't always easy to just accept things and accepting that a bad soul was in your body wasn't really the easiest thing to do!

Harry in the mean time was very worried. He was scared that his friends would be wounded or hurt the next time they tried to get a soul part. That Voldemort was slowly gathering in his body wasn't even helping it. The only thing that calmed him a bit was that Ichigo was taking care of him. He really wasn't happy to be the chosen one but at least he had support.

-!-

They had moved around for days and still no soul in sight. Ichigo had told them that it would be dangerous and that it would take long to find the next one but they had never thought that the march would be that long. They had arrived in a wizard village and wanted to rest. Hermionie was whining. They had never expected to hear her whine but now seemed to be the time.

"I don't want to sleep in a tent anymore! It is so cold and uncomfortable in there. I want my books and a warm place to sleep!" Ichigo and the others sighed. It was worse than when she asked questions. Ichigo thought about a solution and materialized himself. The trio, even Hermionie who had stopped whining looked at him curious. He made himself bigger and was as big as when he split his soul when Shiro was created. He went to a inn and said: "Can we sleep here for the night? We have wandered for a long time to escape our father. We come from different mothers and are really tired." Ichigo became teary eyes and did the puppy eyes trick. His lips shivered and the other three looked surprised. The woman that stood before them tried to look away but couldn't. Ichigo said with tears flowing down his cheeks: "Please let us stay here, we will take any room even the worse looking but please don't sent us away into the cold again!" Ichigo started to cry and fell on his knees. He rubbed his eyes with his hands and looked to the floor. The people around them began to stare and the woman sighed and went to Ichigo. I will let you stay here for one night if you help me clean in the morning!" she said while petting Ichigo and smiling at him. "Really?" asked Ichigo and she nodded. He jumped around and cheered than he said: "Thank you one-san." She became red and smiled at him. He led them to their room and they went in. When Ichigo was sure that she was away he sighed and said:

"I will never ever do that again for you! I hate it to act and it costs power to maintain this form. It was a good think to learn from my sisters thought!" he mused at the end. The trio looked with awe at him. It had been surprising how well he could act and that he knew his weapons so well. Hermionie let herself fall on the bed and sighed happily. She fell asleep right away. Ichigo made himself small again and Ron and Harry needed to share a bed. In the morning Ichigo heared footsteps and made himself big again. He quickly went next to Hermionie into bed and closed his eyes pretending.

"Wake up children. We need to clean!" The land lady said and slowly the trio started to rise. The woman left the room and the trio noticed Ichigos child form in Hermionies bed. Ron seemed to look really angry while Hermionie seemed to be embarrassed. She was about to shake Ichigo when he opened his eyes and looked at the door. He jumped out of the bed and sighed.

"Sorry Hermionie but she would have been suspicious if I hadn't been around with what I did yesterday and it was too cramped in Ron and Harrys bed to really fit in. We are siblings here so she would have really been suspicious when we shared a bed with tree even thought I am a child and we are siblings." Everyone nodded. They underestimated him again when he looked like a child.

-!-

They went down and looked around. The woman was already waiting for them and Ichigo took the broom. They all watched in awe when he almost made the room shine alone. He was really quick and everything was clean in under an hour. Ichigo acted one last time by smiling at her without his scowl and them saying childlike thanks. She smiled at them and said that they could stay whenever they wanted and that they had been a great help. Ichigo and the trio went out and winked one last time. Then they went their way and when they were far enough Ichigo changed back into his chibi form and yawned.

"I am going to sleep. It has been stressful for me to maintain this form. You need to go into this direction" Ichigo pointed in the direction he meant "we will be there when nighttime falls and you go in this tempo. Good night." With that Ichigo disappeared and the others could only watch. It had amazed them of what Ichigo was capable off.

Harry noticed of the first time that there existed a pull into the direction that Ichigo had pointed. He was surprised and worried. Ichigo who was still half awake suddenly said only to him:

"Don't worry. It has nothing to do with you! The other soul pieces are calling out to the rest. The nearer you come the stronger the call will get. I don't know why the calling is happening but it has nothing to…do…with… you!" Ichigo said while falling asleep. Harry was relieved that he wasn't the cause and went on the way. After half an hour they arrived at a forest that didn't really looked inviting. They needed to get through thought and they needed to go now so they went in. They slowly went forward and heard a howl. The trio twitched together and out of reflex the dagger was summoned. Harry looked at it and it somehow calmed all of them. They went on again and where almost at the end when they heard a second very close howl. The slowly turned around in hopes that it would somehow disappear if they still weren't looking but behind them was a wolf. A silver very big one, that seemed to breathe fire. Harry called out to Ichigo but no response was heard. He did that many times very quickly after the first and finally got a response from a very grumpy hearing voice. Ichigo appeared at his shoulder and looked at the trio.

"You just hate me right? Always waking me up even thought you know that I need the sleep." They looked shocked at him as if it really wasn't the right moment. Ichigo looked up and at the wolf. Ichigo smiled a bit at it and then scowled.

"I let someone search for you many times and this is where you are. What happened that you didn't come back? You are the gate keeper after all Cerberus."

The wolf whined but seemed to want to lead them somewhere. Ichigo sighed and said: "Follow him. I want to know why and you won't die as long as I am with you. I am his owner after all. They nodded but still were very careful. They went into the deeps of the forest and looked around. They heard many howls and were suddenly in the middle of a pack of wolves. They fletched their teeth but when Cerberus gave a warning growl they became quiet again.

"So you became the leader of them." Ichigo said more to himself than to anyone else.

They went to a cave in the middle of a rock formation and looked into the cave. It was quite a sight. There laid a female wolf with pups, lets correct it, many pups. Ichigo understood right away and he started to smile at the silver wolf.

"So you have created a family of your own now have you? Come here. I understand now why you couldn't come back. At least sent a message or something else the next time you disappear. I would never try to find you if I had known." The wolf seemed to be happy and wagged his tail. The pups had noticed them and came curious to them. Ichigo petted a few and then said to Cerberus:

"Cerberous, could you help us with something? We need a quick transport to the mountains over there and would like to be there before night fall." The wolf seemed to nod and Ichigo said to them to sit on his back. No one wanted at first but Ichigos look told them that there wasn't room to discuss.

They trio was surprised how comfortable it was to ride on the wolf. He was big enough for them all to fit on him and he was very quick. They soon arrived at the cave and thanked Cerberus. Then they went in and hoped that nothing like the last time would happen.

-!-

It wasn't like the last time and they entered without hindrances. They thought that nothing eould happen but then the place suddenly started to tremble. The ground ripped open and the trio jumped out of the way right on time. Then everything went back to normal.

"That was an illusion. You don't need to worry those can't harm you" said Hermionie with confidents.

They were happy. It was something that wouldn't and couldn't hurt them. The next illusion came, it was a pack of wolves but they didn't avoid it this time until Ichigo yelled:

"Jump out of the way!" they did it out if reflex and just in time. They looked at Ichigo. He didn't say anything and just pointed at the wall that the pack of wolves had hit instead of them. The wall wa cut and broken in many places and Ichigo said:

"This illusion can hurt apparently". That was all that it took for the next illusion to come. The trio tried to evade as good as they could but where still wounded in many places even thought the wounds were mostly small cuts. Ichigo searched for the soul piece. It was what created the illusions after all. He spotted it on the top of a wall. There it lay pretty high and was difficult to get. Ichigo looked to Harry and said:

"You need to destroy the soul piece or better said the pencil on that wall to stop the illusions. Ron, Hermionie, you will help me distract and attack the illusions with me so Harry can destroy the pencil."

Harry understood what he needed to do and ran toward the wall while Hermionie, Ron and Chibi-Ichigo distracted the illusions. Harry slowly climbed the wall. He was too slow for Ichigos likening. A illusion attacked him and Chibi-Ichigo jumped into its way and stopped it in his tracts but fell to the ground. Harry hadn't noticed that and had climbed to the top. He let his dagger materialize and pierced the pencil with it. It cracked in the middle and Harry noticed the black mass that went into him. He looked happy down at the others when he noticed Ichigo lying on the ground unmoving. Ron and Hermionie sat around him and looked worried. He hurriedly climbed down and crouched next to Ichigo. Ichigo coughed some blood.

"I really need to sleep now. I am already so weak that I can't heal myself!" Ichigo said and disappeared. The trio was very worried and felt guilty. If they hadn't just him as an excuse to sleep in the inn and if they hadn't waken him up so often he may not be so weak. They looked ashamed to the ground but decided that they needed to move on. They couldn't self-pity themselves all the time. It wouldn't bring them anything. They went on with Harrys help. He could fell a pull after all. Harry didn't notice how something seemed to crack inside him and an insane laugh was heard.

-!-

Tell me what you think please and please give ideas how the next soul piece should look like and what it uses as self defense.

Thank you very much for reading until now!