4 – Black and White 3

"Calm down, there must be another explanation. I can feel your spirit pressure is much higher than before, and you can obviously see me in spirit form. How about using the glove?" Ichigo suggested.

Rukia considered his words and realized that she could also feel her own spirit energy was much higher than before.

She took out the soul capture glove and gave it to Ichigo, who put it on and pushed Rukia.

With a jolt, her soul was ejected, and she found herself in black Shinigami robes again instead of the white yukata she was in after losing most of her powers.

"It actually worked…?" She murmured with a mixture of joy and shock, inspecting herself.

"Now you can take back Sode no Shirayuki." Ichigo gestured to the huge blade that was stuck into the ground.

Rukia looked suspiciously at the blade as she pulled it out. It was much taller than she was and cumbersome to move. "Is this really Sode no Shirayuki?"

"Beats me. She said I was using her powers, so what else could it be? Anyways, it's worth a try, right?"

She couldn't see the fault in that logic, so she took a stance and gathered her newly recovered spirit pressure, channeling it into the sword.

"Dance, Sode no Shirayuki!"

An explosion of white spirit pressure with black outlines burst from her position, and Ichigo was blown away several metres and fell to the ground.

"Holy shit!" He swore as he got back to his feet.

When the wind cleared and he could see without it buffeting his eyes, Rukia's shikai release was before him in all its glory, just as he remembered.

A thin blade of pure white, emanating an aura of sheer cold.

Rukia observed it closely and ran a finger along its length. "Sode no Shirayuki…it's good to have you back."

Then she noticed something strange. At the end of its hilt, there were now two ribbons instead of the single white ribbon that should have been there.

A new ribbon of pure black had appeared.

"What the…Ichigo! Look what you've done! You've tainted her! This wasn't here before!"

She thrust out the end of her sword towards Ichigo and pointed at the black ribbon, then her eyes widened in shock as stared at Ichigo. "Ichigo…you…"

"Huh?"

Ichigo glanced down at himself in confusion, then a similar look of shock appeared on his face.

Instead of the traditional Shinigami loose shihakusho robes, he was now wearing a form-fitting white dress shirt, tight black pants, and a black cloak with a high collar and jagged edges.

"What the hell is this? Why'd my uniform change?" He asked aloud as he stared at himself, brushing aside the cloak to inspect his clothes.

Then his eyes found the conspicuous silver object hanging on his left wrist.

His new clothes looked almost exactly like what Old Man Gesshokuro wore, and a silver five-pointed cross with a hole in the centre was attached to a chained wristlet wrapped around his left wrist.

Rukia noticed what he was staring at. "That looks like…"

"Wait a moment, I'm going to ask Gesshokuro what's going on."

"Gesshokuro, that must be the name of your Zanpaktou, right?" Rukia understood what he meant and nodded.

"Ah…kind of. Long story."

Ichigo sat down and closed his eyes, then when he reopened them, he was in his Inner World, facing Gesshokuro.

"What's going on, old man Gesshokuro? Why do I look like this all of a sudden?"

"Shinigami powers are meant for souls, not living humans, Ichigo. Your Quincy powers, however, have been with you since you were in the womb, and can be freely used in a human body. Now that Sode no Shirayuki returned to Rukia, taking her Shinigami powers with her, the void that was left has been filled by your Quincy powers."

"Are you saying I can't unlock my Shinigami powers until I die?"

"No, your own Shinigami powers already awakened when Rukia transferred her power to you, but your Quincy powers are stronger, so they are dominant. You can nevertheless use Shinigami skills such as Kido and Flash Step if you want."

"But what about a zanpaktou?"

Gesshokuro visibly hesitated before answering. "That is not possible right now."

Ichigo recalled the vision of the Shinigami explaining how zanpaktou were made, and frowned. "I need an asauchi…but why did I have a zanpaktou after losing Rukia's powers, if I never got one?"

He was sure that Shinigami had explained that too, but he just couldn't remember that part.

"There is another spiritual entity in here with us. It has bonded with us, and has acquired the properties of a zanpaktou by taking in our spirit pressure," said Gesshokuro. "It is best left alone."

"Why? Isn't it better to have a zanpaktou?"

"Because the entity is a hollow. A very powerful hollow. Although it is more malleable than normal hollows and taken on properties of a Shinigami zanpaktou, its true nature is still that of a hollow, with the instinct to rage, despair, and stave off its eternal hunger."

Ichigo was rooted in place with a stark cold as the realization set in. It must have been his inner hollow that Gesshokuro was talking about. But if it was already inside of him, and he hadn't undergone any hollowfication yet, then it wasn't really the inner hollow of his own soul at all.

It was a hollow made up of the many souls it had consumed, just how like the Asauchi were made of many Shinigami souls. That was why it could become his zanpaktou.

When he was training to master the Final Getsuga Tenshou, that thing had called itself Zangetsu too. Now he knew why.

"But…I need that power. Without it, I won't stand a chance against the espada. I even needed it for the fight against Byakuya," Ichigo said quietly.

"Please trust me, Ichigo. To accept that power now would be detrimental to your growth. Not only would you be at risk of complete hollowfication, becoming dangerous to those you wish to protect, the natures of Hollow and Quincy are fundamentally incompatible. The cost of the strength you would gain is to weaken your Quincy abilities. This is not a wise trade."

"Can I really get strong enough with just Quincy powers?" The doubt on his face was obvious. He immediately thought of Ishida. He knew intellectually that he had to be strong, but he didn't actually see him in action that much. He'd heard from Orihime that Ishida had defeated a captain when they were rescuing Rukia, but did he get strong enough to take on any of the Espada? Then he remembered how his out of control hollow almost killed Ishida during the fight against Ulquiorra, and grimaced.

"Ichigo, there is no limit to the potential of a Quincy. Unlike Shinigami and Hollows who can only use their own spirit pressure to fight, all the spirit particles in the world could be ours to command."

Gesshokuro moved in front of him in a flash, and removed his sunglasses.

"I promise, Ichigo, I will not hold you back anymore. My goal has always been to protect you. Once, I sought to protect you from putting yourself in danger, but we have learned from your visions what lies at the end of that road. All of that is now in the past. A new, better, path is open to you. Move forward, and don't look back. If you need power, then take it. If you must fight, then win!"

The old man held out his hand.

Ichigo looked deeply into the Gesshokuro's eyes, then smiled as he took the offered hand.

O O O

When Ichigo returned to the outside world, Rukia had already sealed her Zanpaktou and it was back to its normal state, not the huge version Ichigo had.

"So you're actually a Quincy?" Rukia asked, without waiting for Ichigo to explain.

"Yeah. I guess my mom must have been a Quincy, because my dad definitely isn't. Now that Sode no Shirayuki has gone back to you, my Quincy powers have taken over."

"You know what that means, right? You can't purify hollows anymore, and if you destroy them, they'll be removed from the cycle of reincarnation, and if too many are destroyed, it'll break the balance of souls."

Ichigo frowned and was silent for a moment. "Rukia, I can't make any promises. I'll try to let you take care of them, but if I have to use my powers to protect, then I will. Also, I have Shinigami powers of my own. I just don't have a zanpaktou. Isn't there a way to purify hollows without a zanpaktou?"

"With Kido, or Hakuda, yes. But that doesn't make sense. I've never heard of a human having Shinigami powers. You're not supposed to develop your own powers just because I transferred some to you temporarily. Only souls born or reincarnated in Soul Society can develop Shinigami powers."

She walked around examining him as if he was some sort of unnatural creature.

"That's because my dad was a Shinigami. He'll tell me eventually and helps train me for the final fight against Aizen."

Ichigo stood up from his meditative position and wiped the dust from his clothes off.

"That uncouth and violent man is a Shinigami?" Rukia made a face of disapproval.

"You're one to talk, you're pretty violent yourself."

"I am not!" Despite her words, she flung a half hearted punch at his shoulder, which Ichigo dodged with a laugh.

"And no, right now he's not a Shinigami. I can't remember if he ever tells me why he lost his powers, but I don't think he gets them back for a few more months."

"Oh…so that's why the memory erasers work on him."

"Yeah. He's pretty much a normal human right now. Kinda like what would have happened to you in that gigai…" Ichigo frowned as he considered what that might mean. Did Urahara have something to do with that too?

"But why didn't you know about your own Quincy powers? You never used them in the future, even after I got my powers back?"

"Ah that's because—" then Ichigo stopped himself before telling Rukia he had a hollow inside of him. What would she think? He quickly adjusted his explanation. "…when Byakuya destroyed my Saketsu and Hakusui, he must have removed my Quincy powers too. Later on, after Urahara cut my soul chain—"

"He did what?! He killed you?" Rukia's face was one of sheer outrage as her spirit pressure rose dangerously. "I can't believe I ever thought he was a decent person even though he was exiled from Soul Society! He completely tricked me! Damn it!"

"Uh…I didn't really die? I re-awakened my Shinigami powers just before I completely turned into a hollow. So I guess my Shinigami powers ended up becoming dominant over my Quincy powers, and I never found out."

"But if you didn't awaken your powers, you would have died and turned into a hollow! How can you act like it's nothing?"

Ichigo grimaced. "Sorry, it's just…I needed my powers to rescue you."

"Are you saying you agreed to let him kill you to re-awaken your powers?" Rukia asked with an incredulous face.

"Well, not exactly…I didn't know he was going to do that."

"I'm going to kill him…" Rukia's hand moved to her sheathed Zanpaktou and prepared to unsheathe it again.

"Wait, wait. We still need him alive for now, and he doesn't look it, but he's really strong. Neither of us can beat him yet, even working together." Ichigo put up his hands in a gesture for her to stop, but it didn't look like she was listening. "Besides, even if I knew, I think I would have done it anyways. There wasn't any time to do it any other way if I wanted to save you."

With that last sentence, Rukia's murderous aura was replaced by one of anguish and helplessness as her hand fell away from her sword.

"You…you idiot! Why would you go so far for me?

"Rukia…I owe you my life. That night, you protected me and my whole family, and sacrificed everything to save me. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I couldn't do the same for you. You're my friend, Rukia, and I'd do it again if that's what it's gonna take."

"No!" She shouted with a glare. "You can't. I have my powers again. I won't let you do something so stupid."

Ichigo glared back and crossed his arms. "And I'm not going to let you get executed. Besides, I probably won't need to do that again, so it doesn't matter."

"You'd better not."

After another long silence, it was obvious that neither of them were willing to back down, so Rukia changed the topic.

"So what next? Should I just report back to Seireitei?"

"No! Definitely not. I don't know when Aizen found out the other method of extracting the Hougyoku. It's just too risky. Right now…"

Ichigo looked at the silver cross on his wrist.

"We need to get stronger—"

He was interrupted by a sudden jerk of Rukia's head towards the city, and followed by beeping from Rukia's Soul Pager.

"Hollows! I'll take care of this, you stay back!" She said, taking off.

"Wait, I'm coming with you!" He chased after her. Then he remembered that Rukia's gigai was still lying on the ground. "Oh crap…"

He sighed, turning back. "Guess I have to keep her gigai safe." He brought the body to sit up against a nearby tree.

Then a man in fishing gear walked over on the riverside path. "Oi! You alright there, missy?"

"Shit!" Ichigo cursed. The man gave no sign of noticing him, as he was a spirit right now.

Ichigo then watched dumbfounded as the man with fishing gear came over and acted concerned, checking for Rukia's pulse and shaking her, before his face took on a strange expression.

"Eh…hehehe…what a beautiful girl…uncle will bring you home and take good care of you…" He tenderly touched her unresponsive face and tried to pick her up.

"This perverted bastard!" Ichigo kicked the man away.

"Augh!" The man groaned. "What was that?" He looked around blindly, trying to find what hit him.

"It's surely dangerous around these parts, better get you away quick!" He said to himself before making a dash at Rukia's body.

Ichigo blocked his way and punched his gut, taking the wind out of him. He collapsed to the ground clutching at his stomach.

"In-invisible monsters! Don't worry, uncle will save you!" The man shouted valiantly as he struggling back to his feet and swung punches around wildly.

"Oh come on, stop trying to play the hero you creep!" Just as Ichigo was considering knocking the flailing man out, he seemed to get an idea. "Wait a minute…I'm a spirit and this is a gigai…" He muttered as he looked at Rukia's body.

Then he took off the Soul Capture glove, quickly placed it into Rukia's backpack, and tried to enter the gigai.

It was a bit of a struggle as the body seemed to be rejecting him, but he managed to get inside after channeling some more of his spirit pressure into the body.

Then in her body, he stood up and ran off.

"W-wait! Don't go, it's not safe!" The man shouted and chased after him.

O O O

When Ichigo finally caught up to Rukia, she had just finished off the last hollow and looked like she was feeling pleased with herself as she sheathed her zanpaktou.

Then she noticed her body running up to her and her face turned incredulous.

A quick bout of sensing later, her brows twitched and she drew her sword again dangerously. "Ichigo…what are you doing in my body, you pervert?!"

"Wait, I can explain!"