The Soul Warrior.
Chapter Two: The Transport.
It was a peaceful night in Karakura Town – hometown to innocent souls that had been taking refuge here to hide from Hollows – and the residents of the town, which are regular humans, had turned in for the night after completing their daily work-time jobs or activities. The last part being related to school stuff.
The full moon in the sky was casting a luminous light over the town, giving it a beautiful scenery if anyone was sitting on top of a mountain or flying on an airplane, and the atmosphere was silent. Not dead silent like a ghost town, just silent.
All was well in Karakura Town.
As the residents of Karakura Town continued sleeping in their comfortable beds, one individual was still awake and roaming around the town on a Hollow patrol. The individual was a tall, lean-built, muscular and handsome, young man with spiky, orange hair that went to his neckline in the back, peach skin and intense-looking brown eyes. He wore a semi-long, wide sleeve black shihakusho with white clothing underneath, a thick red strap across his chest, black hakama pants, a white sash, white socks and wooden sandals. He also had black tattoo-like bands on his ankles, wrists and chest, all of them being X-shaped, four black vertical lines on his knuckles and a black band with a white edge on his neck as a collar.
This young man was Ichigo Kurosaki, the recently returned Substitute Soul Reaper, hero of the Winter War and the human who had saved the entire Soul Society multiple times from heavy threats.
Ichigo soared through the night sky like a silent bird as he kept his senses out for Hollows that were either far away or nearby. So far, he hasn't met or sensed any Hollows, which was good because the sooner he finishes this patrol, the faster he can go to bed. Although he wishes to fight something since he was feeling up for a challenge.
As he continued to soar through the sky and still having his senses out for either nearby or far away Hollows, Ichigo began thinking about the recent events right after he sacrificed his Soul Reaper powers to defeat Aizen and his Espada army.
The meeting with the very first, yet unknowingly at the time, Substitute Soul Reaper, Kugo Ginjo, being recruited into a group called Xcution – a group that is very similar to Quincy's, which is being spiritually-aware of Hollows and Soul Reapers, but uses a different power called Fullbring; it allows a spiritually-aware human to manipulate souls in objects, making said objects move or alter its physical characteristics into weapons – the training to become a Fullbringer, the first confrontation of Shukuro Tsukishima, a traitor to Xcution, the final training sequence to have complete Fullbring and the final confrontation with Tsukishima.
Now, one would think things will become peaceful after the final confrontation against the bad guy, but things didn't become peaceful.
It became very much worse.
Turns out, Tsukishima wasn't really a traitor to Xcution but merely acting as one so that the group can finish Ichigo's Fullbring training to do two things: Steal the power and use said power to strengthen their own Fullbring. That was the plan from the beginning when Ichigo was recruited into Xcution and the one who made it…was Kugo Ginjo.
The reason why Ginjo came up with this plan was because he wanted revenge for what the Soul Society did to him when he became the very first Substitute Soul Reaper. The Soul Reapers had monitored and limited his power by using a badge every Substitute Soul Reaper must carry in the World of the Living. It was because of this badge Ginjo cut all ties with the Soul Society and resented the heavenly place with great hatred and bitterness.
Ichigo felt shocked and betrayal when Ginjo, who had once been a friend during the Fullbring training, stole his Fullbring powers he'd worked so hard to achieve and master; all the training he did had vanished when the true culprit was revealed. He couldn't believe he was deceived and tricked by Ginjo and the other Fullbringers, which made him feel incredibly stupid, angry and sad. Ichigo should've known better than to trust Xcution, especially Ginjo when he first met him.
Just when Ichigo was about to sink into despair after losing his Fullbring powers, a magnificent miracle happened to him, one he would never in his life forget about: He had gotten his Soul Reaper powers back.
It shouldn't be possible to regain the powers, but Kisuke Urahara, a former Captain of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads and Ichigo's mentor, did a lot of research after the battle against Aizen and figured out how to restore Ichigo's powers, which is channeling an enormous amount of Spirit Energy or Reiatsu onto an object and have the said object pierce through the person's body.
It was because of Kisuke's brilliant technique Ichigo was able to regain his Soul Reaper powers, which is more powerful than before, due to the influence of his Fullbring and the Thirteen Court Guard Squad's Spirit Energy, and defeated the stunned Xcution, especially a shocked Ginjo, who had never encountered a Soul Reaper with so much Spirit Energy.
Ichigo will admit things hadn't been great for him after he sacrificed his Soul Reaper powers; he wasn't able to visit his friends in the Soul Society, battle Hollows, spar against fellow rivals, send innocent souls to the Soul Society and do his night patrol of protecting Karakura Town from threats. The protecting Karakura Town part was probably the most painful reason because his name means 'He who protects,' and he couldn't protect his friends when they were getting attacked by Tsukishima. All he had been doing the whole time was either being useless or training with the Fullbringers.
Not wanting to see or hear his friends getting attacked again in the future, Ichigo had been training hard at Kisuke's place whenever he was done with school or work. He wasn't going to be useless or standing on the sidelines anymore; he will not have it. The training had been going well and he was able to regain the feeling of his Soul Reaper powers, as well as getting much faster in Flash Step and improving his swordsman skills.
Though, while he had been training, Ichigo had to endure his second mentor's teasing, Yoruichi Shihoin, much to his dismay and frustration. Why on Earth does that woman love teasing him so much? Did she have better things to do instead of teasing him? No matter how many times he asked – well, more like shouted since he always gets riled up from the teasing – the same question, he would only get a sly cat-like grin in response, which further increased his frustration.
Luckily for the orange-hair teenager, he didn't need to go back to Kisuke's place for training because he was already done with said training. He was much stronger and faster than before; his senses and reaction timing had greatly improved, and he was now starting to become wiser in battle instead of being reckless, hotheaded and charging straight in without a plan. The last one was still being worked on, but Ichigo will admit he had made improvements during his night patrols. It was only a matter of time until he got used to it.
Ichigo suddenly realized he was thinking too much about the recent events that happened after he sacrificed his Soul Reaper powers and he shook his head to clear his thoughts. He shouldn't be thinking about those thoughts, he should be thinking about his night patrol he was currently doing. So, after soaring through the sky for a few more moments, Ichigo landed on top of a building and spread his senses far and wide to detect any Hollows.
So far, Ichigo couldn't detect any Hollows nearby or far away. While he was relief there weren't any Hollows in Karakura Town, it made him a bit frustrated that he wasn't able to fight something. Well, no used spending the rest of night sensing for Hollows when they are none in the town. With slightly slump shoulders and a sigh, Ichigo turned around and was about to Flash Step towards his house when he suddenly sensed something a bit distance away that made him pause.
It was a Hollow.
But this Hollow's Spiritual Pressure was…weird. It was dark, much darker than normal Hollow's Spiritual Pressure, and it seemed to be powerful…too powerful for Ichigo's liking. Was the Hollow a second classification or an Arrancar? He really hoped it was the former because an Arrancar in Karakura Town was definitely not good; it could do massive damage to the town with a single Cero attack!
Not wanting to see his home get destroyed, Ichigo turned towards the direction where the strange Hollow was and began Flash Stepping towards it, a determined look on his face as he Flash Stepped. He wasn't going to let any Hollow destroy his home. Not on his watch. He was a protecter and he will always protect his friends, his home and the Soul Society. Ichigo will always protect everything that is precious to him.
It didn't take long for Ichigo to arrive at the place where the strange Hollow was located, which said place was an empty parking lot building. This was a bit unusual because Hollows usually be out in open areas instead of hiding and since this Hollow was a second classification, it shouldn't be hiding at all. Because of this strange behavior, it was making Ichigo feel a bit uneasy, but he pushed the feeling aside since he had a job to do.
As soon as he landed on top of the parking lot building, Ichigo immediately placed a hand on the hilt of his Zanpakuto, ready to draw it out to defend himself, and looked around at his surroundings with sharp narrowed eyes to find the Hollow.
The appearance of Ichigo's Zanpakuto is a Khyber knife that is almost as tall as Ichigo and wide enough to be used as a shield. It has a long black hilt with silver edges at the bottom and top, a small chain length dangling off the pommel, which the end piece of the chain is broken in half, and a black blade with a sharp silver edge and curved tip at the top. It also had two protrusions on the back of the blade, one close to the bottom and one close to the top. The most noticeable feature about the huge sword was that it had white wrappings around the blade, acting as a scabbard.
This was Ichigo's Fullbring-Shikai, a more powerful version than his Soul Reaper one. The huge blade had once been an oversized cleaver a year ago with no guard and no proper hilt, but thanks to the Fullbring influence, it grew bigger, became sharp and gained a hilt.
Ichigo continued to look around at his surroundings to find the strange Hollow, still having his hand on the hilt of his massive weapon to draw it out and defend himself. But after a few moments of searching, he concluded it wasn't on the roof but in one of the lower levels in the parking lot, something that caused the orange-hair teen to let out a frustrated groan. 'Why is it that every time I sense a Hollow and arrive at the location, they always hide in the shadows instead of coming out in the open? I don't understand why they do this.'
Now, even though his senses had greatly improved over the last few weeks after the Xcution battle, Ichigo couldn't directly sense where the Hollow was, much less pinpoint the exact hiding spot it's residing in. Hollows can suppress their Spiritual Pressure and hide in the shadows to ambush an inexperienced Soul Reaper who comes into their territory. This was exactly what the strange Hollow was doing at the moment; hiding in the shadows and waiting for Ichigo to come into its territory so that it could attack him.
What the strange Hollow didn't know was that Ichigo wasn't an inexperienced Soul Reaper. Oh, he may have been one in the past, considering he didn't know everything about Soul Reapers, including the name of his Zanpakuto. Give him slack, he was only going with the flow! But after many great battles and near-death experiences, only to come out in victorious, Ichigo has come a long way from being an inexperienced Soul Reaper. He was now a battle warrior with master swordsman skills, expert Flash Step and great senses, including reaction timing.
Ichigo had improved so much ever since the day he became a Soul Reaper for the first time, despite the fact he had been using a different Soul Reaper's Spirit Energy for the time being until he started using his own Spirit Energy.
So, with another frustrated groan, Ichigo drew his huge sword out from behind his back – the white wrapping around the blade vanishing into nothingness – hold it with both hands in front of him and began venturing into the lower levels in the empty parking lot building.
It was very quiet the moment Ichigo entered the lower levels in the parking lot building, so quiet he couldn't help but pause and tighten the hold of his sword. A bead of sweat was dripping down his face and his heart, which had been beating steadily, was starting to beat a bit faster. The pressure, along with the nervousness and quietness, was pressing onto Ichigo's shoulders.
Taking a breath to calm his nerves, Ichigo resumed walking in the parking lot's lower levels. As he walked silently in the hallway, making sure not to produce a single sound with his feet since footsteps in a parking lot building can cause an echo to vibrate in the air, his eyes were scattering around to find the strange Hollow. The sooner he finds it, the faster Ichigo can get out of here and back home to get some sleep.
But so far, Ichigo couldn't find the Hollow and the pressure, along with the nervousness, was building up. Once or twice, the orange-hair teen thought he spotted something moving from the corner of his eye, causing him to become deathly still and raised his sword up, only to release a breath when he saw it was just a tree branch moving in the moonlight.
"Stay calm, Ichigo, stay calm," Ichigo said quietly to himself, trying to calm his nerves down. He's starting to become extremely paranoid and it's all because…of a single Hollow! He shouldn't be acting like this at all! What happened to epic and confident Ichigo?! "I know you're scared from not figuring out where the Hollow is, but you must remain calm. Fear will only make the creature amused and toy with you until it grows bored. You just have to-"
Whatever Ichigo was about to say, he was cut off when he suddenly sensed something coming at him from behind, forcing him to instinctively turned around and immediately lash out with his sword.
Clank!
The sound of metal clashing against metal rang in the very quiet atmosphere as Ichigo got into a blade-lock with the strange Hollow he had been looking for. After a few moments of struggling to overpower one another, both the Soul Reaper and Hollow jumped backwards to give each other some distance and that was when Ichigo got a good look at the Hollow, only to widen his eyes from what he saw.
The appearance of the strange Hollow is a tall, muscular, half human/half demon hybrid with black demonic arms and legs, a dark red humanoid torso with two white strips on each side – the Hollow hole visible in the center – and a black and red humanoid head with two demonic horns pointed upwards and a short, spiky mane of blood-red hair. The Hollow also appears to be wearing white bone-like armor that covers the entire body, except the head, the torso, the lower arms and the feet. It was currently leering at Ichigo.
The strange Hollow's appearance caught Ichigo completely off guard because he had never seen a Hollow like this before, not even when he started battling high level ones after coming back from invading the Soul Society and rushing into Hueco Mundo. All those ones he battled and killed were either like animals, insects or sea creatures, but this Hollow's a demon, has two complexion colors instead of one and was wearing armor, which the last part no Hollow would ever wear unless they have a fashion sense.
But while the appearance of the Hollow stunned him, Ichigo's attention was focused on something more peculiar, something he was struggling to accept.
The Hollow's mask.
Instead of the usual white color on the skull-like mask all Hollows have, it was pitch-black with red swirl markings like fire on the right side and a white triangle symbol on the left side, which is located at the top. It also had razor-sharp teeth shaping into a very wide grin, while the eye sockets, the eyes themselves being bright blazing-red, were narrowed to the point the top and bottom almost connected but left a small gap for the Hollow to see.
The black mask was truly a frightening sight to look at, especially on the face of a second classification Hollow. Any Soul Reaper would be terrified and scared if they saw the mask, but not Ichigo. Although it did make a shiver run down his spine.
"What the hell?" Ichigo muttered, rubbing his eyes with one hand to make sure he wasn't hallucinating but still keeping his guard up in case the Hollow decides to attack him again. He noticed it was holding a long katana sword and a round shield. 'Either sleep is catching up to me or I'm seeing a black and red demonic Hollow who is dressed up as a knight in the old days and has a black mask on its face instead of white with unusual markings.'
"What? Never seen a demonic Hollow with two colors instead of one and dressed in armor before, Ichigo Kurosaki?" The Hollow, as if reading Ichigo's thoughts, asked this question in a deep distorted voice, its tone full of mockery. "Including a black mask? Which shouldn't be possible at all since all Hollows have white masks? I am the only Hollow in existence to have a black mask on my face, which makes me very special, and it's all thanks to my wonderful creator."
"Creator?" Ichigo repeated in a surprised tone, gaining a confused, yet wary, look on his face. "You were created instead of being changed into a Hollow or being born in Hueco Mundo?"
"Indeed, Soul Reaper, and I was surprised as well when I found out I was created, but that feeling vanished after I tested out my powers. I have never felt such power before and I soon became the strongest black-masked Hollow!"
'Great, another arrogant Hollow for me to deal with,' Ichigo thought tiredly and annoyingly at the same time, resisting the urge to groan. 'Can my night get any more weirder, yet annoying?' Ever since he recently started doing Hollow patrols after getting his Soul Reaper powers back, Ichigo has been meeting lots of arrogant Hollows who would always brag about being the strongest or the smartest Hollow in the world and it always annoys him greatly because there had been times he was feeling up to a challenge, only to become disappointed whenever he meets an arrogant Hollow who opens its big mouth.
Ichigo doesn't remember how many arrogant Hollows he had dealt with, but he wasn't interested in counting the number again. All he wanted was to go back home and get some sleep. However, before he can do that, Ichigo needs to deal with this Hollow in front of him and despite it being arrogant, it was still dangerous, due to it having a strong but much darker Spiritual Pressure. There is a question he wanted to know and it's about the creator the Hollow had mentioned.
"Who is your creator, Hollow?" Ichigo demanded, giving the black mask Hollow an intimidating glare. "You mentioned about someone creating you, so who is it?" 'Who has a crazy amount of intelligence to create a black mask second-class Hollow with a much darker Spiritual Pressure and have it dressed up as a knight in the old days? I have a feeling who, but I don't want to believe it.'
"Why, it's the person you had faced a year ago," The Hollow replied, not affected by the glare but losing the mockery tone. The reply caused the feeling Ichigo had inside him to increase tenfold before he closed his eyes in slight defeat. So, he was right; it was Aizen who created this Hollow, and this was all but confirmed from the said Hollow's next words. "And from the way you're closing your eyes, you figured out who my creator was. But in case you have forgotten, it was Aizen who created me."
'Fuck, this is not good,' Ichigo thought with slight dread, reopening his eyes. 'I had thought the black mask demonic Hollow was a new species breed since I've never seen a demonic Hollow before, especially when it was dressed in armor, but after hearing it was created instead of being born, this caused me to have some doubts. The doubts increased when I began thinking about what the Hollow said, including the creator part, and it led me to ask who the creator is.' Ichigo then mentally face-palmed himself for being stupid. 'I should've realized the Hollow was an experiment the moment it opened its mouth.'
Pushing his stupidity aside, Ichigo now had two questions he wanted to know: What was the black mask Hollow doing in the World of the Living if it wasn't targeting innocent souls like all Hollows do and how does the creature know his name when he never introduced himself?
"What's your purpose of being in the World of the Living, Hollow?" Ichigo demanded, giving the black mask Hollow another intimidating glare, this one having more power into it, which caused the creature to become slightly tense and move its weapons slightly, promoting the orange-hair teen to do the same with his weapon. "And how do you know my name when I never introduced myself?"
"My purpose of being in the World of the Living is to meet you in person, Ichigo Kurosaki," The Hollow, while still slightly tense from the intimidating glare, replied to the first question in a casual tone, which caused Ichigo to blink his eyes a few times. That was the reason why the Hollow was here in the World of the Living? To meet him personally? That doesn't make any sense. "Why? Because I want to fight you. I wanted to see how strong you are after I heard you defeated Aizen. As for your second question, the man himself told me much about you after he created me, including your abilities. I wanted to meet you during the Winter War, but he kept me hidden away in Las Noches."
Despite being extremely confused at the reply of the first question, Ichigo listened to the reply of the second question and a grimace crossed his features. 'If the Hollow knows about my abilities, then this fight might be hard. I am tempted to go Bankai right now, but I don't want to heavily rely on it like I did in the past. I want to use my Shikai for a while before I start using Bankai.' The grimace turned into surprise after hearing the last sentence. Aizen kept the black mask Hollow hidden away instead of releasing it? Why would he do that?
Apparently, the Hollow must've figure out what Ichgio was thinking, due to surprised expression on his face. "I never knew why Aizen kept me hidden instead of releasing me, Kurosaki, because I didn't bother to ask. I felt shocked and betrayal at first when he locked me away, but once the emotions wore off, I felt very angry. I wanted to kill Aizen for that stunt he pulled, but I didn't because I wouldn't stand a chance at all, considering he was very powerful. I would be killed less than a second if I fight that smug bastard."
Ichigo nodded his head in agreement, knowing the feeling well like the Hollow. When he first fought Aizen in the Soul Society, he stood no chance against him at all, due to fact he was heavily injured from fighting Byakuya Kuichki, the Squad Six Captain. He almost got killed by the brown-hair man. It was only thanks to the Thirteen Court Guard Squad's arrival that Ichigo was still alive.
"Alright, that's enough talking, Kurosaki," The Hollow stated emotionlessly, not wanting to think about painful memories it had endured when locked away. It took a breath to calm itself. "It's time to start our fight I always dreamed of when I first got created and learned much about you. I hope you're not planning on holding back on your power, otherwise this fight will become boring." To make sure the point across, the black mask Hollow released its Spiritual Pressure.
"Oh, I have no intention of holding back at all, Hollow," Ichigo said, releasing his own Spiritual Pressure that surpasses the Hollow but he could tell it was holding back. "Especially since you were created by the same person I defeated a year ago but the cost of defeating him was my Soul Reaper powers. However, I gained them back because of my mentor and I'm much stronger than before. Before we start our fight, Hollow, I do have a question for you."
"And what exactly is this question?"
"The question is, are you ready to fight me?"
And done! That is the end of the part chapter. The next chapter will be part two of The Transport and that will be the start of Ichigo's adventure in Hyrule.
I know you guys were expecting the epic fight between Ichigo and the strange Hollow before the former gets sent into the Hyrule dimension and I feel really bad for destroying that, but this part chapter took longer to write because of two reasons.
The first one was writing Ichigo's Fullbring-Shikai Zanpakuto. Since there wasn't any description on the fandom website about the weapon, I had improvised by writing the original Zanpakuto before adding the hilt, the small chain of length and the two protrusions features. It was the only way if I was going to write the exact detail of Ichigo's Zanpakuto, otherwise I would've spent much longer on it.
The second reason was writing the strange Hollow itself. This took the longest to write because I have never written a Hollow description before, not even in my first and second Bleach story, which both have been deleted, due to poor grammar and context. I hope you guys appreciate the effort I put into the Hollow and if you are confused about the description, think of it as a knight from the old days.
I'm sorry if you guys were expecting the epic fight, but I promise the next chapter will be the fight.
Write a review if you like this story and enjoy the chapter.
Next Chapter: The Transport (Part Two)