17
~Tenebris' POV~
recap: "What is that?" asked Ichigo.
Not long after Ichigo questioned that, big, white, long fingers with claws opened the crack more. We saw its face and I recognized just what kind of hollow this thing was: a Gillian, aka a Menos Grande.
"Well that isn't your everyday garden hollow," said Ichigo.
I eyed the menos grande, a tall, black-cloaked figure the size of a skyscraper, and wondered what it was doing here. The bait Uryu used shouldn't have brought it, and yet here it was. Luckily though it was a gillian, so killing it would be easy for me.
I decided to charge up a cero, for irony's sake. The power build-up was strong, strong enough to not only catch the gillian's attention, but also Ichigo's. I aimed for the hollow's weakness and was about to fire. Just as I was doing so, I felt someone move my head upward, making me miss my target completely, and part some clouds in the sky instead.
I snapped my head to my soul brother with annoyance, and questioned, "Why did you stop me?"
"I stopped you, because I want to be the one to kill it," Ichigo replied. I felt my jaw become ajar when I heard this, in disbelief.
"You do know I could have killed it in one shot easily, right?" I asked him.
"That is why I want to be the one to do it," said Ichigo with determination in his tone. "I wanted to see how much stronger I had gotten, and now is my chance."
'He wants to test himself on a gillian?' I thought. He could have done that by sparing with me. But I guess he thought I would go easy on him or something. He should know better than that though. I sighed, "Alright, you can do it." I decided to allow this, but I still felt unsure, I'll be there to save him if his life were to be in danger.
I stood back and watched Ichigo as he planned a way to kill the gillian. He didn't think for very long, no surprise there, and charged at the thing's legs.
'What is he doing?' I mused questioningly. He made it to the hollow's legs and created a flesh wound, but then he got kicked away like he was some kind of annoying bug. My soul brother landed in front of where I was sitting, and I looked down with a tilt to my head. "That worked well," I said with sarcasm coloring my voice.
Ichigo chuckled lightly as a small trail of blood ran down from his forehead. "It didn't quite go as planned," he admitted.
"What were you thinking, Ichigo?!" Uryu shouted as he came running over to us with a shade of red dusting his face.
"Um...I was thinking that if I chopped at the hollow's legs like a lumberjack cutting down trees, I would be able to reach the thing's head with my zanpakuto with ease and kill it," Ichigo explained his crazy plan.
I shook my head in disappointment. "I thought I taught you better than that."
"Maybe we should work together to kill this hollow. It is clearly too strong for just one of us if your last attack is anything to go by," said Uryu, and I had to agree.
I looked back up at the hollow and noticed it looking at us. My brother better make a decision fast, because I don't think this hollow is going to wait before it attacks us.
I felt a spike of reiatsu coming from Uryu and saw a bright, blue glow. I looked to see what it was, it was Uryu's quincy bow, but it was different. It had grown in size, but how? I studied what was happening, and spotted Uryu's hand on Ichigo's zanpakuto. Ichigo's spirit energy must be feeding into the quincy's weapon.
"Ichigo, look," said Uryu to Ichigo. My soul brother finally noticed the size of the bow and was shocked.
"Uryu, what happened to your bow?!" he asked.
"I don't know entirely, but this gives me an idea," said Uryu, making me wonder what it was he was planning.
'It couldn't be worse than what Ichigo thought of,' I thought as I watched Uryu set his plan up. What I saw was not at all what I expected. Uryu tied Ichigo's zanpakuto to his head and aimed his reiatsu charged bow up at the gillian with Ichigo behind him holding onto the hilt. I saw what it was that Uryu was thinking, and I even understood it, but did he not realize how ridiculous he looked?
"Now we're ready to fight that thing!" said Uryu.
Ichigo made a similar expression to what I'm sure mirrored my thoughts. He let go of the sword and said, "You honestly don't think this is going to work, do you?"
Uryu snapped his head around when he saw his bow become small again. "Quiet! If we want to have any chance of defeating this thing, we have to work together. Now I need you to pour in your spirit energy through your sword so I can fire off a huge arrow and kill it."
I listened to the two banter back and forth while keeping an eye on the gillian. It's mouth opened slightly and a red glow started to form in front of it. Spirit energy built up, gaining Ichigo's and Uryu's attention. I heard Rukia somewhere behind me yelling at the two boys to run away because they would be killed by the cero. She had such little faith in Ichigo. I believe he could handle what's coming next.
"We need to kill this thing now!" said Uryu, but Ichigo grabbed his zanpakuto from Uryu's head, and pulled out his other one. He dashed over to the giant hollow, ignoring Uryu's shout of, "I meant together!"
The gillian fired the cero right at Ichigo, who took both of his blades and crossed them to form a shield. The energy beam slammed into the black blades, almost making Ichigo fall to his knees under the pressure. I could faintly see Ichigo gritting his teeth as he pushed at the attack with all his strength. I could feel his spirit energy rising with each passing second, allowing him to stand against the cero. With just one more push of reiatsu, Ichigo sliced through the cero and the hollow. He missed the mask by an inch, and the hollow was about to retreat, but Ichigo wasn't going to allow that. He jumped over to me and asked me to give him a boost. I used my tail to launch him way above the nearby building and the towering hollow. As Ichigo came down, he took both blades and slashed the gillian's face in an X shaped motion. This attack made the hollow cry out in pain and death as it was purified and faded out of existence.
Ichigo landed onto the ground as the last of the hollow vanished, and held his hand high with his pointer finger aiming toward the heavens. "I WIN!"
"Of course you did, a gillian is made up of hundreds of hollows," I muttered, but Uryu still heard me.
"Wouldn't that be cheating?" he asked.
"Probably, but he still killed it, meaning he won." Uryu sighed in defeat.
After the fight, we had all gone home to rest. The next morning, Ichigo and Rukia went to school, and I decided to stay home. I couldn't shake this feeling that something big was going to happen. I kept looking out the window expecting to see something or someone out there. I felt a small amount of spirit energy appear earlier before vanishing, and ever since then I have been antsy.
I grabbed a book to read, hoping that would distract me from this feeling of unease, but it had been hours now and the feeling had only grown. What was my instinct trying to tell me? Did the Soul Society notice the Gillian? It wouldn't be possible not to, I suppose. That's probably what it was. The shinigami had found out about the attack and came to check it out. It also made me realize that it was a good thing Ichigo stopped me from being the one to kill the hollow. If I had killed it, then the Soul Society would know that there was a hollow stronger than a Gillian running around town. That wouldn't be good for me if they decided to hunt me down when I only have Ichigo for backup.
...Okay, so I do have more than Ichigo, but I know that Soul Society wouldn't be happy with that. In the end, it wouldn't be bad for me if the shinigami were to come after me, but it would be for them. I know the head captain wouldn't want to have another round with the Darklings in my territory.
I shook my head to clear it, and looked at the time. Ichigo and Rukia should be back any minute now. Speaking of Rukia, I noticed that she had been acting strange today as well. Did she know that shinigami might be showing up? She might have, and it has her worried because she was not doing her job in killing me and instead learning to trust me. I could understand being on edge with that thought running in circles in my mind.
"WELCOME BACK, ICHIGO!" A loud crash followed the greeting, making me jump and nearly fall over onto my side. I panted and clutched my paw to my chest as I felt my heart pound. I took deep breaths to calm my nerves. I didn't realize that my unease was that bad.
"Are you okay, Tenebris?" asked Rukia, who had just entered through the opened window.
I nodded slowly, and replied, "Yeah, I'm just on edge. I've been feeling like that all day. I bet it has something to do with the Soul Society."
I caught the flinch Rukia had in her right eye. 'So she was suspecting the same thing,' I thought.
"You think so too?" I asked.
"Yeah, I do," she said, and then paused. She was thinking of something, so I waited for her to say more. She opened her mouth after what felt like a minute had gone by. "I have been meaning to ask you something for a while." I motioned with my wing to let her know she could continue. "Why do you dislike the Soul Society so much?"
I've been wondering when she was going to ask me this. Just as I was about to answer, Ichigo came in.
"You have me wondering that too, Tenebris," he said as he closed his door.
"Well, you might want to sit down for this. It's a bit of a long story," I said. Before I continued, I waited for the two to sit down. Once they sat and got comfortable, I began. "It was five hundred years ago, before Ichigo and I made a soul bond. I had a forest that I had claimed for my own in the human world, just like I do now, but I had no human form. The only way I could have one is if I was born within the world, but during this time, I wasn't. I was just a spirit dragon that was born from the darkness itself.
"Anyway, a squad of shinigami had entered the forest, and begun to attack some of the younglings. Luckily, none had died, but they were injured before my wararks, dark warriors, had appeared and protected them. When I found out, I only took Midnight Ice, my right claw AKA my right hand man, and went to the Soul Society. We attacked the shinigami and destroyed a lot of the place, but didn't kill anyone. I didn't have to since they didn't kill any of my own.
"I fought the head captain, and it was a close fight. We ended with me being the winner, but it was more of a tie. The reason I claimed victory was because, in the end, I got what I wanted. A peace treaty was made between me and the Soul Society. They were not to attack me or my clan or anyone under my protection, including any other dark clans, and the shinigami don't mess with the balance of nature. They have been cutting it close with that last part, but not enough for me or my clan to bother them. My end of the bargain was to leave them alone to do whatever it was they were doing, and if they needed help with keeping the balance to come and ask me. Like I said, they have been cutting it close, because when they try to keep balance they make stupid decisions instead of coming to me for advice. The shinigami are too prideful, and that is what's going to cause problems in the end. They'd rather mess up the balance than ask me for help. I'm just waiting for the day they really mess up to the point we dark balancers agree to get rid of them before they cause the balance to tip too far for us to fix."
"What would happen if the balance were to tip too far?" asked Rukia.
I looked her in the eyes and said in a calm, but firm voice, "Then the world as we know it will end."
~In Present Time: Tenebris' POV~
I was taken out of my memories when I felt a pull on my soul. I couldn't open my eyes to figure out what was pulling me, but I focused on which way it was pulling. It was coming from the outside world.
'It is time,' I thought. A year had gone by, and I wondered what kind of trouble Ichigo and Shiro had gotten into. 'Well, one way to find out.'
"The waves of the ocean's water creates the wind.
The wind's swirls allow the fires to dance.
The fire is the heart of the earth.
The earth is the creator of life.
The darkness engulfs all."
I whispered the words for Ichigo to repeat on the outside, so I may be realised from my seal. I felt the repeated words wash over me like a blanket made of the elements. It was warm from the fire, silky from wind and water, but firm from the earth, and safety from the darkness - just like how young children feel when they hide under their blankets.
I allowed the wrapped, blanket-like energy to take me out of the seal. When the power died down, I felt the carpet in Ichigo's room under my paws. My body felt strange and heavy. It had been a whole year since I had a physical body, after all.
I opened my eyes, expecting to see Ichigo's orange hair first, but instead I saw his window. I looked around to find him. A small clearing of the throat caught my attention. I looked down. Standing in front of me was mine and Ichigo's little sister, Karin.
'Was she the one to get me out of my seal?' I questioned myself. I tilted my head in concern when I noticed her expression.
"You have to help, Tenebris," Karin said with concern and alarm. "Ichigo has gone crazy!"
TBC
Well, Tenebris is back. Now all we have to focus on is finishing the fullbring arc.
Also, I'm glad I was able to finally fit Tenebris', AKA Darkness', Bleach history in here. If I place her in different fandoms, her history of that world would be different, and there will be no connection to Bleach whatsoever.
PS. I'll be updating this fanfic next week as well. I need to practice how to do a fist VS sword fight before I can update 'Master of Death in Fairy Tail'. If anyone can point me in the right direction on how to do that, I will appreciate it. Thank you.
Shiro: Karin just put you in the grave, King. -_-'
Ichigo: It sounds bad, but hopefully Tenebris will know something is wrong.
Enj/Dark: It was Karin that said you're going crazy. That right there tells you something is wrong.
Ichi: True. :/
Shiro: Please review! XD
