Chapter 6: Return to cinder

As Ichigo stood in the underground training area beneath the shop, after he finished marveling at this whole area, he stood in front of Kisuke as he explained how this was going to work. He shoved his cane into Ichigo's forehead like before and his soul came out of his body, but this time was different. Very different. He wasn't Rukia anymore, he was himself once more with a chain attached to his chest. Ichigo stood up and patted himself down as he actually felt like his normal self in his soul form now and not anything like Rukia. It didn't feel right to him. He felt like he was in a foreign body that wasn't his own and it bugged him to no end. This felt almost as awkward as the first time he realized he was in another soul, that being Rukia's.

"I know it may seem strange at first Ichigo," Kisuke started, getting Ichigo's attention from his chain and soul body. "But think of this as a temporary thing for now. You'll be in your own soul reaper form in no time."

Ichigo saw the man do a genuine smirk to him and this caused him to at least give fake smirk of his own. Ichigo listened to what the man had to say as he explained the chain of fate to Ichigo and what would happen once it is cut or when the person's body dies. Ichigo soaked in the information, but not as much as he would've if Rukia's soul was still imprinted onto his. It was odd to the boy that he actually missed being her as a soul as opposed to being himself now. He guessed he was used to being a short, raven haired girl than his tall, orange haired self.

"Alright Ichigo," Kisuke started once more as he pulled out some training headgear and gloves. "I want you to spar with Ururu for a while."

He moved out of the way the second Ichigo took the gear and the teen saw a little girl wearing training gear as well. At first, he wondered what exactly he had to do against her. He didn't want to hurt this girl, especially when he was so used to fighting as Rukia, but all that changed to running away once the girl put her fist through a boulder. Ichigo decided to make a run for it after that, not really wanting to get turned into dust right now. All the while, Kisuke was watching and chuckling behind his fan as Tessai simply shook his head at his boss's antics.

After about an hour, Kisuke finally stopped the 'spar' and brought Ichigo back to them. As Ichigo went over to them, he looked very disheveled. His shirt slightly torn up, his hair a mess, and his soul body sweating profusely. He stood in front of the shopkeeper, breathing heavily, and listened to what the strange man had to say.

"Alright then Ichigo," he started with a smirk, "seeing as though your regular soul is still very weak, we will have t speed up the healing process."

Ichigo took a few deep breaths before speaking. "How are we supposed to do that?" Before Ichigo even knew it, his arms were forced behind his back by bindings and he was forced down to the ground. "What the-"

Ichigo was interrupted when Tessai sat on him with his full weight and the red haired kid cut his soul chain completely in half from his body. Suddenly, before he could say anything more, the floor below him vanished and both he and Tessai fell down the hole. When they landed, Ichigo let out a grunt of pain as the large man on top of him was unmoved by the landing.

"Alright Ichigo," Kisuke started from above, getting the orange haired teens attention, "if you can make it back up here without using your hands, you'll be able to regain your soul reaper powers. But if you don't in time, the soul chain on your chest will eat itself away until you turn into a hollow." He dropped his jovial tone after those words. "And if that happens, we will have no choice but to kill you."

Ichigo widened his eyes in shock to the man as the chain began to eat itself away for a bit. Tessai stood up and walked over to the wall to sit and observe everything. Ichigo stood up on shaky legs as he could feel himself getting weaker from the chain eating itself earlier. He shook his head to focus and started trying to get up the wall.

For almost an hour, Ichigo would run up the wall of dirt and stone, fall down without reaching anywhere near the top, then stand up to repeat the process once more. Occasionally, the chain would begin to devour itself, causing Ichigo to get weaker and weaker with each time it happened. Kisuke was taking notice to this as he knew that the chain of fate being destroyed drove a person closer to hollowfying, but he knew of Ichigo's, 'unique' heritage and that his chain being destroyed would have a different effect. This however was odd to the man. He didn't know why Ichigo was getting weaker and weaker with each devouring and it was making him worried. He sent a subtle message to Tessai while the kids kept Ichigo busy with their taunts to him. The bald man nodded as he understood what his boss was asking him to do.

Ichigo, for the most part, was dead on his feet. He was exhausted after not even an hour passed since his chain was cut. His legs felt like sandbags, his body like he had just fought fifty thugs by himself again, even his skin was getting pale. He was on his side, breathing heavily as the chain ate itself away once more. Ichigo had no idea why he was feeling weaker, but after a while he simply laid there, not wanting to move anymore. Even the taunts of those two brats above him garnered no reaction from him as his eyes began to glaze over. That was when the chain went into overdrive like it was possessed. It frantically and quickly ate away at the chains, causing everyone to panic.

"Tessai, now!" Kisuke shouted out to his friend.

"Right!" Tessai began to go through hand seals and chants, causing Ichigo's body to slowly become encompassed by wrappings and bindings. The chain didn't care as it continued to eat itself away. "What?" He said in surprise as the chain finally finished what it started in devouring itself whole.

"Oh no." Kisuke said to himself, unsure of what was to come from Ichigo's chain being completely gone.

Unknown land

"Ichigo." That same feminine voice spoke up once more. "Ichigo, wake the hell up."

Ichigo once again opened his eyes as he felt a cold breeze hit him. He quickly sat up and saw the woman from before standing in front of him before noticing his surroundings. He saw that he was in some kind of city with tall skyscrapers. He was sitting on one and saw that the city bellow was covered in snow while the skyscrapers had ice all over them. The cold air was flowing all throughout this place and Ichigo could tell this place was different than the darkness he was in earlier.

"Well then Ichigo." The woman started as she gained his attention. "It's time to really test your resolve."

"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked her as he saw her smirk to him.

"Do you wish to regain your power just to save your friend Ichigo?" She spoke to him with a smugness to her eyes.

Ichigo was taken aback by the question for a moment before he answered her. "Of course I do."

"Why?"

That question came out of nowhere. Ichigo immediately wanted to say to protect her, but for some reason that answer got caught in his throat. He didn't know why but that answer just didn't feel right to him. It wasn't right to him and he knew it somehow. There had to be something else he wanted more than just to save his friend.

The woman saw his hesitation as her smirk grew. "Yes Ichigo, there is so much more that you want than just to save your friend." The skyscrapers began to crack and break one by one. "You want something far more than just to save a girl, don't you Ichigo?" The skyscraper they were on cracked and broke as Ichigo began to fall down and the woman simply stood on the air, watching him. "What do you really want from me Ichigo?"

As Ichigo continued to fall, his vision was getting dark as the cold wind became unbearable. Despite that, Ichigo was not cold. Instead, he felt comfortable, at ease almost as he continued to fall. What did her really want? Did he just want to save his friend from an unjust execution and make an enemy of this soul society forever? Did he simply want to make up for failing to save her before losing his powers? Or did he just want to feel how he felt before?

He widened his eyes at that last thought. That's right. He wanted to be a soul reaper once more, not just to save Rukia, but because he did not want to feel weak anymore. Not like when his sisters were in danger and he could do nothing about it, or when he had failed to save his mother, or even when he failed to save that man from that hollow. Wait. Where did that memory come from?

Memories of a man with black hair appeared before Ichigo as he held onto his small frame as it rained. The man whispered something to him as he died in his arms and it was at that moment Ichigo realized, this was Rukia's memory.

Underground training room

Ichigo's eyes shot open as he began to thrash about under the bindings. Spirit energy began to swirl around him in an aura of white and black. Ice began to form under him as well as the dark energy flaring all around. Tessai had been struggling beforehand, but now he was being pushed to the limit. The energy in the center of it all was becoming almost too much for his bindings to withstand as they kept freezing and braking apart faster than they could recover.

Kisuke was on edge as the energy was starting to rise considerably with each passing minute. Was this really the power of a soul imprint?

Kisuke didn't have enough time to contemplate that question as the bindings holding Ichigo exploded as a large pillar of ice erupted from the shaft. Kisuke reacted quickly as he shielded the two kids from the intense energy and cold air coming from the shaft. After a few seconds, he could feel his back forming ice on it and summoned his zanpakuto from his cane to shield them. Even the vibrant red shield began to freeze under the intense cold. Kisuke gritted his teeth as he had no idea what this was and wasn't liking it by the second.

After what felt like minutes, the dark energy flew out from the pillar, shattering the ice completely, and it landed a little ways off from the group. The dark energy dissipated and the ice and cold wind subsided with it, leaving dust near the epicenter of the energy. Kisuke dropped his shield rather cautiously and stood in front of the children, ready for anything. All he saw in the dust was a pair of glowing lavender eyes staring right at him. He tensed for a second before he saw something that shocked him to the core. As the dust settled, he saw that Ichigo had regained his soul reaper powers, the only problem with that was that he looked like Rukia once more. Except now he looked different from the original.

Ichigo stood a little taller than Rukia did, by two or three inches at most. His hair was a little longer than before, reaching to the base of his neck, and was still the same raven haired color, only this time it had orange tips that were barely noticeable. His slender frame was still ever present with just a hint of muscle along his body. What really terrified Kisuke to a point was that Ichigo was wearing a hollow mask. The mask was white at first, but upon closer inspection was actually a very light shade of lavender. There were deep and dark purple lines going across the right side of the mask as well as those glowing eyes. Ichigo stood in his original soul reaper uniform and even had his zanpakuto still in its large sheath. Kisuke regained his composure as he saw Ichigo move his hand towards the mask. He got into a defensive stance only for Ichigo to grab at the mask and take it off with ease. His face was the exact same as Rukia's, only his skin was a bit paler and his eyes were also a light lavender color. He looked to the stunned shopkeeper and smirked a bit. It was good to be back, somewhat.

Gonna end this one here. The name of his zanpakuto is still up in the air for me. The only name I've been able to come up with was Higetsu which means Ice Moon in Japanese. If anyone has a better name than that that can combine something like Ice or White Snow with Slaying Moon and it not be very long, then I'm all ears.

Next chapter will have some action to it.

Stay awesome, and as always,

PEACE!