"I didn't hear her wrong, she definitely implied that she's my Hollow…" Ichigo gulped, frozen in shock. "There's no mistaking it, those eyes, they're the same his," Thunderclouds began to roll in, as Ichigo's Inner World slowly descended into murky darkness, soon to be filled with the sound of heavy rain.
"How?" Was all that Ichigo was able to choke out, his emotions were in a chaotic state and he wasn't able to think clearly.
"How?" Sayafushi repeated, tilting her head a little, in an almost mocking fashion.
"How is it that you became my Inner Hollow?!" Ichigo yelled suddenly, clenching his fist, as frustration flooded him. Sayafushi simply closed her eyes for a brief moment before starting to speak.
"When you're original Zanpakutō, Zangetsu was destroyed, Zangetsu himself wasn't gone, he simply couldn't take a physical form anymore." Sayafushi began, only for Ichigo to quickly interject.
"What does that have to do with you being my Inner Hollow?"
"A lot actually," She replied coldly, brushing away stray, wet hairs that were blocking her vision. "Since I melded with both your Hollow and Shinigami powers upon becoming your Zanpakutō, how do you think you managed to use the Getsuga Tenshō?"
Ichigo contemplated her words for a moment, trying his best not to react badly to the situation and analyse everything calmly. Everything she had stated made sense. It would explain why his Hollow and Zangetsu weren't around. He simply assumed that Zangetsu was gone forever, but that didn't seem to be the case.
"So then. If what you're saying is true, you're the one who interfered with my fight with that Arrancar?" Sayafushi nodded in response. "Why?"
"Why you ask?" She repeated emotionlessly, before her face contorted into one of sheer boiling rage. "Because you threw everything away!" She screeched, crossing the distance between them, lunging her obsidian blade at Ichigo's neck.
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Ichigo yelled back, dodging her strike by a hair's breathe.
"You insensitive idiot!" Ichigo luckily evaded losing an arm from an incoming vertical slash. "After all I did for you, after all I taught you...The moment you stepped into a fight; you threw all that away, you reverted back to fighting like you did before we met!" She cried, black tears running down her ivory skin. "You put yourself in so much danger, fighting so recklessly, not caring about your own wellbeing!" She exclaimed, her voice getting louder and louder with every word. "You may not care about how much you get hurt in a fight, but I do!"
"You even resorted to using a Getsuga to deflect that Cero, even though I had taught you techniques to deal with those types of situations," She said with a pained expression. "Am I not good enough for you Ichigo?"
The moment those words left her trembling lips, Ichigo's entire Inner World, smashed to smithereens, as it submerged into a cold, black ocean, where the only sources of lights were Ichigo and Sayafushi.
All this time she had been trying her best to make him strong. Strong enough to not get hurt, because she couldn't stand seeing him like that. Ichigo simply let himself fall through the cold water and onto a broken glass building.
"And worst of all, you became a terrified mess once again! Even though you know better!" She scolded, her tears still flowing. "Ichigo, do you not remember what Zangetsu taught you, about fear and what it does to you if you let it control you?" She reminded him, floating down next to him and looking into his eyes, with her own.
"Ah," It felt like an eternity since he had remembered that. Ichigo felt like kicking himself for almost forgetting something so important to him, something he held close to his heart.
"Abandon your fear," Sayafushi firmly stated.
"Look forward. Move forward and never stop,"
"You shall age if you pull back,"
"And I'll die if I ever hesitate," Ichigo finished, feeling extremely guilty and incompetent. "I really am an idiot, aren't I?" Ichigo chided himself, looking down in shame.
"Yes, yes you are," Sayafushi agreed, crossing her arms and looking away from him with an angry scowl reminiscent to Ichigo's own. There was a short moment of silence.
"Do you think you could ever forgive me, Sayafushi?" Ichigo asked, sitting up, turning to face her. Sayafushi didn't immediately answer him, causing Ichigo to feel even worse than he already was, knowing fully well there was no way she'd be able to forgive him after he had destroyed their bond like that.
Ichigo was completely taken aback when Sayafushi gently wrap wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into her chest. "Promise me you won't ever do that again," Sayafushi sobbed out, squeezing Ichigo's head tighter.
In that very moment, Ichigo's Inner World started to move. The frigid waters began to drain away, whilst the shattered glass skyscrapers slowly started reforming themselves all at once, as if rewinding back in time. Even the thick thunderclouds that were hovering high above began to dissipate, allowing for a star filled night sky to shine through once more.
"I promise."
Vizard Training Ground.
"You ok there Lisa?" Shinji asked, glancing to his side, checking up on her. It had been five minutes since Lisa had swapped places with Kensei, she was completely worn out from her battle with the Hollowfied orange haired teen.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just a few light injuries," Lisa answered, taking a relaxed, seated position on a nearby boulder, trying to steady her breathing.
"Alright, Kensei, It's my turn," Called Love, walking up to the still intact barrier that Hachi had created, closing the pages of his Manga before pocketing it.
Kensei grunted an affirmative, whilst dodging a lethal clawed attack that aimed to rip out his jugular. "Hachi, open the gate!" The green suited man didn't need to be told twice, he quickly weaved a few hand movements, allowing the barrier to open a door sized hole, which Kensei back stepped through as quickly as he could. "He's all yours Love!"
"Gotcha!" With that, Love leapt into the confinement spell, with his trusty blade in his grip, ready to go.
The moment Ichigo's Hollowfied body noticed Love's appearance, it dashed straight towards him, without delay, claws outstretched, ready to tear him apart limb from limb.
"Woah there!" Love quickly brought his sword up to block an oncoming attack only to have a leg sent sailing towards him. Noticing this, he quickly jumped upwards, before landing on the said leg and swiped his Zanpakutō vertically downwards, only to be whipped back a few feet by a thick lizard like tail.
The lizard-like Hollow pointed its fingers at Love, who was a sizable distance away and it began charging up a dense red sphere, which quickly grew in size.
"Love! That's a Cerō! Get away quickly!" Lisa warned, getting up from her seated position, noticing the highly concentrated ball of death forming rapidly.
"Oh shit, seems like I gotta' bust out the mask," Love thought, quickly bringing his hand up to his face in a clawed like fashion.
Love instantly halted the gathering of his Hollow Reiatsu once he noticed the Hollowfied teen stop in its tracks, roaring in pain. "What the-?!"
"Hachi! Get Love out of the barrier, now!" Shinji yelled, knowing full well what was about to happen. The pink hair man grunted, quickly flicking through a few hand movements, before a door shaped hole appeared in the barrier, allowing Love to escape without harm.
Hachi then immediately sealed up the door to the orange barrier, before a blinding light emerged from Ichigo's body, causing a colossal shockwave to smash the barrier into pieces.
Once all the smoke had died down, the Vizard were finally able to get a clear look at what had happened.
In the clearing surrounded by broken white fragments, stood Ichigo, donning what seemed to be his very own Hollow mask. It seemed to be a menacing skull shaped white mask, which looked to be almost reflective. It also had a peculiar flower shape design on the left side of it that shimmered a light blue colour.
"How ya' feelin', Ichigo?" Shinji asked, taking a giant leap of the boulder he was sat on, all the way over to where Ichigo was standing.
"Never better," He replied, after several seconds of silence, with the distinctive dual-layered Hollowfied voice.
"That so?" Shinji replied back, smirking all the while.
Flashback
"So, what happens now?" Ichigo asked the epicentre of his powers, still in her arms.
"What do you mean, Ichigo?" She replied back.
"Well, I kinda had the intent of mastering my Hollow powers, but since you are my Hollow abilities too, how is this going to work?" He questioned, sliding himself out of her grasp.
"Hmm, this does complicate things…" Sayafushi silently contemplated what to do for a moment. "Ah! I think I have a solution," She began, clasping her hands together.
"What do you have in mind?" Ichigo asked, curiously.
"For now, I'll give you access to as much of your Hollow abilities as your body can handle without causing too much damage to yourself, but after some more training, you can challenge me again for the rest when you feel ready, okay?" She explained, fixing her seated position.
"That's fine with me, thank you, Saya," They shared a silent moment of peace together before Ichigo spoke once again. "I guess I should head back, if I stay unconscious too long, those guys might get worried,"
"It's okay,I understand," She responded, watching as Ichigo dissipating into blue flakes of spiritual particles.
Vizard Training Ground.
"I won't ever let you down again," Ichigo thought, making a silent promise to Sayafushi, before taking the mask of his face, allowing it to crumble into powder and scatter in the wind.
"So, now that we got all the borin' shit outta' the way, let's get down the proper trainin' shall we?"
"Huh-?" Was the only intelligible thing Ichigo could utter before a Hollowfied Hyōri began her relentless assault.
"Oh boy, today's gonna be a long ass day…" Shinji sighed, taking a resting position on flat rock nearby.
One Day Later, Night-Time, Outside The Kurosaki Residence.
"Huh?! What do you mean he's not here?! This is his house isn't it?!" A spikey red haired man yelled, clearly annoyed.
"Renji, if you had even an ounce of Reiatsu awareness, you'd find that you wouldn't even be able to sense him anywhere," Rukia scolded, kicking Renji in the shin as she did.
"Why you little-!" Renji shot back, hopping on one foot, trying to sooth the pain.
"Anyway, we won't find anything out here, the next best place to check is Urahara-san's shop," Rukia concluded, after a moment of thought.
"How do you know that his parents won't know where he's gone off too?" Renji asked curiously.
"Ichigo doesn't like getting other people involved in his problems, so I doubt he'd tell any member of his family where he'd disappear too," She easily replied.
"Oh, that does makes sense…" Was all Renji said, before the two close friends made their way over to the green clad shopkeeper's place.
Vizard Training Grounds.
"Berry-tan sucks at this, huh?" Mashirō spoke up, turning to face the other Vizards.
"Well, we all had to do this training, it's how we're able to keep out masks on for extended periods of time," Rose replied, running a hand through his hair.
"Nu-uh! I didn't have to!" Mashirō protested childishly.
"Yeah you did, stop lying," Came an annoyed grunt from Kensei, who was sitting to the right of Mashirō, legs crossed.
"She's right Kensei, Mashirō could keep her mask on for fifteen hours from the very start," Shinji stated, spinning his cap on his index finger.
"Shit, I almost forgot…" Kensei grumbled, crossing his arms, whilst looking away.
"See?! Kensei you big fat dummy!" Mashirō stuck her tongue out at Kensei, causing several veins to pop out of his forehead as he grinded his teeth together angrily.
"Quieten down, you two, I'm getting to the good bit of my Manga," Came the slightly annoyed voice of Love.
"Tch," Kensei bit out, getting up from his seated position and making his way over to another side of the training area, no doubt to get away from Mashirō.
"Hey! What's my time to now?!" Ichigo yelled from a distance, batting away Hyōri's violent attacks, Sayafushi still in her sealed state and mask present over his sweating face.
"Eight seconds," Hachigen replied, stopping the stop watch the moment Ichigo's mask burst of his face into white spiritual energy.
"Shit!" He cursed out, feeling the very familiar wave of exhaustion wash over him every time his mask broke. "How do I keep my mask on for longer? Hyōri's mask hasn't even cracked, let alone broken during our spars," Ichigo quickly ran a clawed hand over his face, manifesting his mask as quickly as he could, so that he could block an incoming kick from the pig-tailed Vizard.
"Ichigo," Came the delicate voice of his Zanpakutō.
"Huh? What's up Saya?" Ichigo questioned, side-stepping an over-the-head swing.
"How are you doing at school? I hope all this business with the spiritual world hasn't decayed your grades," Sayafushi randomly brought up, causing Ichigo to question why she was asking such a question at a time like this.
"Well, I'm doing all right for now, my grades have slipped a little, but it's nothing I can't fix once I get out of this mess," Ichigo replied back, thinking back to his carefree days at school. "Before everything went haywire, I think I had the 7th highest grade in our year, two places higher than Ishida. I'm definitely gonna' use that to piss him off later," Ichigo snickered evilly, parrying an incoming horizontal attack, whilst letting loose a flurry of his own sword swings.
"Sounds like you two are good friends," Sayafushi chimed, lightly laughing at her master's antics.
"Hell no! That Quincy bastard and I are the furthest thing away from friends!" Ichigo instantly rebutted.
"Oh? So do men prefer the term rivals?" She mused aloud. "I suppose it does sound manlier…" Ichigo just grumbled under his breathe, knowing she was just joking with him.
"Wow! Berry-tan's suddenly doing awesome!" Mashirō chirped in childish delight, looking very impressed. Her sudden statement snapped Ichigo back to reality causing his eyes to widen.
"That's one minutes and twenty-nine seconds," Hachi called out, the moment Ichigo's mask broke from having lost composure and focus.
"What?!" Ichigo gaped, landing on a large boulder. "It didn't even feel like that long had passed," Ichigo mused.
"I gotta say Strawberry, you learn fast," Hyōri remarked, slipping her mask of her face and sealing her blade within the confines of her Tōju. "We'll end the training for today, since you understand the basics of keeping your mask on for long periods of time," The petite Vizard stated, walking back upstairs, her hands pocketed.
"Huh? I thought I was just able to keep it on longer because I had become more physically able to do so," Ichigo said aloud, letting the Strawberry comment slide.
"What? You still don't get it?" Lisa broke in, gaining his attention.
"Get what?" He asked, his cluelessness made Lisa sigh and close the pages of her Eroge.
"The more you think about trying to keep your mask on, the quicker it'll break, so if you don't focus on keeping the mask materialized, it'll stay on for a far longer amount of time," She explained. "You have to think of it as a natural part of your body,"
"Ah, that does make sense…" Ichigo mused, seeing the logic behind her statement. "Wait a second…" Ichigo thought to himself, suddenly realizing who had made him stop concentrating about keeping his mask on in the first place.
No later than when he realized Sayafushi was the one to randomly start a conversation with him mid battle, he heard a melodic laughter echo from within the confines of his Inner World. "I should have known…" Ichigo sighed, a small smile tugging at the ends of his lips.
"I guess I'll head home for today, I've been holed up in here for way too long…" Ichigo popped a few joints and jumped down from the tall rock formation he was situated on.
After Ichigo had said his goodbyes, he quickly exited the warehouse and headed straight for his house. "Man, these past two days have been so hectic, I'm so tired,"
"Don't forget Ichigo, you still have my training you must attended to," This caused Ichigo to groan aloud.
"Can I at least rest for the night?" Ichigo asked, hoping for a bit of mercy from his Zanpakutō.
"Hmm, since you asked so nicely, I shall allow it," Sayafushi replied, using a faux, haughty accent.
"Oh how kind you are, your highness…" Ichigo drawled out, trying his best to sound as sarcastic as possible.
"I do try,"
A few moments later, Ichigo had arrived at his house. He quickly made it to the front door and prepared himself to dodge an attack from his insane father.
"FATHER'S WELCOME HOME KICK OF LOVE~!" The deep voice of his father bellowed. Ichigo simply turned to his side and let his energetic dad sail past him and into the cold, dark streets.
Ichigo stepped inside, locked the door using the house keys that were still inside the lock and casually began walking up the stairs.
"Onii-chan?" Came the tired voice of Yuzu, dressed in her pyjamas, no doubt having just woken up, due to Isshin's boisterous antics. Despite her drowsiness, she quickly made her way over to her brother and spread her arms open, obviously waiting for a hug, to which he easily obliged.
"Karin, you can come out, no need to be shy," Ichigo spoke up amusedly, sensing Karin just behind her door.
"How did you know?" She answered meekly, completely unlike her usual attitude.
"A lucky guess?" Ichigo stated, ignoring her sceptical look. "Sorry about disappearing on you guys, I had a lot things I had to do," Ichigo suddenly brought up, feeling guilty. "But don't worry, everything's perfectly fine now," Ichigo finished after a moment of pause, before flashing a small, rare smile to his precious twin sisters.
Yuzu and Karin, stared with eyes slightly widened, they had noticed something off about Ichigo for the past few days and were worried about him, but now, he seemed like a new person. One brimming with confidence.
"It's ok Onii-chan, as long as you come home safe, that's all that matters to us, right Karin?" Yuzu chirped.
"R-right," Karin answered, turning her face away, getting a bit too embarrassed for her liking.
Over the course of the next few days, Ichigo had once again, begun taking Sayafushi's training and this time, Ichigo was going to make sure not to let her down. He had already suffered the consequences of doing it once, he wasn't going to let it happen twice.
Ichigo had finally managed to use Bakudō at a competent level, having learned how to pull of spells such as Shitōtsu Sansen, Hōrin and even complicated spells such as Rikujōkōrō. Though he hadn't fully mastered any of them, he could at least use them to slow down or stop an opponent for a short amount of time before they managed to break out.
"Okay, now slowly guide your Reiatsu into your palm and form Shakkahō with any incantation," Sayafushi instructed him, standing a few meters away.
Ichigo spoke the name of the spell, following her advice, he poured, his Reiatsu into the palm of his hands, while still maintaining control over it and compressing the attack down to the size of a tennis ball. It whistled through the air, sailing towards a nearby building, causing it to explode violently on contact.
"Well done Ichigo, you managed to make a rather powerful Shakkahō, that was able to hold its shape, I'm quite impressed," Sayafushi praised with a light smile.
Ichigo wiped the sweat of his brow and breathed out a sigh of relief, he had finally managed to fire a mid-level Hadō without it exploding in his face.
"Damn, using Kidō is a lot more draining than I thought," Ichigo stated, trying to catch his breathe.
"When you're able to cast Kidō without wasting any excess Reiatsu, you'll find you can cast hundreds of spells without breaking a sweat," She explained.
Before Ichigo could even respond, an all too familiar sensation reverberated throughout the area.
"A Hollow's Reiatsu?!" Ichigo snapped his attention back to the physical world and immediately honed in his senses, trying to pinpoint the source of Reiatsu.
"This doesn't feel like an ordinary Hollow…I's no doubt those Arrancar that came the other day, are they back to finish off what they started?" Ichigo jumped out of bed and quickly opened his drawer. A few seconds later, after scrambling for his substitute badge, he slammed it against his chest and flew out of his open window, heading straight for the unidentified Hollow's location.
"I'm glad it didn't show up during the day, now, hopefully less people should get involved…" The orange haired teen thought to himself, leaping from building to building.
"So, you're him huh? The bastard that sent that bitch Yammy cryin'?" A gruff voice from above spoke insultingly. Ichigo immediately followed the voice to its source. "I'm Grimmjow Jaguarjaqqs, remember it well, Shinigami!" Ichigo instinctively side stepped an extremely fast vertical swipe that decimated the concrete beneath his feet. "Cause' It's gonna be the last name you'll ever hear!"
Hello, i'm alive!
This took absolutely forever to get out, I've had this sitting on my PC for months along with a bunch of other chapters of this story. It really was a pain to try and piece them together, whilst studying and working, no free time at all. But finally, here it is, hope everyone enjoyed it and hopefully it was worth the wait.
I'm not too sure about my writing schedule anymore since my daily schedule is a mess at the moment, but I'll try my best to at least update this story every once in a while.
Please leave a review, I enjoy reading all of them.
Peace.