Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. I own nothing of either of them and make no profit from them. I am only playing in the worlds they gave us.

Felt like doing another 'Encounter' AU side story. I've had this idea for a while, just not the manner in which I wanted to execute it. And, I needed a little break from the thought process of A Chance Encounter.

This will be at least three chapters, maybe more. It has already surpassed my original thoughts as I've gotten int it. When I'm done with this I will resume working on A Chance Encounter when it is done.

A Spartan Encounter

Chapter 1: The Invincible, Lonely Girl

You would think that being good at something and being successful at it would help to enhance one's social standing and not place it into a downward spiral, but that seemed to be exactly where the social fortunes of a fifteen year old Pyrrha Nikos were going. She was pretty, with long flaming red hair and vivid green eyes. She was smart, getting some of the highest marks in her entire school and was generally a friendly and warm person. She was an excellent athlete, tall with a physique that put her peers to shame and she was strong. As a Huntress in training she was at the top of her class at Sanctum Academy. Becoming a Huntress was her dream and she worked hard to be in shape and to hone her skills.

A month ago she had won the Mistral Regional Tournament for the second year in a row, her win the year before being remarkable since she was the only first year student to ever win it. That seemed to have been when her social decline had started. Her skills and potential had begun to show at a young age but as she progressed and got better no one had ever treated her any differently. She had always remained the same person, never thinking herself to be better than anyone else and quite frankly, all of her accomplishments and accolades aside, she was the type of girl that should have been surrounded by friends. The type of person that everyone liked.

But after that first win at the MRT, something changed. People began to start distancing themselves from her. It wasn't highly noticeable at first but she soon began to hear the whispers. She was becoming a bit of a celebrity and people began elevating her above themselves and convincing themselves that she was moving beyond their reach. She thought that was ridiculous. She wasn't any better than any of them and never thought that she was. She was still the same girl that she had always been.

As more demands were made on her time, she had less time to try and dissuade people from that way of thinking and to work to hang onto the relationships that she had. After winning the tournament again the problem seemed to grow exponentially. She began to feel isolated and lonely and it hurt. Even people she had been doing physical training with had drifted away from her and that was how she found herself going for her evening run all alone now and it was why she was currently sitting atop the wall that ringed her hometown of Argus. She wore her red and white Sanctum track suit, her arms were wrapped around her legs, chin resting on her knees, and a torrent of tears were threatening to spill from her eyes.

Off to her left was the big hill that led to the forest outside the city, well off to the right was the bright lights of the Atlas military outpost, but she wasn't really seeing any of it. What if the problem wasn't with everyone else but really was with her? What if it wasn't their perceptions concerning her that had changed, but it was her attitude and how she was acting that was different? She didn't think that she had changed but what if she had? She was lonely and she hated it, it hurt so badly and she didn't know what to do. The held tears began to slowly leak from her eyes.

"What have I done wrong?" she sobbed quietly. "What did I do to drive everyone away from me?"

"You didn't do anything wrong," a strong, clear male voice spoke.

Startled, she shot to her feet and frantically looked around, but saw nobody. She took a defensive stance, ready to fight if need be. "Who's there? Where are you?"

"Not anywhere that you can see me," the voice answered, sounding slightly amused. "Since I'm inside your head."

"What?!" She came to a stop but still kept her guard up. "That's not possible."

"It's not only possible, it's happening."

'I know I'm lonely but I can't be so far gone that I'm making up an imaginary voice to talk to,' she thought.

"You're right," the voice said, making her eyes go wide. "You are lonely but you haven't gone that close to the edge yet. I'm very much real."

"I didn't say that out loud," she gasped, a hint of panic starting to creep into her voice. "T-there's no way you could know what I was thinking unless..."

"Unless I really am in your head," he finished calmly. "Look, you don't need to panic,especially since you're standing on top of the wall and it's a nasty drop. You're not going crazy and I'm not going to harm you. You're getting shaky so why don't you sit back down and just take a couple of deep breaths and calm down."

"That...sounds like a good idea," she rasped. She dropped, landing on her butt with a thump and concentrated on getting her breathing under control.

"Not the most graceful landing but it'll do," the voice chided with humour. "I didn't mean to startle you but unfortunately there's no way that you weren't going to be the first time you heard my voice no matter when it was."

"That makes sense I suppose," she conceded. "But this is...how is this even possible?"

"You're familiar with the theory of reincarnation," he stated as much as asked.

"Yes," she answered. "The souls of the departed are reborn into a new life in a repeating cycle."

"Exactly, and you and I are proof that it's not just a theory but a fact," he confirmed. "We did things just a little bit differently though."

"Because we are able to communicate with each other?" she supposed.

"That and the fact that the reincarnated soul normally doesn't remember any of its past lives," he answered. "It isn't even aware that it had any past lives or even what it is. Usually the most that will happen is you might have an area of knowledge that you have a strong affinity for, or a set of physical abilities that come to you naturally, like it's second nature. Things that you're good at might very well be based on a bleed through of the soul's past experiences."

"Were you a Huntsman before?" she asked. Her own fighting abilities seemed to come so naturally to her that she felt it was a logical assumption to make.

"My last life was a very long time ago," he said, a hint of sadness and something else in his voice. Regret maybe? "Long before Huntsmen or Huntresses or even the Grimm. Before this world became so aptly named."

Her brow scrunched in puzzlement. "What does that mean?"

"That's a story for later after the shock of this wears off and you're used to my presence," he answered. "Don't want to overwhelm you too much."

"That's not ominous at all," she groused.

"It's history," he sighed. "It happened and there's nothing to be done about it except maybe to learn from it. It's really not anything to worry over."

"Why don't I feel reassured by that?" she asked suspiciously.

"Maybe because you're talking to a voice in your head that you didn't know existed until five minutes ago, so you're feeling a little paranoid?"

"Ugh!" She propped her elbows on her knees and cradled her head in her hands. "Still not sure that I haven't lost my sanity," she muttered before going silent for a few moments. "So, why didn't you speak to me before now?" she asked, the tint of loneliness returning to her voice.

"I tried to, quite often actually, but you weren't able to hear me before this," he answered softly.

"Do you know why I can finally hear you now?"

"It could be because of your loneliness, or it could be because the amount of your spiritual power that you have access to has grown enough," he surmised. "Your Aura has been getting stronger and that is the power of your soul, or at least what you can actually access. Training with and using your Aura, even physical training for that matter all contribute the growth of the strength of your soul's power."

"Wait, you said 'or at least what I can access'. What does that mean exactly?"

"The potential energy of a soul can be enormous but most people never even come close to being able to accessing it, if they can even use it at all." He paused for a moment. "In my previous life I had a ridiculous amount of spiritual energy, I never got to truly find out just how powerful I really was or even how to really use it all that well. As far as I know I...we...still have that energy. Who knows, it may have even had an influence on how you can hear me, maybe even why I have all of the memories of that past life. I really don't know how it all works. One of my old mentors though would probably be able to figure it out in a snap."

"How old were you when you...when you died?" she asked hesitantly, feeling a certain amount of guilt for asking.

"Only two years older than you are now," he answered. "I had monsters to fight too, monsters a lot worse than the Grimm and I didn't get a lot of training to do it. Had to learn on the job. The end of that fight led to the beginning of this world, but like I said before, that's a story for later."

"You will tell me though, right?" she asked, a little worried that he was just putting her off.

"Of course." There was a smile evident in the tone of his voice. "You deserve to know and I won't keep anything secret from you."

"That's only fair," she agreed. "Since I obviously won't be able to keep any secrets from you."

"And you won't be alone anymore either," he said seriously.

"I...thank you," she whispered. "So, what should I call you? I mean, I know you're essentially me, but you're also you...gah!...that's going to tie my brain in a knot!"

He chuckled. "I get what you mean and it was rude of me not to introduce myself before. Pyrrha Nikos, I'm glad to finally meet you. My name is Ichigo Kurosaki."

Her jog back home was a bit of a distracted one for obvious reasons. Reincarnation. It was a subject that she had never given much thought to or really formed an opinion on one way or another. She had read a few articles about the concept and had once watched a spirited debate about it on a nightly discussion panel show where they debated everything from current events in the news to 'are aliens among us'. Serious and informative or just ridiculous, at least the show was entertaining.

To think though that reincarnation was real was more than a bit of a shock and the fact that the soul that had reincarnated to become her was actually aware of its past life...and that she could talk to it...that was mind blowing. Unless she had missed something the duality of Ichigo being her soul and still essentially being himself from his past life didn't seem to bother him. It was kind of sad to think that he had only been seventeen when he died and that he had been fighting monsters even worse that what she would be facing. She knew that the life she was training for was a dangerous one, but this just kind of made it hit home a little bit harder.

What he'd said about Remnant being an apt name for the world, that worried her. The seemingly obvious interpretation was that this world was what remained of a previous one and if that was the case, what happened to it? How long ago did it happen? Was that event what cost Ichigo his previous life? He had said that it wasn't anything she needed to be concerned about, that it was just a piece of history. That suggested that whatever had happened posed no danger now.

She may be young but she wasn't stupid and she knew that if you ignored history you just might find yourself repeating it and that was rarely ever a good thing. Fortunately she actually liked the subject of history and even this early in her Huntress training it was drilled into her head by her instructors that you ignored the past, and even current events for that matter, at your own peril. Information was just as much of a tool for a Huntress as her weapons were and only a fool would not make use of it.

She stopped running about a block from her house and walked the rest of the way as part of her cool down routine. He had been right though about not wanting to tell her about it until she'd had time process this and start getting used to him being there. She highly doubted that she would be in the right frame of mind to absorb and deal with what he would tell her right now. It probably really would be too much too soon, but that didn't mean that she wasn't curious about it. The idea of knowing something that no one else in the world did was pretty tantalizing but it could also end up being a case of 'be careful what you wish for'.

Unzipping the pocket in her jacket, she pulled out her keys and unlocked the door. Her parents were out visiting friends so she would have the house to herself for a few more hours. After kicking off her shoes and setting them aside she went to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water from a pitcher in the fridge. After a shower she would finish a bit of homework she had and then maybe watch a movie. She had all weekend to finish the schoolwork but she preferred to get it done and out of the way.

Of course, it wasn't like she had anything else to do on the weekend, other than what she usually did which was train. She'd never had very much of a social life as it was and what little she did have had disappeared along with anyone that may have qualified as a friend. Now in its place she could use the time to study or train, or both. Gods, that sounded so pathetic.

Her mother would probably tell her to relax a little, maybe walk around town or do a little shopping but she wasn't sure that her mother was grasping the concept of what was going on around her daughter and how lonely it was making her. People her age usually went and did things like that with their friends and there was a time when she did as well but that time apparently was now gone. Along with it so was most of the enjoyment she would have gotten from a day out. She sighed. Maybe she should anyway, it had been a while since she had taken a day just for herself.

She cleaned her glass and put it away then jogged upstairs to her room. Unlike many of her peers her room was neat and tidy and there were no posters or pictures adorning the walls. There was a neatly made bed, a large dresser and a bookcase, and in front of the window that overlooked the street in front of the house was the desk where she did her homework. Across from the end of her bed was a cabinet with a decent sized television that saw a moderate amount of use.

Taking off her track suit she laid it on the bed, she could hang it back up in the closet later. Gathering her bathing supplies, some clean underwear and her pyjamas, she padded quickly down the hall to the shower. Setting the clothes next to the sink, she placed her bathing supplies on the small shelf in the shower before shedding her t-shirt and underwear and dropping them in the hamper. Turning on the water she set the temperature and let it run, stepping back to undo the tie holding her ponytail in place and placing it on top of her pile of clothes.

She stopped for a moment to regard herself in the mirror. It wasn't something she did out of vanity, although she was well aware of her own attractiveness and she did take a small amount of guilty pride in it. Speaking of which, maybe she really should go shopping tomorrow since she was apparently in the midst of another growth spurt. She glanced at the pile of silky, silvery material that was her pyjamas. They were getting snug around the hips and a little short in the legs. Cripes, she was already five and a half feet tall and still growing. How tall was she going to get?

The top was also getting a little too tight. Tight enough that she had popped a button when she rolled over in her sleep a couple of nights ago. The underwear was okay for the moment, it had been just a little loose when she bought it but that slack was disappearing too. Most of the money she made from tournament endorsements that she was allowed to keep and not bank, was going towards clothes.

Turning back to the mirror, if anything this was kind of a semi-conscious evaluation, an existential 'who am I' exercise and being naked seemed to not only bare the flesh but bare her inner thoughts and insecurities and leave them open for her to scrutinize. The problem was that those insecurities were growing more and more as people distanced themselves from her. She rarely even had any boys making lewd remarks or trying to hit on her now, although she was actually glad for that. Their rather immature attention was uncomfortable to say the least and down right unpleasant at times. She'd even had the same problem with a couple of girls although she still wasn't sure if their comments were due to jealously or interest. If they were being catty they weren't very good at it.

She supposed that she had begun doing this as a way to bare her soul and try to discover if she was the cause of her increasing isolation and if so, why? It was like she had been thinking earlier on top of the wall. Was she the cause and if so, what had she done? Had her success and burgeoning fame been subtly changing her personality in a way that she hadn't been aware of and it had caused people to distance themselves from her?

Ichigo had assured her that it wasn't her fault, but...her thought process suddenly crashed like a derailed train. Her left arm covered her breasts and her right hand covered the patch of red curls between her legs. Ichigo...he was a guy...he could see everything! She began to break out in a full body blush.

"Seriously?" he drawled. "I may remember my past life but I'm still your soul Pyrrha, and believe it or not you don't have anything I haven't seen before. I had two little sisters that I practically raised and a she-devil of a mentor who liked to appear in front of me naked. I've been with you and aware since you were born. I've seen everything from your first diaper change to your...successful...experiment last night with the hand held shower, so freaking out and covering up is pointless." Which seemed kind of rich for him to be saying considering his past behaviour, but if nothing else being the resident soul of a female for the last fifteen years had actually knocked most of the prude out of him.

She answered him with a loud shriek of horrified embarrassment.

"I don't know what has you more bothered," Ichigo began. "Me and what happened last night, or your observations of how people are staring and whispering as they stay at a distance."

Clad in jeans, sneakers, and a dark brown suede jacket, Pyrrha was walking down the street in the centre of Argus, through the section that housed most of the stores and markets. It was a pleasant day and there were a lot of people out taking advantage of it.

"How can I not be bothered by last night?" she shot back, trying to make sure that no one else heard her. "My soul is a guy and he sees me naked...and when I do...that."

"Okay, you might want to think what you're saying rather than saying it out loud," he cautioned. "Anyone who see's you will think you're nuts because you'll look like you're talking to yourself."

She took a quick, paranoid look around her. "I don't think I can do that. I can't think about what I'm saying and say it in my head. It's distracting and I'm likely to walk into a post or something. It's more...real this way...or something."

He sighed. "Yeah, I get it. Okay, well, that new scroll you got from one of your sponsors has a wireless earpiece doesn't it? Just stick that in your ear and keep your scroll in your hand, everyone will think you're on a call."

She took his advice and pulled the new, state of the art scroll from an inside pocket in her coat. It was customized in her colours, red and bronze and with her personal spear and shield symbol on the back. Detaching the earpiece, she plugged it into her right ear and kept the scroll held in her left hand.

"Okay, going back to your statement," he said. "I'm guessing here, and just because I am a soul doesn't mean that I know how all of this stuff works on an existential level or whatever. One of my mentors was the expert on that. I don't think the soul has a gender of its own, I think it's the sum of the experiences it has had through all of the lives it has led. Yeah, my last life was as a male and since I remember it I guess you could say that's what I still am. But," he cut her off before she could jump in. "I am also your soul and that soul would also be made up of all of the lives it led before you whether it remembered its last life or not. Exactly who and what I was in that last life just might be why I can remember who I was. This wasn't exactly easy for me at first either when I realized I was reincarnated as a female. Bottom line though is this is how it is and there's nothing we can do about it. Once I finally realized that it was no longer an issue. There's no point in worrying about the things that you can't change."

"So I get to be an existential anomaly?" she groused. "Great."

"Could be worse," he teased. "I could be a pervert, which I'm not by the way."

"That's not very reassuring," she said. "How do I know you aren't?"

"You're the one that stands naked in front of the mirror and plays with the shower head. I'm not the one driving this bus, so essentially you'd be perving on yourself."

"I don't do both at once!" she protested, mortifying herself at the same time.

"I didn't say that, you did," he answered, amusement obvious in his words. "But you and I both know that you've thought about it."

She groaned. Slamming her head repeatedly into a nearby lamp post was an appealing thought but it wouldn't solve anything. "You're not going to let me live this down are you?"

"My mentors used to tease the hell out of me so I feel compelled to pass it on and now I can understand why they enjoyed it so much. It'll actually help you get used to this, believe it or not." She groaned again. "You felt a hell of a lot less stressed afterwards didn't you?"

"Well, yeah," she admitted. Gods her face felt like it was going to catch fire, she was so embarrassed. "And it did feel really good," she whispered guiltily.

"So don't worry about it then. You're already worrying about too many things now. Besides, once you learn about me you can feel free to tease me right back."

"I'll hold you to that," she smirked.

She entered a small cafe that she used to frequent when she was out a little more often, got a cup of hot cocoa and a muffin and took a vacant table in a corner.

"What you said about me worrying about too many things...I didn't used to do that," she began. "It wasn't until I started getting sponsors and they wanted me to do photos and endorsements and I started getting coached by image consultants from the PR firm. They're crafting this image to sell to the public and anything I do affects that. I'm afraid to say the wrong thing or that I'll do something that goes against that image. They've already gotten mad a couple of times and I'm still not even sure what it was that I did wrong. I feel like I don't have any control over my life, that I have no say in it, that they're trying to make me into someone else. And with everyone distancing themselves for whatever their reasons are, I don't even have anyone I can talk to about it." She smiled sadly. "I guess you know all of that though."

"I do," he said gently. "But that doesn't mean that it isn't still good for you to say it out loud and get it out in the open."

"I just wish I knew what to do about it," she lamented.

"Just be you Pyrrha, and if you're not sure just exactly who 'you' is just yet, don't sweat it. You're fifteen, you've got time to figure it out. Just don't let the PR weasels and sponsors push you into anything you're not comfortable with or don't want to do because they will try to take advantage. It's your life, don't let them tell you how to live it."

"Is that what you did?" she asked.

"I'd like to think so," he answered. "And I thought I was, but for the longest time it turns out I was doing it while playing someone else's game. Still, I stayed true to who I was and what I believed even then."

"I think I'll be glad when you tell me about your past life so that all of these references you keep making will make sense to me," she said.

"I might be able to do one better than just telling you," he said. "I might actually be able to show it to you through my memories."

Her eyes went wide. "You can do that?"

"Not sure, but we can try it when the time comes," he explained. "If it doesn't work I'll just tell it."

"Hmm, maybe I'll see something that I can tease you with," she smirked.

He laughed. "You just might at that." He might just have to make sure she got some prime material to use on him too. It was only fair given the ammunition he had, and seeing her smile and hearing her laugh was far better than the sad look and silence of loneliness that was becoming too much a part of her life.

Towards that end he made sure that their conversations turned much lighter for the rest of the day and it also served to keep her mind off of the people around her as she went from shop to shop and got the items she wanted and needed. She was able to relax a little and get some enjoyment out of it which she badly needed.

The next few weeks were hectic with school, training, and increasing demands upon her time from the dreaded sponsors and public relations people. Fortunately when the semester break arrived she was allowed to have most of that time for herself, short of what she was going to spend on training. Over those weeks she had been getting more and more used to his presence, though it took a couple of weeks for her to finally get over her embarrassment enough to have her usual shower routine return to normal and by the time the break arrived she had pretty much stopped worrying about it entirely. It helped that he now waited until she was done and back in her room on the occasions where he decided to tease her a little.

A couple of days in they decided it was time to try getting her to see his memories. They chose bedtime because it would mean the least chance of anyone interrupting. She wasn't quite sure what to expect as she laid down and closed her eyes, but suddenly finding herself in an entirely different place was not it. She was still clad in her pyjamas but she was standing on the shore of a mountain lake and a familiar one at that. It was a place where she and her family had gone to for a few days on vacation a couple of years earlier.

Off to her right was a wooden dock with a wide base that had a table and several chairs scattered around it and up the well worn walkway to her left was a cottage with a wide wooden deck that stretched across the lakeside end. There were a number of sliding wood and paper panel doors that were all currently wide open, exposing the interior to the gentle warm breeze that ruffled the leaves on the large, old trees that surrounded the entire area. Warm sunlight streamed from the bright blue sky, a few small white clouds dotting its expanse, and she could hear the water gently lapping at the shore.

"Welcome to my little home within your soul," Ichigo said as he walked down the trail from the cottage.

She hadn't really formed much of a picture of what he would look like, but she still found herself surprised when she saw him. He was close to six feet tall with lightly tanned skin, warm brown eyes, and had long, shaggy, bright orange hair. He was dressed in a pair of tan cargo shorts and a medium blue t-shirt with dark blue sleeves and the number 15 on the chest. He had a pair of leather sandals on his feet. She felt her cheeks warm slightly. He wasn't bad looking either.

He chuckled. "Being self aware, I kind of needed a space to call home. Living like a formless entity with no visual boundaries would have driven me nuts and probably you along with me. I liked that mountain lake resort you and your family went to so I recreated it."

"Wow," she said, finally no longer speechless. "It feels just like I'm really there."

"It should," he said with a nod. "It's built right from the memories we have of the place so everything will look, feel, and smell just like it did then."

"This isn't what I was expecting when I went to sleep," she said.

"I thought I might as well see if I could bring you here," he said with a shrug. "It might make things easier."

"So why am I in my pyjamas?" she asked. "Is it because that's what I happened to be wearing when I came here?"

"That's usually the way it works when you visit your inner world," he answered. "That was usually the case for me...which I'll explain. Don't know if you can change it or not, I never tried but since this is your soul you should be able to appear dressed however you want to. Or, you could end up naked by default. Who knows? Won't know until you try."

She rolled her eyes. "I'll take your word for it. So how is this going to work?"

He gestured towards the table and chairs. "We'll go sit over there and I'll explain a bunch of stuff about what this world used to be, then we can try the memory thing. I'll warn you though, I don't know what to expect. It could be like walking through a movie or it could be a flood of my memories hitting you all at once, or it might not work at all. The decision is yours if you want to try it, you can give your answer after I explain some stuff."

She took note of his serious tone. She was pretty sure that she would go through with it, she really did want to know what his life had been like and by extension, who this person had been that was now her soul. She wanted to know how much of who he had been was reflective of who she was thus far in her life.

They went and sat at the table and he explained to her about the different worlds, the world of the living, Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, Hell. Even the sub dimensions of the Royal Realm and Shatten Bereich. He explained about the different beings and the nature of souls and the powers they may possess and be able to use. He explained about the Zanpakuto. He then gave a quick and dirty run down of the events that transpired from the time he first laid eyes on Rukia Kuchki to the last day of his life where he defeated Yhwach but lost the worlds, winning the battle but losing the war.

He wanted her to have at least some idea of what the events were and the emotions that went with them so that she wouldn't be completely taken by surprise when she saw it in his memories. He left nothing out and found that he had to stop a couple of times so he wouldn't be overwhelmed by it himself. Over the years when she was still unable to hear his voice he had spent a lot of time working his way through the things he had been through.

The worst part had been in trying to come to terms with the end. Not the loss of his own life, but the lives of everyone else. His family and all of his friends. He felt that he had failed them and it didn't matter that the odds hadn't been in his favour and the prospects of victory slim. He often saw their faces, sometimes in fond remembrance and longing, other times in crushing guilt and soul tearing sorrow. That also went for the lack of his constant companions, Zangetsu and the Old Man. When he died they had fully reintegrated with his soul and were no longer independent pieces of it. He missed sparring with them, with hearing the words of wisdom of the Old Man, cryptic or not, and he missed arguing with Zangetsu. At least there wasn't an empty feeling there like they were no longer part of him but he missed their presence all the same.

It took him a long time to realize that there hadn't been anything that he could have done. Hell, he had been extremely lucky to land the fatal blow that he did and there was nothing more that could have been done to change what came afterwards. With the Soul King dead and Yhwach prevented from taking his place there was nothing to stop the worlds from crashing together. The biggest surprise besides his reincarnation was that there was even a world to reincarnate to and he could feel the effects of the previous worlds on and in this one. Quite a feat considering how badly his sensing abilities had been.

The staggering amounts of spirit energy and spirit particles that made up the soul realms had come together to form this new world and left behind vast amounts of what became known as Dust. The properties of Zanpakuto and Kido manifested in the Semblance. The feel of a Hollow's energy resided in the Faunus, the animal traits and heightened senses and instincts being reminiscent of the animalistic forms most Hollows took on. The Grimm, appropriately enough, stank of Hell.

One of the things that sobered him from the guilt and self recriminations was the fact that he had something more important to worry about and that was Pyrrha. He had something and someone to protect again and he would do whatever he could to accomplish that. She wanted to be a Huntress and protect the world and he would do everything that he possibly could to help her do just that.

To that end, that was one of the reasons he was telling her about his past life and what it meant to this world. If she was going to have to share her soul with his consciousness and they were going to have to coexist, he felt that she deserved to know who and what he was. Also there was a chance that she could eventually tap into some of his deeply buried power...which was actually now her power since what had been his soul was now her soul...even after fifteen years he still got twisted up on that. Whether she could use it or not she deserved to know that it was there and why. As he had told her, he wouldn't keep any secrets from her.

She was quite stunned by the things he told her and she needed a few minutes to digest it before she agreed to forge ahead and learn more. He repeated his earlier warning before taking her hands in his and focusing on his memories. Of course, things had to go sideways. It started out alright and like he had hoped. It was like walking through a movie and he could narrate what was going on. She commented that she could actually feel his emotions. The great love he had for his mother and his little sisters. The care of his growing friendship with the black haired girl he sparred against in karate class.

He didn't know if that revelation caused him to lose focus and control, because it was something he hadn't been expecting, but the memories began to flow faster and faster until they were a blur. From the death of his mother to the end of the world, it all slammed into her like a tsunami. The whipsaw back and forth of his emotions had her paralyzed. He tried to stop it or at least slow it down but nothing he tried worked. Shit, he didn't know what the hell he was doing.

It ended when the past world did and they were ejected from the memory stream. He found himself holding her tightly as her eyes were locked into a thousand yard stare and her breathing was erratic, starting and stopping like she couldn't catch her breath. He didn't know what else to do so he just held on like he used to do when a storm would frighten his sisters. He apologized over and over. How could he be so freaking stupid? What the hell had made him think that he would be able to manipulate and control the flow of memories so that she wouldn't be overwhelmed by it? How could he be so stupid as to not consider that she might be able to feel what he had felt? They were the same being, the same soul! Damn it, he could have done permanent damage to her!

It took a long time for her breathing to stabilize and her eyes to lose the stare. Tears began to stream down her face. She grabbed two fists full of his shirt and buried her face against his chest, all of which did nothing to ease his guilt, only deepen it. Fortunately time could be made to pass differently within the inner world so that he could give her more time to recover. That at least seemed to be instinctive to him unlike his guesswork on the whole memory thing.

He guessed that it must have been close to two hours before she relaxed her grip and raised her head. "I'm sorry," he apologized as he looked into her watery green eyes. "I'm so sorry. I should have known better than to try that."

"Y-you warned me," she said shakily. "And I agreed to do it anyway. W-wasn't counting on feeling all of your emotions though. I, I think that was the hardest part."

"I'm sorry," he began again, only to have her place a shaky hand over his mouth to silence him.

"D-Don't. I may be a mess right now but I'm glad we did this." That was a shock to him. "I know who you are and what you stand for now and there are a lot of things we agree on and have in common. Yeah, it's going to take a while for me to sort through this and I'm drained, like when you've had a really tough day emotionally but about a hundred times worse. I'm fine. You didn't hurt me and I've got the rest of the semester break to relax and recover."

"Are you sure you're okay?" he questioned again. "Because you sure didn't look okay while it was happening."

She smirked tiredly and rapped her knuckles lightly on his head. "I'm fine...Strawberry." He looked at her incredulously. "See, I found a way I can tease you already."

"Geez, getting cheeky on me already." He couldn't help but grin.

"Maybe that's a good thing," she said.

"Maybe it is at that," he responded. She could use to be a bit more forward and to speak up and stand up for herself a little more. She could use a little more self confidence. Anything that would help was welcome, even if it came at his expense.

She got through the break just fine and seemed to cope pretty well with the memories of another life that had flooded her mind. It was perhaps a fortunate thing that it was only seventeen years worth of memories and emotions and not an entire lifetime. The emotions themselves were a little harder to deal with than the memories were and that did still have a lingering effect on her that showed periodically. She might get a little moody and being emotionally frazzled or drained took a physical toll, mostly in a deep feeling of fatigue. Unfortunately however the demands that were being made on her time began to get progressively worse and allowed her less time to rest or reflect and reset herself.

They were able to make use of the time effects of the inner world to give her a little more of an escape be it just relaxing on the dock and talking, swimming in the lake, or training in the 'Kisuke' room he had manifested under the cottage. Hat and Clogs would have cried about how unfair it was that he had to use Kido to make his and Ichigo had been able to simply will it to be. He wished he could see the look that would have been on his face.

Winning the Mistral Regional Tournament for the third time only made the demands on her worse. She was barely having enough time for proper training and was having a hard time keeping up with her schoolwork. Many days she was up for half the night or longer trying to complete assignments. It got to the point where he had to forcibly bring her into the inner world to give her extra time to sleep or to train with him to keep her skills sharp.

Emotionally she was barely keeping it together and he was afraid that the exposure to his emotions was the root cause of it. She hadn't been able to fully get through that before the pressure on her began to take its own toll. If she was frustrated enough he could goad her into cutting loose with everything she had to let out that frustration. He also tried to get her to be a little more aggressive in both fighting and in taking charge of her life.

That part was a little harder to do since being more aggressive with people wasn't quite in her make up. By upbringing and nature she was a nice, respectful girl with a bit of a shy side. While he certainly thought that she would make a good leader, she didn't aspire to it and had a tendency to follow. The way she was being overwhelmed by sponsors, her agent, and his PR people was making it worse and making it harder for her to try and reverse that. They were wearing her out, eroding her self confidence and the poor kid was running on fumes and didn't have enough of a fire burning to back them off.

He did what he could to lift her spirits and encourage her, but he couldn't force her to act differently. He could give her advice and make suggestions but she had to live her own life and find her own way. It hurt to see the deepening personal hell she was going through, how even more than ever people kept their distance from her. She was so lonely and so worn that she was a breakdown looking for a place to happen. By the time they were a couple of weeks before her fourth MRT he felt that he had no choice but to take action.

Arriving home from school, she was on the verge of collapsing in exhaustion when he pulled her in to the inner world and to everyone on the outside a collapse was what it looked like. She was furious with him and falling over the edge. He goaded her and she came at him like a force of nature, fists and feet flying. He let her and he allowed every blow land. Verbally, he kept pushing her buttons about how she was letting her handlers lead her around like a sheep to be sheared. How she was letting them control her life while she just sat there and watched, refusing to do anything but dance when they pulled her strings.

He hated doing it. He detested it, but he had to bring her to a point that would force her to cut those strings and break their hold on her, to stand up and take ownership of her life. If she wasn't willing to lead anyone else, she at least needed to lead herself instead of letting others dictate how she lived.

The girl could hit like a truck and that was even before she started to unconsciously tap into a small amount of the vast power of their soul. She screamed and cried and snarled as she hammered away at him. Even in her frenzied state her blows were crisp and precise, she wasn't flailing away without direction, her method instinctual. He was a mess but so was she. Her knuckles raw and bleeding and she had probably broken several bones in both her hands and feet and she was spattered with blood from both of them. Fortunately wounds taken here were easily erased and unlike in his past they wouldn't transfer to her physical body.

Eventually, even with the slight subconscious power boost she reached her limit. A missed punch sent her pitching forward and down to the surface of the dock in a graceless, sobbing heap. With a brief flare of power he dismissed the damage to both of them and sat before her, easing her up into a sitting position, helping her stay upright with a hand atop each shoulder.

"I-Ichigo..." she sobbed raggedly.

"It's okay Pyrrha," he assured her gently. "That wasn't even the worst beating I've ever taken and you needed to lose control like that, to let everything go. I'm sorry that I pulled you in here without warning but it was better to break down in here than out there. Everyone will think you collapsed from exhaustion...which you were pretty damn close to doing anyway."

"I'm so stupid," she cried. "I let them control my entire life and run me ragged. I don't even remember half of what I've done in the last year."

He flicked her in the forehead, getting a confused pout in return as she rubbed the spot. It would have been adorable if not for the tears and swollen, red eyes.

"You are not stupid," he said firmly. "You are a talented, intelligent, and trusting teenager who was taken advantage of by a bunch of pricks that smelled an opportunity to make money. You were raised to be respectful and you trusted them to have your best interests at heart, which they should have. Instead they used their age and experience to use and screw over a kid so they could make some more Lien to line their pockets with."

"But I let them," she protested. "I didn't stand up to them."

"They didn't even give you a chance to," he countered. "You tried to but when they saw it they made sure to keep you so busy and run you ragged enough that they'd wear down any resistance you tried to put up. You even said it yourself, you can't even remember half of what you've done in the last year. Your collapse will bring them to a screeching halt and make them very nervous. They know they're at fault."

"I don't want to be their puppet anymore," she sniffled. Her voice was ragged. "I never wanted to be. I never wanted fame or to have my face on some stupid cereal box. I just want to be a Huntress, the best Huntress that I can be. That's all I've ever wanted."

He leaned his forehead against hers. "And you will be. You will be the greatest Huntress that Remnant has ever known."

"Will you help me get there Ichigo?"

"Of course," he assured her. "I'll be there to help you every step of the way. I'll do whatever I can and I'll be whatever you want me to be or whatever you need me to be. You won't be alone."

She wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you."

He returned the gesture until several minutes passed and she sagged and wilted against him. He picked her up in a bridal carry and started walking to the cottage.

"W-what are you doing?" she squeaked.

"Putting you to bed," he answered. "You're exhausted and you need the rest."

"But..."

"Your body is unconscious and your soul form is about to crash too," he warned. "Get some sleep. We can talk more during the week while you take it easy and recover, okay?"

"Okay."

And talk they did. When she wasn't sleeping, which for the first couple of days was most of the time. They talked about how her agent and others were controlling everything she did and hardly giving her a chance to breathe. They talked about the things that she truly wanted out of her life, and just as importantly they talked about how she was going to go about taking back control and orchestrating her own future.

One of the first things she did was check her contract with her agent and check on her finances. The agent got ten percent of the earnings for his fees, which was within the normal range for such things. Five percent was being put into an account that she had free access to while the rest was put in a trust fund that she wouldn't be able to access until she finished her education at a Huntress academy. Thankfully it turned out that everything was in order there, she didn't think she could have taken it if they had been cheating her out of everything she had worked so hard to earn. The surprise was just how much Lien was in that trust. Monetarily at least all of the appearances and product sponsorships and exhibitions were worth it and if she took care of it she would have a secure financial future.

She had a bit of leverage she could use if she wanted to. The amount of hours she had been putting in through the schedule her agent put together actually had her over the limits of what she was legally able to work since she was still a minor. It wasn't over by a lot but it was still over. She was thinking that her agent was trying to get the most out of his ten percent cut and figured that no one was going to notice a few hours over the limit. Apparently he also was counting on her being ignorant of that law and the terms of the contract he had with her. He was in violation of the contract and she could terminate it if she chose to do so.

That made her angry. He worked her to the point of exhaustion all to make a little more money, figuring she was too stupid to notice. No, that wasn't right. More like he was counting on her being too naive and accommodating to say anything about it if she did figure it out. She planned on taking care of that situation after the tournament.

After a week of rest she began training again both physically and inside her soul. After her physical training Ichigo refused to tire her out more by going hard. Instead they did a lot of light sparring and low speed manoeuvring involving technique and precision for both offence and defence. For the last day of their practice they sped things up so she could get a better feel for how the things they practised would be like at real fight speed. They also talked and walked through tactics and different methods of attack and defence.

Currently, they were sitting at the table on the dock, quietly relaxing after their training and intending at some point to go for a swim. He was clad in a simple pair of dark blue swim shorts while she wore a pretty conservative red and green two piece swimsuit. He had come to learn that what she chose to wear when she was in the inner world tended to reflect the confidence or the edge on her moods. With the example of the swimsuit, a lot of the time it was a conservative red and white one piece, reflecting that she was in the slightly withdrawn and more passive mood she seemed to be in most of the time.

Lately however she had been showing a lot more confidence, resolve, and even anger which he had been glad to see that she used as positive fuel. Thus the two piece which while showing more skin overall, still didn't reveal a lot. It was a short tank style top and form hugging shorts. Despite her killer looks and very toned athletic physique, she wasn't one for showing herself off publicly.

Today she was definitely in a very positive, confident and focused mood, something she wanted to turn into the norm for herself. She wanted to be more open, forward and maybe even daring. It was going to be a bit of a struggle for her because that wasn't who she had been up until now. But, she was determined to no longer be the person who followed along meekly and who didn't question things enough. She needed to start taking charge of her life and finding her own way of doing things.

The biggest and hardest part for her would be in taking that first step and that was something that only she could do. He could offer her advice and tell her what he thought. He could give her the benefit of his own experiences but he couldn't make the decisions and take action for her. What she did and how she chose to do it, the specific direction she chose to take, those were all things that she would have to figure out for herself.

He wondered which direction she'd take. Would she remain passive and calmly cut ties with those who had taken control of her life, or would she shock them, open their eyes with glaring detail and make a hard, clean break? He really didn't know. He'd shuttered himself off from her thoughts on it to ensure that he wouldn't have any undue influence on her ultimate decision. He'd already said all he needed to say about it and he had kept his preference of how he hoped she would go about it to himself.

She stood and began moving to the end of the dock. "I'm going to take a dip before I go back. You coming?"

"Be there in sec," he said as he watched her go. He marvelled at how odd it seemed for him to reincarnate to a female, but he also marvelled at how right it felt to be a part of her life. He wasn't sure why that was, or what it was about her exactly that drew that feeling out of him. It was getting hard to remember at times that they were the same being and not two separate entities. Hell, maybe he'd had it wrong all this time and they really were two separate entities. He'd had enough strangeness in his life that he knew better than to discount the possibility and down the road it might be something worth taking a closer look at.

He watched her walk to the end of the dock with a certain amount of amused awe. The girl was only seventeen and already practically a walking wet dream and he had known more than a few people who would have turned into drooling idiots at the sight of her...Keigo and Renji not the least of them. Tall, broad shouldered and strong, and she moved with an undeniable and alluring athletic grace. In her armour she looked like something that could have come out of both a history book and a fantasy manga back in his previous life. But she was also kind, friendly, respectful, and he found that there were a number of things that reminded him of some of the women and girls he'd previously known in his short life.

It made his heart ache sometimes and when he'd get philosophical about it he'd wonder if somehow the attributes of a number of them had somehow found their way into this new world and had manifested within her. It was selfish and potentially dangerous thinking on his part. She was Pyrrha and no one else and she didn't need or deserve to have him projecting onto her the attributes and memories of people he had lost and who he missed.

She came to a stop at the end of the dock. Her head tilted up and she took a slow, deep breath and let it out. He could feel the slight ripple of power as she initiated a change in clothing...and then there she stood wearing nothing at all. With a quarter turn she looked over her shoulder at him, a half smile, half smirk adorning her furiously blushing face. She held his gaze for a moment before turning and diving into the water.

He laughed as he got up and walked to the end of the dock. He knew what way she was going to go now. "Those ass hats are going to get a wake up call they didn't count on. Good for you Pyrrha."

Following her example he ditched the shorts and dove in after her.

"I never agreed to go to Haven Academy," Pyrrha said to her agent. "That was your preference but it's not your decision to make, it's mine."

They were at the after tournament formal banquet, surrounded by a group that was made up of the majority of the sponsors she had done promotions for. Despite being the favourite, there were many who had thought she would not actually do what no one else had and win the Mistral Regional Tournament for the fourth consecutive time. Not only had she won, she did so with ease, displaying an edge and aggressiveness that none of the viewers had ever seen from her before.

Her agent of course was beside himself with glee at the prospect of more publicity and promo work that would surely flow their way and had been happily schmoozing the sponsors and gushing about what a boon her attendance would be for Haven Academy.

"Pardon me?" he asked, not sure that he had heard correctly.

"You heard me," she returned with a bit of an edge. "You have already exercised too much control over my life and you are not going to decide where I go to train to be a Huntress. As it is, under your 'guidance' I have lost the last four years of my life to an endless string of appearances, promotions, and skills displays."

"You and your family agreed to this long ago and we have paid you a great deal of Lien for your time," a corpulent, red faced man in an ill fitting tuxedo admonished. "You would do well to not be such an ingrate."

She pinned the man with an intense look that startled him. "Ingrate?!" she growled. "I did everything that was ever asked of me for four years and never said a word, not even when the number of hours the lot of you were demanding caused me to collapse from exhaustion two weeks ago, or did you conveniently forget about that? A number of hours I might add that violate the laws on child workers...or did you also forget that I am still a minor? I was kept so busy that I barely had time to train and I had to stay up half the night, every night, to keep up with my schoolwork."

Several faces went pale. She tuned back to her agent. "Both of which are clear breaches of our contract and you know it so consider yourself fired." She turned back to the sponsors. "You all kept pushing for more with no regard to the golden goose you were slowly killing so as far as I am concerned you are all just as guilty. I never wanted fame or fortune. I never wanted to be made into an icon left all alone on a pedestal that no one will approach. When this all began it was just supposed to be an interview here and there, a couple of appearances and maybe a product endorsement or two. That's what we were told when this began. You must all be so proud that you were able to take advantage of a naive young girl and fill your pockets with Lien on her success. Well this is where that ends. I will no longer be your puppet to manipulate."

They were shocked into silence. Not once had any of them every heard a cross word or a sound of complaint come from Mistral's Champion. She had always done everything they required and did it well without complaint.

She turned to walk away, but turned back to her now former agent, staring him down. "As for which Huntress Academy that I will be attending...I'll be going to the best school Remnant has to offer. I'll be going to Beacon."

With that, she turned a walked out.

Later, she appeared in her inner world on the path that led to the cottage, still clad in the long red dress she wore to the party. Looking up she saw a smirking, suit wearing Ichigo standing on the deck in front of the door. She smiled and walked up the path.

"Thank you," she said as she reached the top of the steps. "I couldn't have told them off without you. It felt like you were standing just off my right shoulder the whole time."

"That's the effect I was hoping for," he said. "I told you I'd have your back. You're not alone."

"Which you like to remind me of every so often and at the most personal and embarrassing times," she smirked. "Pervert-berry likes to watch I guess."

He shrugged, the look on his face unrepentant. "Got you to stop being all self conscious about it didn't I?" She rolled her eyes. "Seriously though, I'm proud of you, both for the tournament and for telling those idiots off. The looks on their faces was priceless. Last thing they ever expected was for you to put them in their place."

"It was rather nerve wracking," she said. "Actually I would have preferred to fight the tournament all over again rather than confront them but it had to be done."

"Yes it did," he assured her. "And I'm pretty sure you would win the tournament again considering how you blew through your opponents. You did good, now your life is yours again to do with as you wish."

She heard music begin to play inside the cottage and he held out his hand to her. "Care to dance, Miss Nikos?"

She giggled. "Yes, I most certainly would."

Ever since he had made his presence known to her they had done this. Because of her fame she didn't get asked to any of her school dances. No one, or at least no one she actually wanted to dance with would do so at the tournament banquets. So, he would make it up to her by dancing with her here, as much as she wanted and for as long as she wanted. He admitted to not being very good at it but he was improving and it was the thought that counted. It always turned out to be an enjoyable evening.

They danced for well over an hour before the fatigue of the day began to catch up to her and they found themselves out on the deck before she left, gazing at the full moon that dominated the star filled night sky. Unlike in the outside world, the moon here was fully intact.

"It always seems strange to see it here unbroken," she mused. "Good, but strange."

"The moon's always been a thing for me," he said. "I used to spend a lot of time looking at it. Needless to say when I reawakened it was a hell of a shock to see it broken like that."

"Zangetsu. Slaying Moon," she said, uttering the name of his Zanpakuto. "You miss them don't you?"

"Yes and no," he said after a pause. "I miss the feel of them and I miss talking to them, but even though I can't do that anymore I know that they are still a part of me. I am still them and they are still me. We're still one and the same."

"It would have been interesting to meet them I think," she said.

He shuddered to think what the Hollow would say after laying eyes on her. Of course, what did that say about him since the Hollow was part of him and represented his instincts. "Interesting would be putting it politely. The Old Man would be alright but the Hollow had no filter. He'd be likely to say anything and none of it meant for polite company. I'd have to kick his ass."

"So you'd defend my honour from your own base instincts?" she said with an amused smirk. "I'm flattered."

He face palmed. "Sometimes I forget that you saw everything when I showed you my memories."

"Consider it payback," she sassed. "And everything also means what I saw you doing in the shower Mister. You've got some gall teasing me about it."

"Oh yeah?" he said with a dangerous grin on his face. "And how many times have you replayed that memory?"

"...I don't have to answer that!" she squeaked.

"You're right, you don't because I already know."

She groaned and hung her head in embarrassed defeat. She sighed before looking up again. "You know, despite the subject matter, it kind of feels good to be able to kid around and go back and forth like that with someone. I can just be me...or at least I think it's me." She rubbed the back of her head self consciously, a familiar gesture to him. "I don't know. Considering the last four years, I'm not really sure if I know who the real me is."

"I get it," he said. "It's like you told them at the banquet, they took four years of your life. Four years where you would have otherwise begun to figure yourself out. Now you're free to do that too, hell you can do whatever you want now. Speaking of which, what are you going to do now? You've got two months before you go to Beacon."

"Well, I need to keep training and I wanted to get ahead on the curriculum so I asked for some early study materials," she answered.

He gave her a horrified look and pointed at her accusingly. "My god, you're a nerd!"

"I am not a nerd!" she protested, thought about it, then groaned. "My god, I really am a nerd."

"All work and no play makes Pyrrha a dull girl," he chided.

"Working is all I know how to do," she said quietly. "It's all I've ever really done since I started training to be a Huntress."

"You'll have to learn how to take some time for yourself and relax otherwise you'll burn yourself out," he said. "Consider it part of figuring out who you are. Your time is your own now so you get to set the agenda. Standing up for yourself and breaking away from the fame machine was a big and good first step. Hang onto what that felt like and forge your own way." He gave her a gentle smile. "Being a little more aggressive and confident looks good on you."

She blushed slightly at the compliment. "I didn't feel very confident at the time but it did feel good to defy them and look out for myself for once."

"There you go, you're starting to find your way already. Every journey starts with a first step," he said sagely.

"Honestly, I didn't think I could have gotten this far without your help Ichigo," she said. "I've always been a bit shy and I never want to cause problems for anyone so I was never able to push back even after I began to realize how miserable I was becoming. I was going backwards, or at best just standing still but you made me look and move forward again. I really don't know how to thank you for that."

"You don't need to," he said gently. "Just seeing you smile and be happy is more than enough."

"Still..." Red faced, she leaned in and gave him a little peck on the cheek.

He certainly hadn't been expecting that.

"Wait, since I kissed you and you're my soul, does that mean that I just kissed myself?"

He smirked. "Maybe. But have you looked at yourself...why wouldn't you kiss you?"

Later, as she regarded herself in the mirror before her shower, she was beginning to feel like the pieces of the existential puzzle about herself that she had been trying to put together were finally beginning to line up. She was a work in progress but that was okay. Wasn't everyone after all? At least now those pieces were in her hands and weren't being manipulated by someone else.

Thinking back to what Ichigo had said, she took a much different look at herself in the mirror than what she usually did, this time from a purely aesthetic viewpoint. She twisted and turned and bent, viewing herself from different angles. Vanity wasn't a thing for her, she thought it was one of the worse traits that a person could have, but...damn.

She giggled as she rubbed the back of her head. "Heh, maybe he's right."

AN: As you can guess, Pyrrha is going to be a little bit different in this story. How can she not be with this major change in her life? Ichigo represents a major influence change in her life. She now actually has someone to stand with her where everyone else has left her atop the pedestal they placed her on. Others did that, yet she suffered for it in isolation and loneliness.

Now, she will never be lonely again and her self confidence can only improve for it.

Hope you have enjoyed this first chapter. Please be so kind as to leave a review if you would.

Trolls and jackasses need not bother.