Nighma: This is a REMIX of my previous version of Echo. The previous version is still up for comparison's sake, but this version is more coherent and not as rushed. I changed the timeline so Ichigo's Hollow hasn't been alone for as long as I'd like to make the emphasis I want…but for argument's sake let's say that, to it, it's been a frigging long time.

I've made all of the instances of Ichigo's Hollow when stated "it" in bold, just for emphasis. It can be annoying, but I personally like it. I also got rid of the Hollow's outrageous (though I personally love it) accent that I previously used! I kept some of it, but I changed it so it wouldn't sound like another character later in the series…*ahem*

The overall theme of the series is an album (literally in song form) of events called "Echo", thus the reason for the song-like names. This could be considered an EP. I also tried to mimic Kubo-sensei's chapter name style…

I don't own Bleach. I will only say this once. Also, please review the chapters if you like or dislike or whatever! Please! I will shut up now!

Intro: Ring Ring

The world was silent and cold…as usual. The upside-down and sideways within-inner-world of its King was almost always that way. Save the annoying times King would experience some sort of strong nuisance called emotion that caused grey rain to pour, the reddish-hued world remained insipid…and cold.

Not that it felt the cold. Being a Hollow, or some twisted relation to one, it was a cold being. Cold skin, cold body temperature, cold thoughts…cold heart. Or maybe not, considering it had a center, which was its King. Not that something like that ever mattered.

It had finally given up trying to dethrone King. After a long while of fighting within his soul for his body and his power he once ever-so abused, it found out the hard way King was stronger than it ever hoped…even though it always knew, of course. The Hollow knew its King was extremely powerful. That was why it had wanted to dethrone him. It wanted that power to be its own.

…But any chance of that happening now was most likely gone.

As it watched the doings of its King as he lived a more normal sixteen-year-old life, after a while, the Hollow found itself longing for something within its cold being. Something it had never felt before…and something it didn't know how to explain. Emotions were nearly foreign to it. Now that the war was long over and the Hollows that showed up in the human world were ones King could easily handle with his eyes closed, the Hollow was never needed.

To King, it probably ceased to exist at all.

…Fine.

So in turn, eventually, the Hollow receded into the depths of its King's inner being and stopped watching him live his human life. There was no longer a reason to watch.

To make matters worse, that was coming. The Hollow could feel it creeping up, slowly but surely, and knew Zangetsu could feel it, too. Maybe that's why King was ignoring it. No, that didn't make sense. So did he simply forget? Everything? That wasn't good. Or…did he simply not care?

The Hollow hated thinking. It was instinct, after all…

…though it didn't feel much like that anymore. If anything…

One day in the recesses of the inverted world within the world within the soul of a boy, the Hollow stirred to the sound of an echo.