Reflection

Chapter 20

"His own body?" Ichigo repeated dumbly, his eyes wide on the shop owner's smiling face.

I want him out of me, but... Him having his own body? That's like setting a convicted serial killer out on the loose!

"His own body," Kisuje nodded slowly, his smile still in place. "It's either that or having him hijack yours whenever he wants to and let me tell you," a exagerated sympathetic wince crossed his face, "that hasn't been going very well. You should have done this as soon as he started acting up. Could have saved you a lot heartbreak."

Anger had his breathing halt in his throat.

Furious at what Urahara was implying, he snapped, pointing at himself in the chest, "Are you saying that this whole mess is my fault?!"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Kisuke replied calmly, not at all put out by his snappish attitude. "You should have known from the Vizards that inner Hollows find an opening when their hosts are weak. You have been making it all too easy for him to take over."

"B-but he was going after Inoue!"

"All the more reason to give him his own body to move around in," Ichigo seethed at his reasoning. Sighing tiredly and taking off his hat to run a hand through his blond hair, Kisuke added wryly, "I know how you must feel about the situation. Believe me, it must be tough... But don't you think that if he wanted to hurt Inoue, he would have done so a long time ago?"

"He was hurting her!" he gritted out. "I tried to stop him! To keep him away-!"

"Have you ever heard of the psychological term called the 'Shadow'?" the other man interrupted him easily.

"No, I don't know what the fuck a shadow is!" he spat in annoyance over having his time wasted with meaningless crap.

"Well you should know because everyone in this world is supposed to have one. The shadow is the dark side of every person. It holds animal instincts and is the exact opposite of that person's conscious. A Vizard's inner Hollow is actually the shadow psyche personafied."

Rolling his eyes, feeling his already present irritation flare, he shouted, "What does any of this have to do with Inoue?!"

"Everything."

His heart skipped a beat as he whispered weakly, "Everything?"

"Inoue is one of those rare humans that lacks a shadow. She has no malice in her to speak of," from how solemn Kisuke had become, Ichigo instantly knew that he was being told was the truth. "I noticed she didn't have one when her powers began to manifest. Her shields were a dead giveaway. It was a manisfistation of her conscious rejecting negative outside influences. Combine that with an unwanted awakened inner Hollow or shadow that was constantly being supressed and you have two halves trying to complete one another."

"Are you actually trying to sell me this load of bullshit?!!" He had heard everything loud and clear, but he hated the thought that Orihime and his Hollow were meant to unite. It was the most twisted explanation he could have ever received.

Shaking his head in denial, he said heatedly, "No! No! That couldn't have been it!"

Kisuke merely looked at him repeating that to himself like a madman.

His traumatized eyes met his with a glimmer of hope, "There has to be another reason! What you said...!"

"What I said was inevitable, Ichigo."

"But... why my Hollow?! I'm not the only Vizard in Karakura!"

"But you're the one she had strong feelings for."

-you're the one she had strong feelings for.'

'Had', not 'has'. A past tense because Orihime had changed. He had seen the change in her eyes whenever she had looked at him. Every smile had been directed to the monster within him not towards him like before; the side that filled her need.

With the Hollow she had become complete, getting a backbone that had otherwise been nonexistent.

"Your relationship with Kuchiki was probably what finally set him off," Kisuke's voice interrupted his thoughts. "Inoue became depressed and he came out because her reiatsu unconsciously asked him to in her desire to be with you. It's pure logic, Ichigo. Science, psychology and plain common sense. No one could have prevented this from happening, not even you. In fact, staying away could have made things turn for the worse."

"So are you saying...," he swallowed, hating what Kisuke was logically pointing out, "that she needs my Hollow and he needs her?" It all sounded like it was meant to happen. The fact that Orihime herself had somehow shaped and lured the Hollow to fill the void he himself had left in her was ludicrous and almost blasphemous.

Its like she asked for it to happen.

"That's what it would seem like. Who knows how long her reiatsu has been reaching him! It could have been for years until he snapped and took action. All he needed was a little... push and Inoue gave him that push when she saw that any chance she had with you was gone," sighing, Kisuke then added quietly, "that poor girl must have been really depressed."

All because I hadn't taken the time to notice how she felt for me. With all of the events unfolding, including what his Hollow had told him and Tatsuki telling him about Orihime's feelings for him over the years, he realized that it was just like Kisuke said.

It had all been something that rose out of the circumstances and his own ignorance. His Hollow had been more aware of what transpiring than him and how it annoyed him that something that was a part of him had been more intuned to his friend's heartbreak.

Strangely enough, with his coming realization, the Hollow was oddly silent as if giving him a moment of privacy to come to terms with the truth. It was a wordless understanding that made the guilt he felt strengthen.

I can't believe that I'm actually planning on going through with this... He can't be all that good for Inoue. Ever since he started pursuing her, she has been more confused and frightened than ever... So he can't be...

"Tell me... What do I have to do give him his own body?"

I just hope I don't regret doing this. A selfish part of him howled at his desicion, but the side that trully cared for what Orihime wanted said that he was doing the right thing in sacrificing his one chance to be with her. She had shown time and time again that it was his Hollow she desired now and he was practically the only thing standing in her way.

At his question, a slight smile that held a tiny nearly unseen hint of respect flitted Kisuke's lips.

Fix things in my end... For her.

***

"Are you sure this is going to work?" half an hour later, Ichigo arched an sceptical brow at Kisuke that was in the process of readying a faceless gigai on a metal stretcher.

"Well, he does need a body and your body is the one he has a strong connection with. We can't just dig up a corpse or kill you to make way for him, now can we?!" obviously finding humor in their little 'experiment', Kisuke's tone was light in amusement as he positioned the gigai that looked more like a skinned corpse than anything. It was the first time he had seen a gigai that had yet to be modified for shinigami use. It was just red corded muscles on a sexless body. Rubbery and impersonal. Also, it was surprisingly small, about the size of a small child. He had no idea how a thing like that could take on the shape of an adult with hair, features and internal organs.

It's kinda sick when you get to think about it.

He couldn't keep a grimace of his face.

"Now don't go looking like that, Kurosaki-san!" Kisuke sang, "They all look like this!"

"Yeah, but it's still gross as hell."

"Your girlfriend Kuchiki once looked like this too," a teasing edge colored his voice as if it were a dark secret he had just bestowed.

That shut him up from further commenting on the gigai's disturbing appearance. He was still having a hard time accepting what he was about to do in letting the Hollow have his freedom. There were plenty of understandable misgivings like the Hollow's wildness and homacidal tendencies.

Get a fucking grip! I'll keep an eye on him! If he thinks that he's going to get a body to walk around doing stupid shit that will get both of us into trouble, he's mistaken!

Now that the faux body was positioned flat on its back with its skinless hands folded over its meaty chest, Kisuke began to move around the small room they were in to start getting other supplies needed.

"We're going to make a duplicate of your own body-"

"What?!" he gaped as the shop keeper continued nonchalantly.

"However, I'll have to make the gigai take shape a lot slower than usual because you need to drag him out of your inner world. Otherwise this won't work. He'll have to get inside while the gigai is still forming so that they'll syncronize perfectly," all of this was said as small computer monitors were positioned around the narrow bed and numerous cables were attached to the immobile form.

"What do you mean a duplicate of my body?! Does that mean this guy," he gestured sharply at the shapeless gigai on the stretcher, "is going to look just like me?!"

This could be a problem.

Looking up from his work of untangling cables, Kisuke grinned, "Yup! Though he might keep some of his Hollow features! He can't go walking around looking the way you see him!"

"Wah-"

"So, he could look like a relative! A cousin, or a twin with a different colored hair or eyes! There's no way of knowing until his change is complete! Isn't it exciting?! It's like a guessing game!"

How can he be so cheerful about this?! This is my life and entire fucking reputation he's putting at stake! Kon is bad enough!

"Why are you so damned happy about this?"

"How can't I be happy?!" Kisuke asked in mock offense, his question followed by a beeping of one of the many small monitors turning on to show a blue screen that showed rapidly escalating numbers. "This is the first time I've ever gotten a Hollow out of someone's body! I've done it with a zanpakutoh soul for when I was training as a shinigami way before I perfected a temporary training model, but a inner Hollow? Nope! It's new to me! Using a gigai is more permanent! Like giving birth to something new!" the former tai-chou's anxiety to see how everything was going to turn out was tangible.

That explains some of it... He'll never understand Kisuke's childlike wonder at such things, but he supposed that it was because he was still a scientist at heart. It was the first time he had actually seen him at work, which in turn gave the whole experiment an almost uncomfortable intimacy.

"Now!" Kisuke's clap jarred him out of his trance. "All you have to do now is give me some blood, you to go into your shinigami form and run yourself through with your zanpakutoh!"

"Say what?!" That got his attention.

He makes it sound so easy! Stabbing myself with my zanpakutoh?! Is he out of his mind?!

Looking at him with some annoyance, Kisuke explained in a tone used for a grumpy child, "You have to confront him in your inner world. If you enter this way, he'll be ready to attack so you yourself can run him through. That's the only way there'll be an opening for him enter the gigai and you'll have to do it quick because the gigai will take about forty minutes to completely form. The computers will be monitoring the shifts of reiatsu so when he weakens and starts to fade out, his essence will be dragged into his new body."

"Wouldn't it be easier for me to meditate?"

"Noooo... He has to feel a jolt of you suddenly appearing there. He'll take it as hostile and will attack. If you go there all docile, his spirit energy won't rise enough for him to get out of your inner world. He has to be angry and desperate, fighting to survive."

Ones spirit energy rises when they're in threat of being extinguished...

Taking a deep breath, disliking everything he was about to do, he nodded after a couple of seconds of silence.

"Let's get this over with."

***

When he entered his inner world, he was shocked to find a dark abyss under a overwhelming sheet of rain. The only light he could see was the reflection of the rain hitting the glossy sides of the building's walls.

"I suppose you are here to see him," hearing Zangetsu's baritone, he looked in his direction only to see a grim shadow hovering over the darknened shiny floor.

"Yes."

"Very well," was all he said as he lifted an arm to point at some distance off to his side. Following his pointing finger, Ichigo saw that what he was signaling was one of the windows in the sideways edifice. Unlike all of the blackened windows in that inner world, this one had a dim light that slightly flickered showing a bit of instability.

"Is that were he's hiding?"

"He hasn't come out in days. He's tired of the rain," Zangetsu simply informed.

***

"What you're doing is madness, Kisuke?" Yoruichi said quietly while watching her friend hurriedly hooking machinery around Ichigo's unconscious soul form. His body and that of the gigai lay side by side on stretchers. She could already see the gigai begin to gain some flesh gradually thanks to the DNA Ichigo had supplied before entering his inner world. "Even for you, it's breaking all rules."

"I know, but hopefully the gigai will not be too inhuman to look at!" whenever busy, Kisuke became snappish in his concentration.

"Do you honestly believe that the Soul Society won't find out about this?"

She saw Kisuke's broad shoulders stiffen,"...If we're careful, they won't. They'll just see the Hollow as another human guy. His powers will be limited inside his body and he won't exude any reiatsu. They could walk right past him and not feel a thing!"

"Are you sure about that?"

Kisuke hesitated before giving a single nod, just as a couple of monitors began beeping in unison, showing a flurry of numbers being registered on their screens. From how frantic the beeping echoing out was, the reiatsu levels within Ichigo were raising at an alarming rate.

"They have begun to battle."

***

He knew that time was limited which was why he hadn't wasted much time on arguing with the Hollow that had been huddled in a corner of the vast white room he had been hiding in to stay away from the rain. From how the Hollow hadn't displayed any of his usual glee at the sight of a fight, Ichigo got the nagging suspicion that the he didn't particularly care for battle. The pale creature was more dejected and merely striking back whenever he landed a blow. There was no soul or pleasure in his actions. Mere mechanical movements like the swipe of a zanpakutoh and a absentminded dodge.

He's not really into this.

Landing a couple of feet away from the almost bored Hollow, he shouted, "What is it with you?! Aren't you going to at least put up a good fight?! Can't you see that I'm trying to kill you?!"

The white lips of the Hollow merely quirked mirthlessly. The smile didn't have it's natural malice. Even his bright eyes were flat in disinterest.

What the hell is up with him?!

"Why fight when its futile? We're not really fighting for anything, are we King? You think that by barging in here you'll get me all scared shitless? Just what the fuck are you here for?!" the last question came out in a hateful snarl.

This isn't working... Time is running out.

"We're fighting for Inoue," some spark of life came into the Hollow's beastly onyx and gold eyes.

"We're fighting for who gets to keep her..."

The lifeless quirk on the Hollow's lips turned into a full-fledged gleeful smirk.

"If you had said that from the begining, then we wouldn't have been wasting so much fucking time!" the screeching jubilous shout penetrated his brain, vibrating through the walls like an invisible force just as the Hollow disappeared from his line of vision.

This is really going to hurt.

The Hollow was going to come at him with everything he had in him. Just what was required for him to be pushed out into his new body.

That is if I'm be lucky enough to stab him. That was the last thought on his mind as the Hollow screeched again, his white Zangetsu aiming directly towards his head in a white blur.

***

"Come on, Ichigo. What's taking you?" Kisuke whispered fiercely, keeping his eyes on the gigai that on occassion jerked and twitched on the stretcher. The connection was begining to form, but it wasn't strong enough. The body was almost complete, looking more like the shinigami lying alongside it.

One of the formerly skinless fingers of the gigai began to jerk strongly and the body shuddered uncontrollably as if a powerful electric current were rushing through it.

"I don't think he'll be able to do it," Yoruichi remarked watching the gigai's convulsions.

"Shhh! Don't be such a pessimist! You'll jinx it!"

The beeping of the monitors grew louder and his eyes widened in amazement as the gigai's chest began to rise and fall in heavy frantic panting, it's limbs starting to move desperately. Some harsh gasps came from it's nearly formed lips.

"He's almost here!"

Just thirty more seconds are left!

"I can't believe this. That thing is actually coming alive..."

"They're not finished yet, though," Kisuke didn't really want to get his hopes up. From what was happening, the experiment could turn out to be a complete success or failure. If Ichigo didn't tresspass his zanpakutoh into the Hollow's center in the nick of time, there wouldn't be another chance. He knew from personal experience that this could only be done once.

***

Finally! Ichigo didn't know if he had done the right thing. During the battle, he had lost track of time and the Hollow had made it close to impossible to even knick him with his zanpakutoh.

Maybe I should have just told him why...

"You sonovabitch! You just came here to rub it in, didn't you?! You shit! I knew you were a selfish bastard but this! This...!" the Hollow spat angrily at him, black blood spilling out of his snarling lips. Ichigo's black tensa was impaling his white clothed chest and he could sense the soul starting to desintigrate. Just getting near to stab him had been the hardest thing he had ever done. He had a lot of factors that had his fighting take a on desperate edge until that very moment.

Time and opportunity.

"Just take good care of her," saying those words tore him inside as the Hollow's demonic glower lessened in intensity. Who would have thought that saying words would hurt? He was giving up and in giving up, he was releasing a part of himself. Something he had gotten so used to over the years

"I'll be watching you once you're out there, so you better take good care of her or I will trully kill you even if I have to die along with you!" he hissed as he felt something burn at his insides as sparks began to engulf and pull the Hollow away. Somewhere in a far away distance, an echo of familiar computer beeping reached his ears.

We're leaving...

The only thing he hoped was that the experiment had worked. It would have been a pain in the ass to go through so much trouble in vain.

***

Author's Note: Sorry for the crummy chappy, but I really needed to get that out of the way! *wails* I wasn't really into writing a battle scene, but since I don't like it how some author's tend to skip things and just have people automatically 'appear' out of nowhere without anything saying the how and why, really gets on my nerves I came up with the chap. As many of you know this story is almost over, so I'd say that there's at least three to four more chapters left (it became longer than I had first anticipated *winces*.) At Valmasy03, long time no see.LOL. I have full intention of finishing this especially since the closing is near. And by the way I love FF (I'm absolutely in love with Vicent. He gets my motor running), so I'll go check out your fic. *grins. bleachfan7 Hehehe... I thought they both really needed a break because having so much opposition was creating too much drama. Hopefully now things could look up for them. miszxbrii Glad you're liking it! I like this pairing more than Ichi/Hime because of the sadistic smexxyness, but I gave it a more psychological side with some 'fate and destiny' stuff. Orihime is always depicted as weak and not trully having a happy ending and I want to give her that chance. =) Now I'm off to work on the chap of my other fic! Laters!