Ichigo's Bad Day

If the occupation of Bard were still viable in the modern world, they would tell tales of the great and daring entrance the Hollow made into Soul Society. But such a thing would never come to pass, and the stories would go unspoken; any who saw the beast could tell no tales. For even dead, they could still die a second death at the hands of a monster.

Ichigo was only mildly disgusted by the way his Hollow ate the Soul Reapers who got in the way. But they should have known better; you don’t stand in-front of a giant monster with a prehensile tail if you don’t even have a shikai, much less expect to stop him with an ordinary, basic katana. On some level Ichigo knew it was wrong; that he should stop this rampage. But all it took was one thought of Rukia to allow the monster to keep on going.

The act of getting into Seireitei was much faster than Ichigo remembered; but then his Hollow was pretty powerful. In a twisted sense he almost had to respect the beast… of course, any respect he might have felt was negated by how horribly vile it was. If not for his revenge, he’d of never worked with the monster, much less allowed it to do as it pleased. The Hollow, it was an efficient creature; once the fun had worn off from killing all the weak little non-seated Reapers, it took to hiding and crawling along walls. Indeed, the act of crawling like a lizard was well suited to the form. It even suppressed its spiritual energy, making detection rather a difficult thing to accomplish.

It was an odd thing to have it avoid conflict, regardless of how pointless it was. Ichigo had always assumed his Hollow was a violent, crazed thing that would fight all challengers. But there it was, sneaking about… not heading for Rukia…

“Hey, why aren’t you going after her?”

Ichigo called to the beast; it chuckled.

“I’m heading for something more fun. But trust me; Rukia will come. She’s the type that would drop anything to go to his side.”

The Hollow called back, a sneer thrown at the young man internally. It was at that moment that Ichigo knew what was to come… it was something that not even he would have done, even in his darkest of moments. He wanted to stop the Hollow, but this was the only way for revenge. The only way he could truly hurt Rukia the most.

The Hollow skittered against the walls that formed a maze; one had to wonder exactly how often the city had been invaded to call for such a thing. But then, save for that one fox faced fellow, Ichigo and his friends could have easily invaded the city before, and it was proven possible to get in besides beating a gate guard. And now he and his Hollow were in the city, heading for a manor that sat well within the so called safety of the city.

That alone made him question why they didn’t try even harder to confuse invaders. Not that it would have mattered in this case; his spiritual energy was easy to find. So easy, in-fact, that Ichigo had to question if he even realized that there was an enemy in the city.

“He doesn’t care, Ichigo; that’s why he’s not trying to hide it. After all, to him, I’m so below him that it’s not even worth the effort to conceal himself. As are you; no wonder that little wench always had that attitude, coming from his house. But I‘ll prove him wrong… and then we‘ll both have revenge!”

It cackled; Ichigo felt unsettled. But there was no time to stop it now; they had arrived upon the manor in question. It was just as Ichigo had remembered it; so well kept, so formal and old fashioned. There were no members of his division around; the man inside showed no concern for concealing himself. Even in this time on invasion, he had no sense of urgency or protecting himself.

That irritated the both of them.

The Hollow, it was stealth incarnate despite the side of its body; silence, almost no presence given off and a killing intent that made it the perfect predator. Carefully, it hid in the shadows as it crept along; nobody except for him was there. Ichigo and the Hollow were both on heightened alert, senses at a point beyond anything either would have assumed possible.

The primary room of the manor; the man was there, looking at a picture. His long black hair held two pieces on the top and right; so proud of his nobility, that one. He was even clad in his formal captain garb, the heirloom scarf draped along his shoulders and wrapped around his neck, blade at his side. A deep well of hatred rose in the Hollow; Ichigo had no idea that the beast felt such contempt for the man. Perhaps it was due to not being able to beat him the first, and only, time the two had come into conflict… or perhaps it simply didn’t appreciate such a high and mighty attitude, the way the man looked down upon those he considered to be beneath his notice.

The Hollow dropped to the floor with nary a sound; its spiritual presence suddenly flared to life. The man quickly rose to his feet, hand dropping to the hilt of his sword. As he turned, the Hollow roared and went into a full on blitz of speed. It was magnificent, Ichigo had to admit; the rate of movement was something that not even somebody who could rival the once so called Goddess of Flash could keep up. It was also magnificent the way the beast dispatched the man so easily.

It was almost like slow motion to Ichigo, the way it leapt at the noble. Before he could even fully draw his blade, the monster was in action, its tail being flung out, slapping the blade from his body, arms and legs extended, its claws on all four limbs digging into the flesh of the target. Falling to the ground, the Hollow pounced like a cat on a mouse, using its strength to crush the limbs of the prey before a Kido could be activated.

The coup de grace, if one could call it such, came in the form of a devastating blow to the face, delivered by the forehead of the masked creature; blood sprayed from the nobles nose as it was crushed, the blunt force trauma was enough to knock him cleanly unconscious. Ichigo had to speculate that the Hollow held back; indeed, with the kind of power it boasted the monster could have easily caved in the skull and killed him.

The beast, it bellowed in victory as it jumped from the fallen form, claws and mask stained with blood. Instantly, it raised a claws hand upward, two fingers extended to the roof. With a mere though, crimson energy began to focus from three points upon the claws, a central, dense area forming. Just as it reached critical mass, the energy was fired in a beam, shattering its way through the room, causing debris to fall upon the fallen form and the Hollow.

With that small flare done, the spiritual energy of the Hollow died down, it went back into a stealth mode Quickly, it jumped to a wall and skittered into hiding, find a nice, dark corner in a side room; more like a spider than a lizard in actions now, it bided its time. Both it and Ichigo knew full well that Rukia would be there so very soon. After all, even if she were on the verge of death, she would rush to be by the side of her precious, honored brother.

Even if he was now maimed and badly wounded, Byakuya Kuchiki would be the key to Ichigo’s revenge.