Monster Ch.1
Warnings and Disclaimer in prologue.
Monstrous Acts
Ichigo let go of his new form and concentrated on changing back. He had no desire to head back home just yet, so he walked the street of his town making sure everything was okay. He was reminded of the times before he met Rukia, and got tangled up with Soul Society, when he would walk down these same streets protecting what was his. The only differences now were the form of his enemy and the monster in him had a name and a voice now. A low cold laugh in the back of his mind let him know Shiro agreed with him.
He thought of the look Chad gave him earlier and resolved to go talk with him. Out of everyone, Chad was the only one he knew would be on his side regardless of anything. After all, Chad knew Ichigo was a monster long before they were friends, before Chad was his and was mostly safe. Chad had told him "I would rather have your claws at my back even if I get hit with them because no one else would dare bother me."
Ichigo knew of all his friends that Chad was also the only one who knew that the only reason he fought for Soul Society was because his friends fought for them. If he had met one of the arrancar first things would have been much different.
Soul Society was being stupid though, and Ichigo had a feeling that he was going to end up on the other side of the war anyway. It was this feeling he got when he was there, like the world itself was angry and would erupt at any minute. It set his teeth on edge.
Looking up, Ichigo realized he had reached Chad’s apartment. He walked into the living room and shouted, "Yo Chad, are you here?" "Back room," Chad replied, and Ichigo walked in the direction of the muffled thumps. He stuck his head in Chad’s bedroom and his eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Is that a new fashion statement," Ichigo blurted, trying to absorb the sight of Chad wearing a knit hat with ducks on it.
"Bugs chewed a hole in the ceiling and the hat fell through when I moved a box," Chad replied. "Really, I thought for sure you would have taken it off by now," Ichigo snorted. "I can’t find my abuelo’s picture," Chad said and Ichigo’s attitude changed instantly. "I’ll help you look," he said and moved to the other side of the closet and began going through the boxes.
Twenty minutes later, a dust covered Ichigo held the prize aloft. "For you," Ichigo said with an exaggerated bow and a grin and handed the photograph over to Chad. "So what brought you over here?" Chad asked, "Not that you’re unwelcome." At the look of seriousness that came over Ichigo’s face, Chad moved to the couch. "I can tell this is going to be a long discussion," Chad said, "so we might as well be comfortable."
After sitting down Ichigo spoke, "If Soul Society does something stupid and I change sides, who do you think I would be able to count on?" Chad blinked in surprise and replied "other than me you mean. Ishida has no love for the Shinigami, so he would be neutral at the very least. Orihime believes too strongly that the war is split into the righteous and the monsters. She would probably stay with Soul Society. Renji knows at a very base level what you are and that you’d keep him safe. He would probably choose to remain with you. I’m not sure about Rukia. She knows what a fickle place Soul Society can be, however she has recently been accepted as a noble. I do not believe however that she would act against you directly, out of gratitude or perhaps loyalty. I don’t know any of the other Shinigami well enough to form an accurate opinion. As for Urahara… you know him best."
"Thanks Chad," Ichigo said closing his eyes. "I think I’m going to just crash over here." Chad nodded and said "you know you’re always welcome here any time Ichigo. You know where everything is.
p.o.v
Aizen sat back in his chair with a pensive look on his face. He was not sure what to do about the new development with Kurosaki. As tempting as it was to believe that he was no threat, the fact remained that in the two months since he had obtained his information the child had moved from barely being able to fight one arrancar to being able to massacre over two hundred. The kind of growth rate that implied was worrying.
Unlike the rest of the Shinigami, Kurosaki did not seem to be looking for the confrontations. Every time he had gotten word of Kurosaki’s interference had been when his friends were involved or Karakura was the battleground. If Kurosaki was acting as a protector rather than an aggressor, perhaps he could be persuaded to, at the least, become neutral.
The thought of having such potential on his side was very appealing, and he knew that if he could simply gain Kurosaki’s loyalty he would gain an ally who would remain loyal, unless he did something to break that loyalty. The only thing keeping some of the espada from trying to kill him was their fear of him. Somehow he doubted that anything could affect Kurosaki’s actions but what Kurosaki himself thought. Kurosaki reminded Aizen of a feral wolf, cunning and vicious.
p.o.v.
Ichigo was up early to get home in enough time t take his sisters to school. With the increase in hollows he wasn’t comfortable letting them walk alone. He knew he was being paranoid, but they were definitely out to get him. Karen and Yuzu could just deal with it. Besides, there were rumors of hollows stronger than arrancar popping up everywhere which did little for his piece of mind. He knew Kon would do his best to protect his family, but Kon could barely hold his own against an arrancar.
The number of arrancar showing up was odd though. There were more of them, but they were staying around the edges and not many entered the city proper. They were also acting weird, and not attacking unless they were reacting to Shinigami attacks. It was making him antsy, and he was always on the lookout for attacks. If the arrancar were changing their actions, either something had scared them or they had new orders. The thought of a bigger nasty did not sit well with him. Neither did the thought of new orders because it meant that the enemy would be harder to predict. Something had to have happened for Aizen to change his orders so drastically.
‘Or Soul Society did something that made him change them,’ Shiro suggested. ‘I was trying not to think about that,’ Ichigo replied, ‘because if they messed with my territory, I am going to hurt people.’
p.o.v.
Aizen wanted to start making overtures towards the reduction of hostility against Ichigo. If he could get some people to become friendly with Ichigo, that would be even better. The fact that the first contact Ichigo had with Soul Society was someone who was friendly and had tried to protect his family was probably why Ichigo was willing to fight for Soul Society. ‘He is protective of his home and his friends,’ Aizen mused. ‘It would be easier to present my side if a few Espada were among those close to Ichigo.’
Actually this was a perfect way to fix the problem with Neliel. He would send Grimmjow to Ichigo and have Grimmjow explain what had happened to reduce Neliel to a toddler. A few mentions of how she would be in danger if left on her own might have Ichigo more willing to see arrancar and espada as people rather than enemies. Not that he would have left her on her own, but if he had not found her it could have been an issue.
"We may have problems," Grimmjow blurted as he ran in. "Word is that the Vizards are moving to Karakura. They're interested in Kurosaki, and if they sway him into their group he may feel that they have more to offer him." "Or he may bring them all against Soul Society if they attack and the Visards have allied themselves to Kurosaki," Aizen replied "but I do see your point. This bears watching anyway. Keep watch on Kurosaki and Ulquiorra will attend to the matter of the Vizards.
With a wave Aizen sent a fraccion to retrieve Ulqiorra. As much as it bothered him to admit a falacy, he simply could not predict what Ichigo would do in any given situation. Undoubtedly, Ichigo would protect what he considered his but that was the only certainty he had. There was something that was bothering him about Ichigo's abilities, but he couldn't quite remember what it was.
p.o.v.
Ichigo was training in the basement of the Shoten when Renji came in. Renji looked strangely pale and he smelled off, like rust and vinegar. "Are you all right," Ichigo asked as he reached out to steady Renji. "No," was the reply, "I think they put something in the food. I was supposed to go see Bayakuya, but when I started feeling strange I came to find you."
Renji was leaning all of his weight on Ichigo and Ichigo knew that whatever was affecting Renji was very bad; Renji had walked with wounds that would down someone with less willpower. "Let's get you to Urahara and we'll see if he can fix you," Ichigo said, mentally going through the escape routes. If someone came after Renji he needed to be able to get Renji out safely before he worried about revenge.
Lifting Renji into his arms he turned and climbed the stairs yelling for Urahara. When he reached the top of the stairs the smirk dropped off of Urahara's face as he gestured Ichigo into his 'office.' "What happened to Renji?" Urahara asked as he pulled various devices from shelves and a small white box labeled 'Renji' from a safe in the back wall. "I don't know, he came in this way," Ichigo replied "but he said he thought it was something in the food." Ichigo watched as Urahara ran several devices over Renji and took a small amount of blood. The blood he put in a microwave looking thing with hollow squares along the bottom, and Urahara began to write down whatever the devices were telling him. When Urahara took the blood out his face paled drastically and his mouth settled into a grim line.
"Renji is stable for the moment," Urahara said, "but there are things you need to know and then you must make a choice." "So tell me," Ichigo snapped. "Shinigami have no physical bodies so if their reitsu ever totally depletes, they die. Because of the importance of reitsu, Shinigami naturally block their reitsu from outside forces so sharing reitsu is a very big thing. Usually one of two things lead to the sharing of reitsu, sex or healing kidou, but kidou is, by nature, temporary. Healers are in their own division instead of spread between divisions because they can affect reitsu which makes the other Shinigami nervous. Sex, on the other hand, forms a link between the participants. The strength of that connection depends on previous emotions and the strength of both partners' reitsu, ranging from weak bonds that dissolve in hours and permanent bonds that never fade."
After making sure Ichigo was listening, Urahara continued, "There are small parasites in Renji's blood that are eating away his reitsu. They are set to detonate if anyone tries to remove them from his bloodstream. The good news is that they will dissolve harmlessly in about two days, the bad news is that there are so many parasites that Renji's reitsu will be gone in roughly seven hours." Ichigo wondered if Urahara was trying to tell him that Renji was going to die. "Your spiritual energy is immense," Urahara said "and if a link was formed between you, you would be able to keep him alive until the parasites dissolve. However, a link at your level of power for that duration of time would be permanent and Renji would also probably react to a link like that the way he would to a lover, and his feelings may change to reflect that." "It's a change he'll still be alive to make," Ichigo said, "so I fail to see the problem."
"The problem," Urahara replied, "is that by doing this, you are effectively claiming Renji as part of your 'pack' for lack of a better word. It would be a challenge to whoever is currently declaring him as theirs." Ichigo snorted, "They obviously aren't doing very good at it or he would have gone to them and not me. Stop stalling and tell me how to save Renji." Urahara shook his head, "go over to Renji and put your hand on his chest. Let yourself feel his reitsu and imagine your reitsu is moving into him like threads."
Ichigo could feel how Renji's reitsu was moving through his body in random patterns. "Ok," he said, "I can feel it." "Good," Urahara said, "now remove any knots you see." Ichigo frowned and looked harder, pushing his reitsu deeper into Renji, and then shook his head. "I don't see any knots." Urahara's eyebrows shot into his hat. "Are you absolutely sure?" he asked sounding very angry. Startled at the tone Ichigo looked over at Urahara and nodded. "Ok," Urahara replied, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. "Ok, you want to wind your reitsu and his together at his forehead, heart, and lower abdomen. Make sure it won't come unwound or it could hurt him."
Ichigo focused on putting his reitsu where Urahara told him and began to twine his reitsu in. He was almost thrown off balance by how strongly Renji's reitsu reacted to his, as it seemed to be forming a death grip. As Renji's reitsu mixed with Ichigo's, Renji let out a soft sound and a great deal of the tension left his body. The low growling sound from Urahara had Ichigo's head whipping to face him. "What's going on with you?" Ichigo demanded moving between Urahara and Renji's vulnerable body. If Urahara was going to do something stupid, he would have to go through Ichigo to do it.
A startled look crossed Urahara's face and he raised his hands. "I'm angry at whoever did their job wrong at the academy. There should have been knots in his reitsu because all Shinigami are taught how to make them if they don't make them instinctively. It is required both for kidou and for safely using bankai. As it is he is lucky not to be dead a thousand times over."
Ichigo had relaxed hid defensive stance at Urahara's explanation, but he was no less angry. "So these people didn't teach him how to stay alive. What now, will he still be in danger?" Urahara shook his head, "Your reitsu has created those knots, so he should be fine now." Ichigo nodded and asked with a vicious gleam in his eyes "how would I go about finding who was supposed to teach Renji this technique?"
Urahara looked at Ichigo for a moment, and then told him "Just ask Renji who his kidou instructor was. They are the ones who are supposed to teach reitsu control." Ichigo nodded and turned back to Renji.