Universe: Bleach

Parings: Dark IchigoXIchigo, RenjiXRukia, One-Sided AizenXIchigo

Spoilers: Soul Society, Hueco Mundo and Fake Karakura

Genre: Adventure, Action, Humor

Disclaimer: Bleach is owned by Tite Kubo.

Warnings: Swearing, Violence, Swords, Blood and also mild Romance. Rating may or may not change.

Author's Note:

Adopted from Little White Comet! Enjoy my version of Double Hearted. Oh, and I changed Shiro's name. Technically, he's still 'Shiro' and will be referred to as 'Shiro' later on in the story. Anyway, his name means 'White Sun' if anyone wants to know. Italics without ' before and after means First Person point of view for Ichigo.

Double Hearted

Chapter 1

Separation: The Death and Twin Berries!

"Kaa-chan! Please, wake up, Kaa-chan!" a 9-year-old Kurosaki Ichigo cried as he sat next to his mother's dead body, shaking her shoulders as if he were trying to wake her up. The rain fell heavily onto him, the cold droplets penetrating his thin plastic raincoat.

"It's alright, Ichigo." The wind whispered, carrying with it the feel of a warm embrace. Ichigo looked up briefly at the sound of his mother's voice on the air currents. No one was there.

"Kaa-chan, I'm sorry! Don't leave me!" The little boy cried, clutching his mother's bloodied hand with his own. The front of his yellow raincoat was covered in red.

"Ichigo…" Sirens sounded in the distance, and he could hear voices. None of them he knew.

"Be strong, Ichigo." he remembered his mother saying to him when he lost to Tatsuki. "Big Boys shouldn't cry." The tears stopped then, and his big brown eyes glanced around wearily. People were standing up on the roadside, glancing down at him from behind the steel barriers. A black and white Mitsubishi Lance Evo III sat on the side of the street, a short man in a dark blue suit with an equally dark police hat making his way towards the orange-haired boy.

"Oi! What happened here, kid? What's your name?" The man, obviously from the Police, came over to the boy and knelt down next to him. Ichigo glanced into the man's dark brown eyes before he looked away again.

"I'm Ichigo. Kurosaki Ichigo." Ichigo looked up at the police officer, his eyes looking more mature than a nine-year-old boy's eyes should look. "Can you call my dad? He needs to know what happened to Kaa-chan."

The officer blinked in slight shock; this child had most likely just seen his mother killed in front of him, and yet he was so… calm, for lack of a better term.

"Listen, we're gonna take your Kaa-san to the hospital, okay? Do you want to ride with her there, or would you like to go separately?" Ichigo blinked and wiped the rain out of his eyes, shaking his head.

"It's too late, omawari-san.* Kaa-chan's gone." Ichigo mumbled as he slid his eyes down to his blood covered coat. The police officer swallowed thickly, holding his hand out to the young Kurosaki. (*Mr. Policeman)

"Come on, Ichigo-kun. Let's get you out of this rain, and then we'll contact your father, okay?" Ichigo looked at the man's hand, letting go of his mother when the EMS came to put her on a stretcher, and put his smaller, slightly bloody hand into the police officer's larger one.

"You'll be okay, Ichigo. You'll see her again someday." A voice whispered in his head. Again, there was the imaginary feel of arms wrapping around him in a comforting hug, and his shoulders relaxed as he got into the police vehicle.

'We'll get the one who did it, right?'

"Yeah, we will. Together."

'Together.'

Three years passed. I had long since started training in my Mindscape with the Voice, who turned out to look like a carbon copy of myself. It was late April when it happened. I was 12-years-old at the time.

"Ne, Aibou? Someone's at the door." Ichigo looked up from fixing his tie. He looked around before shrugging on his uniform coat.

'I'll take care of it when I go out.' The preteen sighed to his inner voice. He made his way to the side door. The bell to the clinic rang, and Ichigo frowned. His sisters were still asleep, and his dad was getting ready for the day. Shrugging, he made his way to the clinic's double doors.

"We're closed. The clinic doesn't open until–" he stopped what he was saying as he took in the scene in front of him. A young girl about his age had an older man supported on her back. She was in tears, crying for someone to save her Onii-chan. There had been a car wreck, not too far from the clinic.

A couple minutes later, I had gotten the two situated with the help of my dad– who had come down at the sound of the clinic bell. Right before the ambulance appeared to take him to Karakura General Hospital, Inoue Sora took his last breath.

"Aibou, you're being followed." The 'Voice' growled to a 13-year-old Ichigo. He glanced behind him, seeing a group of upperclassmen following him at a distance. He scowled and faced forward, taking a detour into a lone alleyway. There was no way he was going to lead these guys to his house. The group followed after him, and he turned to glare at them.

"Pretty stupid of ya to go into a deserted alley, eh Kurosaki?" the 'leader' of the group snickered. He was surrounded by seven older teens, all of which had some kind of weapon. Ichigo scoffed and spit in his face. The 'leader' growled and made a sign.

The guy to his left charged at him with a switchblade in hand. As he swung his hand down, Ichigo grabbed his wrist, pulled it out of the way, and punched him in the face. The guy to his right made a move to attack, and he spun around, letting go of the other to punch out with his other hand. Another guy came at him with a crow bar, and Ichigo kicked him in the stomach. Three down in less than five minutes.

But he made a mistake. While focusing on the ones in front of him, he forgot the ones behind him. Two of them came out and grabbed his arms, forcing him to the ground. Another came up and hit him over the head with the crowbar, causing him to black out.

When he was conscious again, the leader of the thugs put on a pair of brass knuckles and punched him in the stomach. He coughed, and the two guys holding his arms twisted harder. The guy with the brass knuckles punched out again, catching the orange-haired teen in the jaw. The skin on his lip broke, and blood dripped down his chin. The 'Voice' was screaming at him to fight back, before something really bad happened. One of the other gang members picked up a cement cinder block and smashed it down on his upper back. The two holding his arms let go, and they all started to kick him.

All he could do was curl up and take the hits. The 'Voice' was growling and spitting like a wild cat, clawing at his mind to be let out. His left eye began to change, black creeping into his vision.

And then, everything stopped. They were cries of outrage, yet Ichigo didn't risk looking up. The 'Voice' calmed down, allowing his eye to return to normal once more. He blinked when a body fell into his view, unconscious. There were other 'thud's sounding, and Ichigo looked up to see a tall Mexican punch out and knock out the last of his attackers.

"Are you alright?" was the last thing he heard before his vision went black again.

One week later

"Take that you goddamned…!" Another punch was thrown. "You stubborn bastard!" Another one was landed. Yet, he still stood there, bruised and bloodied as they all beat him up. One of them lifted up a rock the size of his head. He could hear the sound of rushed footsteps. Someone was running, whether towards them or away, he couldn't tell. There was a blur of orange and black, and suddenly both attackers were on the ground. The other stood up, revealing the stubborn and cocky teen he saved last week.

"Y-you're…" one of the thugs stuttered. The other teen smirked evilly, and the two thugs ran. "Let's get out of here!" It was so anti-climatic, that he had to sit down on the river bank. He started to finger the Mexican coin around his neck, not even aware that the other was talking to him.

"How come you were so spaced out, Chado?" Ichigo sighed, turning back to the other teen.

"It's 'Sado'."

The other teen ignored him. "You're lucky I was around, you big idiot. If I didn't save your ass, you'd be in a hospital bed!" Ichigo scoffed and sat down next to him, prodding at his bruises. "How come you always let them do this to you? I know you're strong, so why don't you fight back? Why don't you protect yourself like you protected me last week?" the orange haired teen questioned.

"I made a promise." Ichigo looked at the teen incredulously. "I made a promise that I would never use my fists for my own sake." He began fiddling with the coin again. "I made a promise to my Abuelo."

"Abu- what now?"

"'Abuelo'. It means 'Grandpa' in Spanish. His name was Oscar Joaquin de la Rosa" Ichigo sweat-dropped.

"Where is he from?"

"Mexico. Before I came here, I was with him in Mexico."

"Wait a second, last month when you introduced yourself to the class, you said you were from Okinawa!"

"Did I?"

"Forget it! You purposely leave out details, don't you?" Ichigo smiled wistfully. "Well then, if that's how you wanna be, I just won't come to your rescue next time!" Again, he began to fiddle with the coin. "That thing around your neck, is it really special?"

"Yeah, it is. Probably more than my life." Ichigo reached over to touch it, not thinking about how close they were.

"It looks foreign." he observed, feeling out the edges. He blinked up at the larger teen. "Is it from Mexico, too?"

"Yes." Ichigo sighed, sitting back. He looked down when his foot connected with something.

"What's this? I wonder who this belongs too." Ichigo picked up the plastic flip phone, glancing at the screen. 15:58.

"It might belong to one of those guys." Chad moved to take it from him. "I might as well give it back to them." Before he could see, Ichigo stood up and clutched the phone in his hand.

"I'm throwing this piece of shit away!" he growled, snapping it in half before throwing it in the river. "Screw them!"

The Next Day

"It's more important than your life, right?" The thug leader from last week held up his coin, a pair of pliers in his other hand. "So, if you lose this, you die, right?" He held the pliers up to the coin, and smirked at the bound teen in front of him. "So die, dipshit." Chad strained against his binds, his muscles flexing. He could hear running feet again, but he didn't care. This guy was going to pay! "Get 'im–" Like the day prior, Ichigo came running over and jump kicked the guy in the face.

"You friggin'…!" he cussed, squashing the guy into the dirt. He snatched the coin away, and pocketed the smooth gold. "I'll be taking this, thank you very much." He grinned back at the group, smashing his foot back down on the guy he was standing on.

"You're Kurosaki Ichigo from Mashiba Junior High…!"

The orange haired teen knelled down, rummaging through the leader's pockets. "Let's see… Here it is!" he pulled out a cell phone, and smashed his foot back into the other guy's face. "Shut up, Yoko-chin!" He dialed '911' and held the phone up to his ear.

"This is emergency dispatch, how may I help you?" Ichigo smirked at the guys, before answering the woman on the phone.

"Yes, hello? I'd like to request an ambulance?"

"An ambulance? Where are you located?"

"Location in under the bridge in 2nd block."

"How many would you like sent, sir?"

"How many? Let's see…" he pointed at the thugs, counting them up. "One, two, three, four, five…"

"Five, sir?"

"Yeah, five of 'em." In anger, all five thugs charged at him, and this time, he didn't mind letting the 'Voice' out to play. Both eyes changed into golden suns surrounded by night, and he let loose a crazy grin as he fought. All five fell in a matter of minutes, and the 'Voice' sunk back into the recesses of his mind. He collapsed in front of Chad, and held out his friend's coin.

"How about this Chado? You keep doing what you've been doing, and don't hit people for your own sake. In exchange, you hit for my sake, and I'll hit for yours. If it's something you'll risk your life to protect, I'll risk my life to protect it, too, and visa versa. It's a promise, man." Chad nodded his head.

"Yeah." Ichigo grinned and closed one eye, shifting so he could get up.

"Now, let's get you outta those wires."

'Are you sure this is the right place?' 14-year-old Kurosaki Ichigo asked the other voice in his head as he stood outside a traditional Japanese-style building. The sign on the front read, 'Urahara Shōten'. The 'Voice', otherwise known between his host and anyone else in his host's soul as Shirosaki Hishiro, sighed and answered the orange-haired teen.

"C'mon, Aibou. You've learned how to suppress your reiatsu and everything about using a katana from the old man, I've taught you how to use Bala and Cero, and now you need to learn the ways of the Shinigami." Hishiro grumbled from the Mindscape. Ichigo sighed himself and slid open the paper shōji door.

"I know, I know." Ichigo groaned under his breath. He stepped into the shop, and glanced around. "Doesn't mean I have to trust him to teach me these things."

"Trust who to teach what?" A rather tall man asked as he stepped out from the backroom of the shop. The man had pale blond wisps of hair covered by a green and off-white striped hat. He was dressed in a dark green kimono with loose matching pants and a black coat with white diamonds decorating the bottom. On his feet, he wore traditional Japanese wooden sandals.

Ichigo blinked and looked away from the man. "Trust you to teach me Zankensoki.*" The man's eyes widened, and he stared at the young teenager in bewilderment. (*Metaphorically, "The ways of the Shinigami." Zan- sword; Ken- hand-to-hand; So- movement; Ki- Demon Arts.)

My name is Kurosaki Ichigo. I'm a human with the powers of a Shinigami, but I can't use my powers to protect just yet.

Geta-bōshi tells me my Otō-san was the Jū-bantai Taichō of the Gotei Jūsan-bantai*, one of the highest rankings a Shinigami could achieve, which makes me a pure blood Shinigami. (*Tenth Division Captain of the 13 Court Guard Squads.)

Geta-bōshi also told me that my Kaa-chan had originally been a powerful Hollow called an Arrancar. He said that because she had fallen in love with my Tō-san, he had made her a Gigai that made her powers eventually disappear and her human again. She, like my father, could barely see the world they came from anymore until I was born.

You see, I was born the perfect mix between Hollow, Human, and Shinigami.

After Geta-bōshi told me about my Tō-san and my Kaa-chan, I used everything he taught me to protect my two Imōto*, Karin and Yuzu. (*Little Sister/s)

However, that changed when a Shinigami appeared before me nearly two years after I started training with Geta-bōshi.

Friday, May 23rd, 11 p.m.

"You mean to say there's a Hollow somewhere around here?" Ichigo hissed at the dark-haired midget Shinigami. Solemnly, the girl nodded.

"Yes, that is the case." she sighed looking up from her crudely made drawings.

Ichigo's eyes widened, and his mouth dropped in plain shock. "Are you stupid? Why are you sitting around here for! Go get it!" the redhead huffed with a sense of urgency.

"That's the problem, I can't. The Hollow is hiding in the In-Between, and until it comes out, I can't sense where it is." The Shinigami sighed, and placed her hand to her chin in thought. Suddenly, a roar was heard along with the crashing of a wall being knocked down and the sound of one of his sisters screaming. Both the Shinigami and his own eyes widened at the sound. Ichigo stood up from his bed, and threw open his door. "Wait!" the Shinigami cried, running after him.

Ichigo groaned in exasperation, and turned to the girl quickly. "What? That Hollow is attacking my family!"

"You can't fight. You can't do anything. Stay here, and I'll take care of it!" With that, the Shinigami left with a whisper of Shunpo, leaving Ichigo standing at the top of the stairs alone. With a frown, he obeyed and sat down on the top of the stairs.

It was only a couple of seconds before he could hear the Shinigami struggle with the Hollow. 'What is wrong with her? It can't be too hard to defeat a low-level Hollow!' he thought angrily to himself. With a silent snarl, he flew down the stairs to get a better view of the Shinigami in action.

What he saw nearly made him wince in sympathy for the girl. Yuzu lay on the ground, unconscious, while the Shinigami was standing in front of her, her shoulder and part of her side between the Hollow's teeth.

He frowned, and pointed two fingers at the Hollow's feet, whispering "Hadō no 4, Byakurai." under his breath. A bolt of white lightning hissed towards the Hollow, striking right in front of it. The effect was instantaneous.

The thing gave of a frightened scream, releasing the Shinigami before tracking back to the In-Between. The Shinigami girl collapsed without the beast's teeth to hold her up. He cursed before he ran over to the wounded warrior.

"I thought you said you could take care of it, Shinigami." Ichigo said with a sarcastic undertone. The Shinigami girl glared up at him as she pushed herself up against the opposite wall.

"Be silent, boy. That Hollow will surely reappear sometime soon to finish off you and your family." The dark-haired Death God groaned at she sat up against the wall. "I have no power to stop it anymore." Ichigo's eyes widened. 'This can't be happening!' he thought frantically to his 'Partner'. The Shinigami girl watched as panic rose within the teenager's mind. "…Do you want to save your family…?" she asked quietly.

Ichigo stared at the girl, his eyes narrowing as he tried to decipher what she could do. "Of course I do! But, up against a thing like that as I am now…" he let his eyes trail over the wounds the girl had.

"Then I must make you stronger than you are now." Ichigo looked up at her in shock.

"What? How… You can do that?" he whispered, gazing into the girl's eyes. She nodded stiffly, maneuvering her arm so her Zanpakutō was pointed at the teen's chest.

"Yes, however I cannot say for sure it will work. Take my Zanpakutō, and push it through the center of your chest." Ichigo's eyes widened again as he realized what it was the Shinigami was going to do. "If we do this correctly, you shall become a Shinigami as well."

"She's going to sacrifice her powers?" Hishiro murmured within Ichigo's mind, mimicking the redhead's own thoughts.

'That's a serious crime, one that'll get us both killed.' he thought back, both to himself and to his carbon copy.

"If this does not work, no matter how you look at it, we all will die tonight." The Shinigami said gravely. Ichigo looked over at Yuzu, and his thoughts turned over to Karin who was still upstairs covered in blood. With a new resolve, Ichigo turned back to the wounded Shinigami, and held out his hand.

"Give me your sword, Shinigami. We'll see if this idea of yours will work." the Shinigami smiled slightly, and stood up, using the wall behind her as a crutch. They both took one step closer.

"It's not 'Shinigami', boy. It's 'Kuchiki Rukia'." Ichigo wrapped his hand around the guard, looking down on the wounded spirit clothed in black.

"It's not 'boy', Kuchiki Rukia. It's 'Kurosaki Ichigo'." The Hollow appeared once again, standing not too far from the two. Ichigo looked over at the monster, before turning back to what he was about to do. "Let's hope our next meeting isn't so rushed." With that, Ichigo pulled both the blade and the owner closer as the cold metal pierced his chest.

A brilliant white light flashed, blinding everything from view. Soon, the light dimmed to two less massive lights, one silver-ish in color with a tint of light blue, and one the darkest color surrounded by a blood red.

Rukia looked down at herself, happy to see she was still in her black Shihakushō. Sode no Shirayuki was clasped firmly in her hands, the sealed blade coated with a layer of the orange-haired teenager's blood. Once the bright lights dimmed to nothing, she glanced up and gasped.

Two figures stood from where the flash had started, nearly identical looks of confusion on their faces as they gazed at one another.

To her right was the colorful form of Kurosaki Ichigo, dressed in the traditional Shihakushō. In his hand, he held a slightly longer than usual katana. The guard was in the shape of two crescent moons connected back-to-back. The hilt wrappings were pitch black in color, covering a blood red handle.

From his right shoulder down to his left side was a pure white silk ribbon. In the middle was a broach, having the same crescent design as his guard. Attached to the sash was a matching white scabbard with a silver-blue lining.

What surprised her most about him was the way his usually brown eyes glimmered with the same silver-blue hue as the flash of light from earlier.

However, it was the person to her left that surprised her more than anything. The man look exactly like Ichigo, besides a few major differences. For one, he was mostly colorless with white hair and skin, besides his eerie gold eyes. He seemed taller, and more defined than Ichigo himself was. He was dressed in the traditional Shihakushō.

In his hand, he held a katana that looked exactly like Ichigo's, only the colors were opposite. Where Ichigo's hilt wrappings were pitch black, this man's were a pure white. From his left shoulder down to his right side was a pitch black silk ribbon with the exact same broach. The scabbard was black with a blood red lining.

Rukia had not known it yet, but this man was the same creature from Ichigo's Mindscape; Shirosaki Hishiro, or 'Shiro' for short.

The two teenagers glanced at one another once more before the colorful twin moved, cutting off the Hollow's right arm in what looked like a practiced movement. "That's for Yuzu!" Ichigo screamed out. Rukia blinked as she looked on in awe.

"Where did he come from?" she whispered to herself, staring at the carbon copy. 'It should not have happened. No mere mortal can see Shinigami or Hollow. The power transfer would not have worked on a regular spiritually aware human. Kurosaki Ichigo…'

Again, Ichigo swung his Zanpakutō, slicing through the Hollow's leg with ease. "That's for Karin!" He swung horizontally, slicing through the large beast's midsection. "That's for my Tō-san!" The Hollow screeched out in pain, falling forward towards the two new Shinigami. Ichigo swung down hard, his blade colliding with the Hollow's white mask. "Realize your mistake of messing with my family, and go back to the depths of Hell, Fish-face!"

The Hollow disintegrated, purified by the Zanpakutō which slayed it. The white Ichigo stood by the youngest Kurosaki, crouching down and checking on the girl. He looked up to see his former host panting from exertion, the last bits of the Hollow disappearing. He rushed over to the colorful teen's side, visually checking for any stray damage.

'…Who are you?'

Chapter 1 end.