Disclaimer: Bleach and all its characters are property of Kubo Tite, not mine.

Author's notes: IchiRuki tale inspired by the end of Chapter 349 The Lust 3, exploring it into a link to a White Day occurrence. Written for the Back With White Event on Bleach Asylum's IchiRuki FC, to celebrate White Day.

Bleach 349,5 The Hidden Chapter

Heart Behind The Mask

"HELP ME, KUROSAKI-KUN!!!!"

What was happening to Ichigo as she screamed in despair...!?

Only Ichigo could tell. Only he knows what lurks inside his failing heart. He knows the true face of his demon. Everyone else just witnessed for the first time a body standing up which wasn't akin to the one that had fallen.

Ulquiorra tensed his facial muscles, the only visible sign of his alarm. Not so much for the way Ichigo's body was gaining a white carcass resembling a lizard in shape of claws and tail, but sensing the overwhelming dark reiatsu emanating from this creature, looking at him with completely yellow eyes behind the red striped mask and speaking to him with a voice he couldn't recognize.

"You're a joke! True despair?..." It chuckled ominously before regaining a serious expression. "I will teach you true despair."

It moved too fast. Within the same second, Ulquiorra wasn't on the place he had been standing anymore, but the strength of the impact could let guess the Espada hadn't been fast enough to evade the hit.

Inoue was tossed several feet away by the power of the clash itself. Shielding the dust from her face, she raised her head, but the fight moved too fast for her eyes to comprehend it. All she could see was a pillar being broken here and there, the flashing dark beams of reiatsu, and listen to the thundering sounds of destruction clad thrusts. She tried to reassure herself for seeing Kurosaki-kun rise again, but she was too terrified of the way he looked now, the frighteningly heavy energy which poured from him… and his voice, that voice… it was like it wasn't Kurosaki-kun at all… She closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to drive those thoughts away. She had once before wrongly feared him when he used his hollow powers, she probably shouldn't be doing it again.

A faint voice reached her, from amidst the dust and debris. "Inoue-san… are you unhurt?..."

She regarded Ishida still fallen on the floor, trying to drag himself towards her. "Ishida-kun! Yes, I'm alright." And she neared him, calling her shield to reject his injuries, while another strong thunder in the sky diverted her eyes in that direction.

Ishida looked at her with concern, then followed her gaze to the sky above. He frowned his eyebrows slightly. Everything about Kurosaki was leaving him wary. There was an eerie atmosphere about his transformation. He couldn't bring himself to trust Kurosaki on that condition and hoped to be able to protect Inoue through whatever outcome this fight will ensue.

Above them, a lizard was toying with a bat, breaking his wings and ripping his tail, before throwing him back to the ground, not too far from where he once stood tall, seemingly unbeatable. Both Ishida and Inoue watched intently and alarmed when the one who was once Ichigo flew down to the crater created by the violent landing. Ulquiorra was no longer the bat, as the features of his releases started to fail him, rendering him with the ragged clothes from his most humanoid appearance. The lizard caught him by the neck and raised him in the air with a taunting smirk.

"Tell me now who's the true face of despair."

The defeated Espada looked at him emotionless. "I was right, Kurosaki Ichigo…"

The lizard gripped his neck with further strength and breathed a low hiss, but Ulquiorra continued. "It's because of the heart humans die… You only won when you lost it."

"Shut your lectures, you'll die now even without one."

"No! Kurosaki-kun, stop!" Inoue raised herself from Ishida's side and ran to them before he could prevent her.

"Wait! Inoue-san! That's not Kurosaki!"

The lizard turned his face towards her. At the sight of those full yellow eyes, different from the yellow irises she used to see behind the mask, Inoue's heart felt like shrinking and she slowed her running into a halt, a chilling fear sweeping her skin.

"Stop?... Why are you asking me to stop?..." He dropped a limp Ulquiorra on the ground and started pacing towards her, making her unwillingly start walking backwards with dread. "You humans keep asking for nonsense, weren't you asking for help before?..." Inoue was too terrified to speak, slightly shaking her head in denial. "But you know, that wasn't the time for you to ask for help…"

"Kuro… saki…" Her eyes were wide with terror.

Faster than she could predict, there was not so much distance in between them anymore and a claw was piercing the skin of her neck, while she was raised in the air, choking on his grip. He concluded dryly. "Now is the time you ask for help."

A light arrow went through his arm, Ishida had fired it with his half reconstructed hand, bleeding profusely.

The lizard turned to face him and hissed slightly, but instead of dropping Inoue, the arm regenerated the hole with effortless speed. High speed regeneration? He remembered his father's words. It is not about stopping his instant regeneration. Instead, you simply kill it before it can begin to regenerate itself. He looked at Inoue… he didn't want to do this in front of her… but she was choking...

The lizard threw her away like a limp doll and faced the new toy to play with.

"INOUE-SAN!" he screamed when he saw her body rolling away. He had no high hopes of being able to defeat this creature, but for her sake, he had to try. He armed his bow with a new arrow, aiming straight for the head. I'm sorry, Kurosaki…

But before he had a chance to fire, he was knocked against a column and a claw came down to pierce its talons into his stomach.

He felt no pain, though. Because another body was in between them, receiving the sharp edges on his stead.

A woman's cry was heard. And the yellow eyes turned to brown irises when they met the violet orbs now confronting them. Though pierced through the stomach, Rukia still gathered the strength to plunge the handle of her katana against Ichigo's mask, cracking half of it.

"Rukia?..." Ichigo's eyes were wide with shock, pain and disgust, but his face seemed to be the only part he had full control. The hollow body was shaking, but didn't retrieve the claw from her torso.

"Ishida, get out of here, go take care of Inoue!" she ordered.

"Kuchiki-san…" He was unwilling to leave, seeing the white carcass slowly reforming where Rukia had broken the mask.

"GO NOW!"

When Ishida obeyed, she looked at Ichigo again, seeing his terror for not being able to control his body and the mask steadily growing to engulf him again. His voice was broken in between pants.

"Rukia… I'm sorry to ask this of you…" His eyes carried all his turmoil. "Kill me!"

Her breath caught for a moment, but her reply was firm. "No."

"You must."

"I can't."

"You can. You have to. Like you had to before. Please! He's stronger than me!"

"He will never be stronger than you. He can't, he has no heart."

"My heart is not enough!" He stated desperate, the mask almost complete.

Rukia paused, then answered calmly. "Then I'll die here and pass you mine, so both of them can win against him."

"Rukia, no! Kill me! Kill me or run!"

"I can't kill you for who you are, Ichigo. I'm not afraid of you. I'm not afraid of the darkest side you carry. Because I know you're not that side, it's just a part of you. And the best of you is stronger. Even if I die by your hands, I'm not dying alone. You'll still receive my heart and gain strength from it. Same as I became stronger to defeat a recent enemy, with a heart which was passed on to me."

"RUKIA!" A dark shadow returned his eyes into those of a hollow, the yellow beams staring murderously.

She was not wrong when she said her heart would make him stronger. It was indeed her heart that released him from the hollow grasp, that time, as he clawed his own head and ripped the mask from his own face, screaming and growling of pain and fury. The whole white carcass falling apart from his body, the blood tainted talons splattering on the floor.

It was to keep her heart safe that his heart had managed it on its own to regain control. And despite her bleeding stomach, she still smiled to him when he searched her gaze exhausted, and held him as he collapsed against her chest. But Ichigo wasn't unconscious, wrapping his arms around Rukia so that the pressure from his body could prevent the wounds he inflicted from bleeding further. He opened his eyes and looked at his mask on the floor, the red stripes reminding him of how much more blood he could have spilled. Never, he thought. I'll never let him win. I can't.

Soon enough, the captains reached them. Friends were reunited, wounds were cared for, gargantas were soon to be opened to get everyone out of there.

Some scars from these incidents, however, would never completely heal.

Ichigo was lost in thought about the recent events. He could notice some people were having trouble looking him in the eye, wary of the menacing nature of his powers, but he wasn't paying too much attention to it, busy digesting what almost happened above the dome of Las Noches. For a protector, having become the menace for a few minutes isn't easy to cope with.

He noticed a presence watching them preparing to leave and distanced himself from the busy group to see who was the uninvited spectator.

Several yards away, Ulquiorra revealed himself, fully regenerated and standing with his hands inside the pockets of his white hakama.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm in charge of the security of Las Noches, I must make sure no one stays behind."

"Don't bother, why would anyone linger here to begin with." And he turned back to return to his comrades.

"Aizen-sama was right to consider you a threat. You're not human, Kurosaki Ichigo."

The shinigami stopped and stood with his back turned to the Espada for a moment, before turning to reply. "I am a threat because I am human. You were wrong, Ulquiorra. It's having a heart that makes me win." And he walked back to his companions, leaving the watching hollow in the shadows of the eternal night of Las Noches.