Tamix-Yayyyyy finally up! I apologize profusely for the amount of time it took me to get this up! I had the WORST case of writers block ever. And since Teal's email was being stupid, I sent it like five times before she finally got it. And spell check needs to die in Lucifer's torture chamber...enjoy and review pleaseeeee! Sorry it's so short but as I said, writers block...it needs to die

Ch.8

Light brown eyes fluttered open groggily, staring up at a blue sky. Ichigo groaned, putting a hand to his aching head. Woozily sitting up, the orange head looked around him with curiosity. He was sitting in a vast green meadow, with nothing in sight.

No houses, no buildings, just green grass, flowers, and that vast expanse of sky. Ichigo watched a few clouds scud past as he waited for his headache to subside. When at last he stood up, still somewhat wobbly, he took another look around, now with less hazy eyes.

Still nothing around.

"This is the Soul Society?" He wondered aloud. "Where is everyone?" Tea colored eyes spotted a path cutting through the grass, and the new soul reaper walked over to it.

"Maybe this'll lead me to somewhere," He murmured. "Somewhere I can ask someone where Kisuke is." With plan in mind, Ichigo set off down the winding path.

"Wow, what an…odd house." The orange head stared up at the unusual house, and scratched his head. It was a normal enough house…

…aside from the humongous pair of arms protruding from the ground on either side of it. The hands in the sculptures were fisted and held a sign that proclaimed the name "Shiba"

"Wonder if that's the name of the person who built those?" Ichigo wondered with some awe. He started toward the house, fully intending on going in and meeting other people at last, but something stopped him, froze him in his tracks. A familiar…presence, for lack of a better term. It came from behind him, and made his spine crawl and the fine hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. When he slowly turned, he gasped, and one hand automatically went to Zangetsu's hilt, not surprised to find the zanpaku-tou on his back. His fingers curled around the hilt, and the bandages around the sword unwrapped. Never taking his eyes off the hulking figure in front of him, Ichigo pulled Zangetsu around in front of him. The beast was really frightening looking, almost completely white, with only red lines marring the white body.

And the eyes…

Gold pupils burned against the pitch-black sclera as it glared at Ichigo hungrily. The orange head had seen eyes like that before…

In the one room of Kisuke's.

Hara had those eyes…

So this must be a Hollow, if it had eyes like that. Ichigo steadied the shaking hand that held Zangetsu. He had to kill this Hollow then. Putting Zangetsu in front of him, Ichigo grinned up at the Hollow with a bravado he didn't really feel.

"C'mon then! Come get me if you want me!" With a loud, ear drum-shattering roar, the monster did just that. It lunged at Ichigo, forcing the teen to dodge to one side. Rolling under one of the Hollow's legs, Ichigo slashed at it with Zangetsu. It made firm contact and the monster roared angrily, lashing out at the teen again. Ichigo dodged, but didn't see the Hollow's long lizard-like tail whip up behind him. The serpentine appendage smacked into the back of Ichigo's head, throwing the orange head to one side, knocking him out.

"Hey…hey wake up." An insistent voice pestered Ichigo's dreams, and he groggily blinked open a hazy eye. A woman with surprisingly large breasts and long black hair was sitting cross-legged by him.

"Ah good you're up. I just wanted to make sure you didn't have a concussion." Ichigo nodded. That made sense, even to his fuzzy brain.

"You can go back to sleep now. Just wanted to make sure you didn't have brain damage. I'm Kukaku Shiba by the way, but we can talk more when you're better." Ichigo nodded again, and drifted off back to sleep.

When Ichigo opened his eyes again, he felt blessedly clear headed and refreshed. He stretched languidly, and heard a soft chuckle from above him. Startled, he looked up to see two eyes sparkling at him. An unfamiliar purple-haired woman was leaning over him, grinning.

"So you're finally awake then, eh Kurosaki Ichigo?"