"POWERLESS"

HichiIchi

THREE: 'The Voices Of Three'

As the cloud of dust died down the red-head could see his opponent's mask. At first it looked as if he had successfully lifted the mask off the Vaste Lorde's face, but if that was the case then why was the hollow still there and not purified? Then, as yet more of the dust faded away, Hichigo saw the creature's mask . . .

The mask had solidified around the tip of Zangetsu, preventing the owner any harm.

The hollow gurgled, "Beat that shinigami! This is the ultimate defence!!"

Hichigo had to admit that it was a powerful defence, because now his blade was trapped, but it had a weakness and he grinned that twisted crooked grin of his out of that knowledge.

"Bankai," he hissed.

xXxXxXxXx

He found himself opening the wooden drawer, whispering to himself gently.

"C'mon Hichi, this ain't funny any more. Come out man. Say something at least. Something. Anything. If you don't, you know what I'll do," his voice cracked in the darkness, "don't make me do this . . . don't make me . . ."

His voice cracked once more as he let out a sudden sob.

xXxXxXxXx

The creature howled in agony, its black talons groping at his broken mask. The red-head stood over him with that crooked smile, holding his long, thin black blade by the short chain at it's hilt.

"Back an' forth, back an' forth. Where she'll land nobody knows!" he sniggered, swinging the blade like a pendulum.

The creature whimpered, the shattered pieces of his mask surrounding him turning to liquid before making their way back to him.

The ebony blade fell, driving straight into the hollow's stomach. The parts of the creature's mask solidified once more, lying limp in the grass as the creature screamed in pain.

"Whadsa matter?" the red-head cooed before mimicking the creature's attitude from earlier, "I only unleashed my bankai and you're nearly dying?" He grabbed the hilt of his blade, wrenching it back viciously, causing the monster to cry out, "Who's the loser now, Vaste Lorde?"

The red-head then tore the blade from the hollow's stomach before kneeling down on top of the creature, the blade in between them, grazing the Vaste Lorde's now-showing nose. Hichigo stared into the hollow's eyes with hatred and his usual lustful glare for the taste of blood. "Fear the shinigami, hollow, fear them," he hissed, "Getsuga Tensho."

xXxXxXxXx

The teen sobbed, choking on the taste of his own tears. When was the last time he'd cried like this? When he was a child perhaps, the day his mum had died? The day he realised his hollow was going to devour him? No . . . the day they'd first had sex, him and his monster, his hollow. Oh how he hated himself, and yet there was . . . something else, but what else could there be other than hate?

xXxXxXxXx

Hichigo stood there, over the spot where the hollow's corpse had been, the mask still growing on one side of his King's face. He'd won, but only out of pure luck; he'd sensed it in that creature's reiatsu. If that thing had attacked him, he would've been done for.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Obviously, how is his Lordship?" the hollow replied sarcastically.

"I'm not that weak, and you know it."

"Wanna bet?"

"Hell yeah!"

The Horse sniggered, "Come out 'ere and prove it then."

". . .Get screwed."

The Horse smirked.

"Hichigo?" the King murmured after a slight pause.

"Yeah?"

"About earlier, you were right," the king inhaled before speaking again, "I'm sorry . . ."

The Horse snorted, but his King could still sense the slight smile he was hiding.

"Hichigo?"

"Uh-huh?"

". . . I---"

The Horse suddenly turned to block the sword that had swung down on him with one hand. He found himself staring into heliotrope eyes.

The short, dark-haired woman spoke with disgust in her tone, "So you're that inner-hollow of his."

xXxXxXxXx

The teen reached out for a knife, though there was no response . . .

His entire being suffered hurt from the memory, he almost couldn't picture what happened next in his mind, and yet his body forced him to.

Three voices.

First, Rukia's, "So you're that inner-hollow of his."

He felt his hollow's reply in the increase of his reiatsu.

Second, Chad's, "Kuchiki-san, this creature is powerful, you can't defeat it."

A pause, then Rukia's again, "Chad, help me pin him down."

Ichigo, inside of his inner-world, sensed his hollow's reiatsu fluctuating wildly for the next thirty minutes or so after that. He tried reaching out to the hollow, shouting to him at times, to let him have control, he even attempted taking it by force, to stop the fight, but it was like there was a wall in between them, a wall Hichigo had built in order to prevent Ichigo from intervening.

Suddenly, his hollow's reiatsu calmed down completely. The battle was over. Had he won, had he lost?

Then Ichigo heard Rukia's voice, "We have restrained you hollow, leave our friend's body or else."

'Restrained? Does that mean--?!'

"What ya gonna do, kill me?"

'Hichigo! Let me have power now!!'

"You kill me, you kill Ichigo; we're one and the same."

'Hichigo!! Please!'

"Sorry King,"

"Hichigo?! What are you playing at?! Take down the wall and let me have power or they'll--"

"Sorry Ichigo, it's you or me, and it's a Horse's duty to protect the King no matter what."

"What? What are you talking about?!"

"He's right Kuchiki-san, what do we do?"

"Hichigo, listen to me, explain!"

"Kuchiki-san, what do we do?"

"Hichigo!"

"Kuchiki-san!"

"I'll do it," said the third voice.

"Are you sure?" said the first.

"Yes."

Ichigo stood in his inner-world, confused as he stared up at the blue sky from which the voices came.

That's when he saw the red crack appear. It was a tiny little thing, like the vanishing point in an artist's drawing. That was before it grew, coming out in all directions, creating the tiniest splinters and colossal shards of blue which rained down on the inner-world, smashing straight through the buildings as a new sky was revealed, a sky of pure crimson.

Then Ichigo heard a high-pitched shriek that erupted all around, as if the sky itself was howling in agony. However, the sound was in Ichigo's head. He collapsed to the ground grabbing his head with both hands as he felt his very mind itself tearing apart. He desperately began to push against his head, eyes fiercely shut tight, in fear that it was indeed splitting in two. He heard another voice over the top of the screaming in his head, a more deeper one that too was in agony. It took him a while to realise that this voice was his own. Then he heard another voice, one of a more intense agony, cracked and distorted, it howled something, a name, Ichigo's name.

The teenager opened his eyes to see his inner-world splitting in two, straight down the middle, as it burned. It was like the apocalypse, and it was happening in his own head.

The building he knelt on had severed from the rest and was rocking to and fro in the hellishly hot wind. He looked ahead and saw the other half of the building, he saw something white too.

'Hichigo?'

As if the thing was responding to the other's thoughts, it turned to face him. The creature was indeed Hichigo, but at the same time it was not, it was as if someone had took the left side of Ichigo and sown it to the other half of his hollow-self. The creature was naked, its body red with blood and heavily scarred. The red-head could see the stitches that joined the two halves together, he felt sick. The thing had a white mask, a hollow's mask, their mask; and as it lifted the mask up Ichigo saw its face, half his, half Hichigo's.

The stitching wasn't even on the face or in a straight line unlike with the rest of the body; the thread went through Ichigo's eye and through his hollow's lower lip, they looked deformed.

The half of the body that was Hichigo then raised one heavily scarred arm, and reached out to the teen with a bloody hand. It was as if he was pointing to the red-head, but then again it was hard to tell with the lack of fingers. His half of the lips moved, but Ichigo could hear nor see what they were saying.

The boy looked away, afraid and disgusted, he felt himself gag but just swallowed the vomit and shuddered.

Then he felt something caress his cheek, just before it began to smoulder, burning into his flesh. He looked up and saw the creature, now it was on his half of the building, just a mere few feet away. He noticed that it had some open wounds, that were crawling with maggots.

The creature, still pointing, continued to whisper in a hushed lisp, and Ichigo could hear it now, but only just.

' . . . love . . . you . . .'

The teen's eyes widened, imbued with shock, "H-Hichigo . . .?"

The hollow's half of the creature seemed to smile, its eye, watery, began to run, the black part running down his cheek leaving the yellow iris, like a naked flame, in the cavern of the empty socket.

"Hichigo!" the teenager screamed, removing his hands from his head to touch the creature, but the sound of the screaming around him was too much to bear, he cried out, his ears bleeding from the noise.

The creature's fingerless palm then began to turn to ashes as a flame engulfed the rest of the albino half of the monster. Soon, Hichigo's half of the creature had turned to ashes while the other half fell to the ground, lifelessly. The ashes swarmed around Ichigo, filling his mouth, his ears, his nostrils, choking him.

And, it was with that image that the teen brought the knife to his wrist, letting it hover . . .

No response.

He brought the knife down to his skin, dragging it over the flesh, feeling it's teeth bite into him and draw blood . . .

No response.

Repeating the process, somewhere else, it must work, it has to work, somewhere, somehow, he's there. He's alive . . .

Drawing more blood, sticking the knife straight in, tearing upwards, his arm soaked with his own blood . . .

No response.

Tears falling, silently. The teenager falls also, to his knees, his eyes welling up with yet more liquid, the same as his self-inflicted wounds . . .

Footsteps, behind him as he falls to the ground. He hears a scream, a little girl's, as his head connects with a pool of his own blood . . .

He feels hands, touching him, panicked voices as he falls deeper now, feeling warmer, hot, hotter . . .

I love you too.

Yeah, did I say I stopped this fic? OMG, YOU LIER, I DID NOT!!

Ahem, anyways this fic is officially un-discontinued from now on seeing how much I enjoyed writing this chap! Er . . . yeah, I know the fight scene sucks, Hichi unleashes his bankai which blows the Vaste Lorde's mask off ← that's proper violence peeps!

Anyway, this isn't the end, just the end of the Prelude~!

Over the next 7 chapters you'll (eventually) discover who Voice No. 3 was. WTF happened to Hichi. Whether Ichi is still alive D: What that random thing was (still gotta think about that one XD ) AND is Hichi gonna comeback?/where the hell was Uryuu?!?!?

XD

the next following chaps are gonna be from OTHER people's POV e.g. NOT ICHI.

We'll start all that crap with Karin~3 coz she's kawaii!

Bye bye!!