Ok guys! Next Chapter! Yeah, I know it's been awhile and that cliffhanger was evil. Oh, to clarify, I know Ichigo gets dual blades in the manga, but I had the plot before that came out, and so it is AU from when Orihime gets captured, and the only bits from the manga and not the anime I will use on this is the quincy heritage. He may get them later though…. I have plans…. Also the fullbringers will not make an appearance, probably. Unless I can work them in, which I doubt. Also, when I say 'three times a captains reiatsu', he still has only a very clumsy grasp on it, so it uh, leaks, or pours when he tries to use it, so the senior captains (Excluding Yamamoto, who is more a match, could probably still beat him without losses if they teamed up... It's really a raw power vs. experience. And so, without further ado, the story.

Chapter 2: Preparations

Whatever they expected, It wasn't this.

A orange haired teenager staggered in, reiatsu fluctuating wildly. The Vizards were already up and holding their swords. He gasped out, "Barrier- put a barrier up!"

His reiatsu started fluctuating more, and Hachi put one up, if only to detain him. The boy's reiatsu was muted, but still impressive. Hachi strengthened the barrier. The boy took out a red glove and shoved it against his body. Inside of the barrier glowed bright white and it shattered.

When the smoke cleared there was a tall figure, it's spiritual pressure was at least captain level. There was a body in the ground, younger than the spiritual one. He was a soul reaper older than his body. He looked different too, long, shaggy orange hair with streaks of white and dark brown. Around his neck was a short, cerulean blue scarf. He had a light blue belt holding up his pants unlike the regular white one, and a tattered white sleeveless hiyori bound close to him with a red tie. He was a taishou, a captain. It got stranger though, he had a wakizashi tucked in his red obi, and two katanas on his back, held in place with a red chain. No one had three zanpakutous. He lifted his gaze at them, and Shinji's breath caught in his throat. One of his eyes was that of a hollow, glowing, predatory amber and black, the other a normal, warm brown. The boy- no man, spoke.

"Er, sorry for barging in, I needed a place to let out my reiatsu. Soul Society might have picked up on it otherwise."

There was an awkward pause.

"Who the hell are you? And why are you older than your body?," Hiyori demanded.

He gazed at them a moment. His eyes held a quality of something deep, old, and powerful. He seemed to have a nostalgic expression, hidden in pain, and cloaked well in faked indifference. But Shinji had been Aizen's captain and was pretty good at reading people, and picked up on it. He definitely got a reading of intense sadness and power off of him. The gaze shifted and hardened, as if the emotion within it was never there, and he started to speak.

"My name is Ichigo, and the other question is not important. I am here to request shelter every so often to drain my powers."

Hiyori crossed her arms, "And why the hell should we help you, Strawberry?"

The entity known as Ichigo looked a little cross, "My name means 'one who protects', and if you all spar with me, why don't you find out?"

Shinji looked intrigued, "You think you can take us all on, kid?"

Ichigo smirked and unsheathed one of his katanas, the black and red one, "I'm ready when you are."

And so the visoreds, who wanted to see if he was a threat, were eager to engage. Hachi stood back, but ready to attack, if need be. Hiyori, always the hot blooded one charged forward, slashing at him from the side. He stepped backward, and pushed her away with the tip of his sword. The sword, Shinji noted, was quite peculiar. The blade was a very light colored silver, the tsuba was white as well, but tinted a little darker. Two sapphires were set in it. The handle was wrapped in white bandages that trailed a little off of the hilt. The end had another saphire, that glinted in the dim light of the warehouse. The sheath that held it, in a darkish blue, disappeared when he unsheathed it. His stance was deceptively relaxed, he seemed ready to spring at any moment. He spun and blocked Lisa's downward strike with a resounding clang. He used very little effort to push her away. Hiyori charged him again, aiming to slice an arm off, as she was pissed. He jumped over her strike, and batted back Rose, who had jumped at him in the air.

Shinji decided he would actively judge his power, as he noticed he was holding back on the others, and swung towards his torso. Ichigo then swung his own sword, and sparks flew off the screeching metal. Shinji pushed harder, only to be diverted, and Ichigo was already blocking Love's slash at his exposed back. Shinji swung again, and Ichigo blocked. Shinji noticed Ichigo was holding back, more on the others then on him. Mashiro struck out with her leg, which was enhanced with reiatsu. Without missing a beat, Ichigo used his other hand to catch it, and threw her back. Shinji struck again, but Ichigo had used a burst of shunpo? No, it felt different, rather hollow-like, sonido. Though it was not that either. Nevertheless he had dodged, and was fending off Lisa again. This standstill continued for awhile, until Hiyori screamed out, "Chop Cleanly, Kubikiri Orochi!"

She charged again, and Ichigo released more of his strange reiatsu, and brought his hand up to his face. Shinji breathed in sharply, that was… Black reiatsu started gathering, and Shinji's instincts were screaming to run. Though he stayed and upped his reiatsu. Ichigo brought his hand down, materializing a mask over his face, Hiyori slowed her charge, realizing that charging him was a bad idea. The world went numb. Lisa and Mashiro were forced to the ground, and the captain level shinigami could only just barely stand up. Hiyori was kneeling and breathing heavy with the strain to do so, using her sword to stand up. His reiatsu was no longer passive and friendly, though strangely flavored, it was harsh, biting, and hollow. If they wanted to win the spar, they would need to use at least shikai now, maybe a mask or three. Ichigo's mask was white with red and black stripes. He was most certainly higher than normal captain level. He turned his head, both eyes black and gold, and spoke in the distorted voice that you have when you use a hollow mask, "Now you get it?"

He reached up and removed his mask, letting it dissipate into spirit particles. The pressure lessened, but he was still leaking reiatsu a lot.

The visoreds looked at him, silent with awe of his power. He had used a mask, he was one of them.

Shinji spoke up, "What do you want?"

"Just to train now and again, for now let off steam," The man said.

"What is your affiliation with the soul society?"

"They know nothing yet."

"..What?"

"It's complicated, but I am currently not with them, or Aizen."

Shinji paused, then smiled, "I think we'll get along, but I'll want your story eventually, and if I discover you intend to harm us, there won't be any mercy"

"I expected no less."

"Good we understand each other then."

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The 'training sessions' with the vizards were really for them, not him, but it kept his reiatsu levels from harming his body. Hiyori still didn't like him. At all. There we lots of flying sandals. It was October now, and rather chilly. Tatsuki was progressing steadily in their training. She had significantly increased her reiatsu levels, and was starting to see spirits. She cornered him after school one day and yelled at him for a full five minutes after a ghost had mentioned him talking to it. She was not pleased he had been keeping the fact he could see ghosts from her. Just like last time. He debated on whether or not to bring Chad to the sparring lessons, but decided against it. They fought enough bullies in the alleyways anyway. Last time around Chad gained powers without assistance, but last time he also was spewing reiatsu everywhere. He then decided his next agenda would be to grab Uryu. So when Uryu headed towards a hollow, he made sure he was nearby.

The hollow was large, but not overly so. Uryu drew back his energy bow, so much less solid and so much bigger than the one he was used to seeing. He one-shotted the hollow, as it's dying screams sliced through the air.

Ichigo stumbled out of the bushes and asked him, "What was that!"

Uryu blinked dumbly. Then panicked as he realized his bow was still active. He deactivated it and stuttered, "You could see that?"

Ichigo deadpanned, "Well, why shouldn't I see a ten-foot monster?"

Uryu whent to answer, then stopped. He pushed his glasses up his nose.

"Because most people can't"

"Like the ghosts?"

"Yes, like the ghosts, except these will kill you."

"What was that you did?"

"I killed it."

"But what was the energy thing?"

"Kurosaki, enough with the questions, I-"

Another hollow appeared suddenly, this one stronger. Uryu brought the bow back again. It roared and knocked him back, his bow dematerialized. He was struggling to get back up. It leapt toward him, intending to kill, and Ichigo had to do something, no, it would not happen this quickly, not again…

Ichigo punched the hollow. It went flying a few feet. Uryu grimaced and yelled at him, "You moron! Run!"

Ichigo decided to keep up pretenses, "How do you make the bow-thing?"

Uryu's eyes widened comically and he screeched, "You can't do that! You aren't a quincy!"

Ichigo charged some spiritual pressure to his fingers, "Well because you haven't explained what it is yet, I'm trying anyway!"

Ichigo let the spiritual pressure solidify. He got his glowing energy bow and let loose at the hollow who was charging again. It got the hollow, but it also blew up half the street. The bow wavered and flickered out. Uryu gaped comically at him and sputtered, "But-that's-how….," And finally got out, "That's impossible! What the hell!"

Ichigo glanced up wistfully, "I stopped believing in impossible a long time ago."

Uryu was still sitting on the ground in shock, this kid with the most screwy reiatsu he had ever felt had whipped out a quincy bow on his first try with the finesse of a drunken idiot and one-shotted a hollow way too strong than hollows had any right being. When he seemed oblivious of everything. he did the only thing a kid with only limited knowledge and adrenaline running out could do, he fainted.

Ichigo blinked, and remembered he was excluding a little more reiatsu then he should be. Like lieutenant level. No wonder Uryu passed out. Well he decided to continue his plan, sort of, he would drag him to his house for dinner and hopefully gain his one of his best friends back, even though it wasn't really the Uryu he knew. That one died when-

No. Not going to think about it.

He walked over to him.

Poke.

Pokepoke.

Poke.

Uryu made a squeaky sound and his eyes fluttered open. He sat up quickly with a yelp. Ichigo stepped back and Uryu glared at him.

"You ok?"

"...Fine, Kurosaki."

"You sure, you just fainted. My dad runs a clinic, I know that isn't all that good."

"My dad runs a hospital!"

"Cool, so you heading home?"

"Obviously."

"My house is in that direction too, want to tell me about the quincies tomorrow?"

"..."

"You're in my class, right? Meet me at the park and you can tell me more about these things."

"...fine."

##############################################################################

Uryu joined Ichigo for lunch after much harassment on Ichigo's part. Ichigo knew he really never had any friends, and thus used his future knowledge to his advantage. Later Uryu and Ichigo sat in the park.

"Ok, what are quincies?"

"We are humans with powers to kill hollows. We materialize spirit particles to make bows and several other things. You can only be a quincy if you are born one."

"And what would Hollows be?"

"The souls of dead people who couldn't move on and became monsters. You see ghosts?"

"Yes."

"Hollows prey on souls with high reiatsu, like you and me. Quincies developed their powers to protect themselves from the hollows, due to soul reapers not doing their job."

"Soul reapers?"

"Guardians of the afterlife. They are supposed to find plus souls, that's the ghosts, and send them on to the soul society, or the world of the dead. They are also supposed to slay and purify hollows. However their militaristic society refuses to send enough soul reapers to deal with the hollows. And about a thousand years ago, they got mad at the quincies for defending themselves because when a quincy kills a hollow it doesn't go to the afterlife, nor does any of the souls it's eaten. This evidently was imbalancing the world and we went to war. Only a few quincies survived, and several wanted to work with the soul reapers, one of the last was my grandfather. Hollows attacked him, and he couldn't take them all down. The soul reapers didn't come. Oh, they came later, but not when they were needed."

Ichigo could hear the bitterness and pain in his voice. He quietly said, "I watched my mom die."

And so, so much more. Uryu looked over. There was a moment of silence. Ichigo spoke again, "The soul reapers are from a militaristic society, so blame the superior in charge, not all of them, because they are needed, yes?"

"..Well, I suppose."

"So how do I have quincy powers?"

Uryu stood up, "Well, quincy powers are hereditary, so does your father-"

"He says he doesn't see them, my memories of Mom, well, I'm pretty sure she couldn't, at least. One of my sisters can, but doesn't believe in them, and the other can only sense them."

"Well, there is this technique that can tell if you are a quincy or not."

Uryu stood up, and Ichigo realized what he was doing a few seconds before the spirit ribbons materialized. Uryu reached out, just as Ichigo was going to warn him, and-

"What the hell?"

Ichigo rarely heard Uryu swear, but this really was good reason. Uryu was holding up a spirit ribbon alright, but it was tie-dyed. It had a white cloth, but tie-dyed patterns of quincy blue, shinigami red, and hollow black. Well, that was one way to break the news….

Uryu looked from the ribbon to a bemused Ichigo and back. He seemed to be attempting to speak, but couldn't find the words to express his shock over how someone could be at the core human, but also quincy, shinigami, and hollow. He was something Uryu hated, and something he loved, this would take some explaining.

"I can explain this. Mostly."

"Then do, I see hollow on here, and I will give you five minutes before I try to kill you."

Ichigo knew he didn't really mean it, Uryu had never killed someone who was not a full-on hollow until after Orihime was knocked into a coma for a week by a hypnotized assassin from Aizen. He shut himself in his room for a week after.

"Theoretically, if I say my dad is a former shinigami, and mom was a quincy and I found out in the future, what would you say?"

"Kurosaki, please talk straight."

"The story starts about seven months from now when a soul reaper walked through my bedroom and changed my life. She gave her powers to help me protect my family, then things slowly escalated to an apocalypse, and I went back in time. I couldn't let you all die again."

"Time...Travel…? You knew me? Prove it."

"Your father and you have issues, you learned to sew because your mother taught you how and your father wouldn't give you a quincy uniform."

"Prove you are from the future."

"Er, that would be hard, but perhaps I could let some of my reiatsu out, to show you?"

"Go ahead Kurosaki, just don't bring hollows raining down on our heads."

Ichigo took a deep breath, then his reiatsu presence started rising slowly, but faster, and faster, and now twice his own and-

"Stop Kurosaki!"

Uryu was panting heavily and gripping his now-materialized bow.

"I believe you, but why do you have hollow on your spirit ribbon?"

"Training accident, he isn't bad company anymore."

"He?"

"He lives in my inner world with Zangetsu and, someone else."

"Your Zanpakuto?"

"Both of them."

"Two?"

"Well, three, but It's a long story."

"And why did you come back?"

"A man called Sosuke Aizen wants to rule the world, I will stop him."

All at once Uryu collapsed and his reiatsu went haywire, spiking up to where he was when the future Uryu- Urahara didn't-

"Ichigo? W-what?"

He did. He did! That sneaky bastard-

"Uryu, you remember?..."

"Yes, I-I was… dead, but now…?"

"We are seven months before Rukia comes."

"Prove you are Kurosaki."

"Once you told me that we were technically brothers and called me 'nii-san' when you were drunk because Yoruichi forced us to have a party."

"Only you would bring that up, the others?"

"None of them know, and I want to leave Orihime out of this. Might bring Chad, definitely not leaving Tatsuki out again."

"Good, Urahara and your father?"

"Know nothing, and I'm going to keep it that way for awhile."

Uryu got up off the ground and adjusted his glasses.

"What are we going to do?"

"Try to get your father on board, I'm working on the Vizards and Tatsuki and Chad. We are killing Aizen before he gets the Hogyoku. Perhaps we ought to find Nell, she's probably in the desert already."

"I wonder if you could trigger their memories, too."

"We could certainly try."

##############################################################################

Well, there we go! I got it out! The reason it took so long was my what-to-do-with-Uryu-and-Chad thing. I think I know where the plot-bunny is going now. Next update should be soon, unless homework rears it's ugly head again…

-Waywardneko