Who: Ichigo (
savior_n_black ), Shiro (
holeheart ), Rukia
snowwhitesoul ) AND POSSIBLY MORE LATER?
What: Ichigo, and Shiro's powers finally force them to merge back into a single soul.
When: Day 4, early
Where: Middle of the city
Warnings: Language, violence, minor body horror?
Ichigo wasn't sure how long it had been. Two days? Three? A week? The darkness was never ending, but every day the people of the city were wearing down. Even the best, strongest fighters can't hold out forever.
He was feeling the toll, too, only in a different way. Ichigo, and Shiro were never meant to share powers like this. Not to this extreme, or for this long. His hollow was doing admirably, in his bestial form, or out of it, but Ichigo could feel the difference. Something inside him was almost pulling unconsciously on that hollowified power. His mask would be summoned into place without him being consciously aware, his attacks were not as coordinated, but getting so strong.
Most of all, that chain. The soul-chain that connected his heart to Shiro kept winking in, and out of visibility at random intervals, and without the conscious prompting from Ichigo, or his hollow. As they ran through Promenade, which now looked more, and more like a scene straight out of Dante's Hell, Ichigo wasn't even aware that his eyes hadn't changed back to their usual brown. Even without his mask, they remained solid black with gold irises, and maybe that little telltale sign explained why he was moving this fast, despite not actively wearing his hollow mask.
I can almost sense her!
Rukia was closer, but her reiatsu was a furious arctic storm. She was fighting, and had been for days. Ichigo felt a stab of worry as the chilled energy seemed to weaken a bit ( or maybe it was just his own reiatsu clouding his senses ) and bared his teeth.
Hurry!