Chapter 18: A Baby's Cries

Here you go. Enjoy the story and see if your guess was right. Main note is at the bottom of the story like always.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or Bleach. Shame, it would be great if I did.

Protector Of The Fairies

A Baby's Cries

Ichigo grabbed for Toushirou just as he was about to fall, pulling him back towards the cliff edge.

"What happened?" the boy asked.

Ichigo scowled and looked towards the top of the mountain. "You felt that just now? There was an explosion somewhere. And I don't think it was a coincidence that it happened now."

Ichigo sighed before grabbed the boy. "Hold on. If they know we're coming, we need to be faster."

Before Toushirou could protest, the two vanished in a burst of Shunpo, reappearing at the top of the mountain within a few steps. Toushirou immediately broke free of Ichigo's grip and fell to the floor, disorientated.

"What was that?"

"Shunpo. It's a basic technique once you gain Shikai. Lets you move from one place to another within very short amounts of time."

Toushirou slowly forced himself back to his feet. "Does it always feel like this?"

Ichigo smiled at the boy. "Constant use is meant to take away and feelings of nausea or confusion you would get from using it. I don't blame you for not coping well the first time. You're nine. You aren't meant to be using Shunpo yet."

Ichigo turned his attention towards the area they had arrived in. What he needed to find was the entrance. It was meant to be hidden somewhere that Mayuri wouldn't have thought to look, yet strong enough so if he had found it, he couldn't block it up.

He closed his eyes and concentrated. The best way to hide something if Juushirou wanted it a secret would be to layer it in Kidou. A barrier over a barrier would do the trick. One to hide the entrance and protect it, the other to shield the Spell's Magic from normal detection methods.

And it was there. It was a fairly elaborate one from what he could sense. But how could he sense it this well? Shouldn't it be secret?

Did Juushirou plan this? Had Juushirou always been aware that this man would go rogue, and had believed that he would be able to stop him. Had he been keyed into the Spell as a precaution for this eventual day?

Juushirou really was always one step ahead of most people. He could understand from this why so many people obeyed him without question. It wasn't just his power. That kind nature distracted them from that power and let them focus on his mind. Someone that kind didn't end up in such a high position of power because they were just kind after all.

He walked towards the area where he could feel the Kidou and reached towards it. He felt the Magic in it reaching out towards him and testing him, trying to work out who he was.

A quick flare of his own Magic had the barrier retreating in on itself, collapsing as if faded away. Kidou barriers were always strong but they weren't made to turn on and off at will except for a select few. Most were either on and running or off and destroyed. There was no in between for basic barriers like this.

As the barrier disappeared, the two Shinigami were treated to the view of a large hole in the ground, no light in sight down there to guide their path or let them know how deep it was.

"Are you ready?"

Toushirou looked at him and nodded confidently. Ichigo grabbed hold of the boy again and swung him over his shoulder, much to the boy's annoyance. There wasn't much he could do about it though. Shunpo wouldn't be very helpful here if they couldn't see where they were going so he would have to simply jump.

And jump he did. He backed off slowly first before leaping into the hole. There was no other way to go so they had to move forward through the path they had. And within moments, they were plunged into darkness, neither making a sound in fear of triggering something or awakening something in the darkness.

Energy quickly gathered in Ichigo's palm before he fired it as a blast of Oukasen. It lit the path ahead of them, allowing him to use his Magic to create small platforms in the air to help him manoeuvre and dodge any dangers from the random rock edges that stuck out from the sides of the hole.

The light suddenly flashed brightly for a moment before it faded away.

"Was that mean to happen?"

Ichigo ignored Toushirou's sudden burst of panic as he reached and drew his sword, energy gathering around it. He pointed the sword in front of him and let the energy flowing around the blade spread to shield him and Toushirou.

As they were about to reach the area where the light disappeared, Ichigo unleashed the energy from his sword, the Getsuga Tenshou blasting away the obstacle before he grabbed hold of the air and slowed himself, his feet hitting the ground below.

He dropped Toushirou to the ground while he looked up at what they had crashed through. It seemed that the metal above them had been constructed to be fairly weak so his attack had broken through it like a knife against butter. It must have been Juushirou's work again. Have a roof that appears the same somewhere where Mayuri won't look and hope no one ever tested the metal.

They were in now though. The question was where Mayuri would be. He slowly stopped trying to suppress some of his Magic and let it flow out normally.

"What are you doing?" asked Toushirou in anger and confusion. "Do you want him to find us?"

"He already knows we're here. Why bother hiding that fact. I'm letting my Magic spread out more so to disrupt his methods of sensing us."

Ichigo looked around at the two paths they could take. "With my Magic being at its normal rate, he will know I'm here but not where I am. You simply can't have that much Magic in one area and not have it spread out unless you can force it to stay still. Hence he won't be able to work out where exactly I am within the base, just that I am there."

Toushirou seemed to understand. "So now that you aren't using your own Magic to suppress my own, it allows it free reign and, like yours, mine can spread out too now."

"In theory, it should be enough to confuse him. In practice, well we'll see for ourselves."

They glanced down the paths they had to take. Toushirou nudged the older Shinigami. "Should we split up?"

"No. If you find Mayuri, you won't be able to kill him alone. You aren't strong enough yet, and I can't find you within all the corridors and rooms this lab is bound to have. We should stick together."

Toushirou shrugged but Ichigo could tell the boy was annoyed. He didn't have time to deal with it though. All he said was the truth. The boy had a great amount of potential, and would undoubtedly become a strong Shinigami, but he wasn't strong enough yet. He had no Kidou knowledge and would have very little skill with his Zanpaktou without any kind of formal training.

Time was against them unfortunately. If he could, he would have trained the boy a bit and fixed some mistakes he could be making but they simply didn't have the time to do so. And without even Shikai to make up for any lack of skill, the boy would be exactly what he was. A child. He wasn't a proper Mage yet.

Slowly, they began moving, ears open for any sounds that could be heard. The corridors felt eerily quiet, especially with some of the lights flickering on and off.

They found their first room and glanced in. Nothing. No one was there. A minute later and they found two more doors. Again, no one was there.

This pattern continued. Cantina? No one there. Offices and labs? No one there. Bedrooms? No one there.

"I don't like this," muttered Ichigo. "Where is everyone?"

Toushirou glanced at him. "Isn't this a good thing? We're keeping out of sight."

"I'd like that normally but we should have at least seen someone. And Mayuri is the kind of person who desires results. Those working under him would want to make sure he has no reason to get mad at them so would at least someone working while the others rested. So where is everyone?"

Toushirou couldn't answer him. They both understood the situation. If the other scientists of the lab weren't here, then where were they? Or better yet, what had happened to them?

Something still bothered him though. These corridors were surprisingly big. And it looked like the top had been done recently, which explained why the area they started in had been smaller. They hadn't reached that area yet for expanding them. Lucky in a way because they would have found the back entrance, but it still was suspicious. Why were the corridors being expanded?

A cry filled the air. Ichigo and Toushirou snapped towards the sound, puzzled at what they had heard. It sounded like a baby. But why would a baby be in a place like this? Was it part of Mayuri's experiments?

Why did it fill them with so much dread too? If it was just a baby, what was there to worry about? They could save the baby easily, yet some part of them told them to not trust the sound.

The cry sounded again, closer this time. It was far closer than it should have been if it was normal baby. A normal baby couldn't move that fast. They could even hear the sounds of bells as the sound got closer and closer.

It was almost at them. It had to be just down the next corridor. Before they could even move though, a door swung open and a hand grabbed them, pulling them into the room before the door swung shut again.

"Hey-"

Ichigo was cut off by a hand covering his mouth, preventing him from speaking. He was about to retaliate when a voice whispered into his ear.

"If you want to live, then shut up."

He stopped trying to break free, instead deciding to trust the voice for now. A moment later, they heard the sounds of movement, as if something large was passing by. The bells and cries got louder as they passed before they finally started quieting, the cause of the noise getting further away.

The moment they could no longer hear it, Ichigo found himself being released. He slowly turned round to examine whoever had helped them. Their saviour seemed to be a blonde haired man with his hair straightened and stretching down around him to his jaw.

The man was dressed in fairly smart clothes, with black trousers and an orange shirt along with a black tie around his neck. He smirked at them, revealing his upper teeth as he did so.

"Well then," he muttered as he looked at Ichigo. "Isn't this a surprise. I didn't expect to see you here Ichigo."

Ichigo froze slightly, watching the man carefully. How did this man know who he was?

The man smiled even more. "Of course, you don't know who I am so it makes sense you would be worried. I guess you could say I'm an older brother of sorts."

"Who are you?" Ichigo didn't bother trying to hide the threat in his voice. They had to treat everything here as a threat until known otherwise. Who knew what strange things Mayuri had done to the people working with him.

"Relax a bit won't you?" The man marched over to a chair before sitting down on it casually, like he didn't have a care in the world. "Don't be so serious about things."

Ichigo shot straight towards the man with Shunpo, intending to get his sword to the man's throat to make him speak. Instead of reaching the neck however, it bounced off to the side against a sword the man had drawn that had been hidden from view behind the chair.

Ichigo's eyes widened as he realised what the sword was. It was a Zanpaktou. Before any counter attack could be made, he had already retreated, though he looked at the man in surprise that no counter attack had been even attempted. Surely it would have been the best chance to do so.

The man raised a finger to his lips. "You may want to calm down. I can feel the panic you're feeling through your Magical Power. And I doubt I would be the only one."

"Who are you?"

The man sighed. "Calm down first. Do you want to be interrupted?"

Slowly, Ichigo breathed in and out, making sure to get his Magic back under his control. He looked back towards the man expectedly.

The man sighed again. "You're no fun. Oh well. A deal is a deal after all. My name is ijnihs okarih."

Ichigo frowned. "What kind of name is that?"

The man smiled. "Sorry. I forget not everyone understands me when I do this. I have a very good talent of reversing things after all."

A hand was outstretched towards Ichigo. "Let's try again. I'm Shinji Hirako."

Ichigo eyed the hand cautiously before slowly reached out towards it. "You already know who I am. The kid with me is Toushirou Hitsugaya."

Shinji looked towards the boy with disdain. "Not interested in him."

Toushirou scowled. "What's wrong with me?"

Shinji gave him a smile, though his one was clearly mocking him. "You're just a Shinigami. You're nothing like me and Ichigo, so why should I pay you any attention? Maybe later you can prove to me it's worth acknowledging you but for now, you are nothing but trash."

"And what is wrong with being just a Shinigami?"

Shinji looked up at the orange haired speaker. "Isn't it obvious? One of the primary reasons they exist is to slay Hollows. People like us are not natural. They can't understand the nature of us, and that never ends well for people like us."

"People like us?"

Shinji looked at him in genuine confusion. "You do understand what you are don't you? You were the one Kisuke Urahara trained after all. It is only natural that he would want to make you understand the powers he gifted you."

"He trained me in my Shinigami powers for a few years and then left me to it. I'm not sure how we can relate to one another."

"I see," muttered Shinji. "That means you don't even understand the danger you're in. You won't even recognise it. They are tricky creatures after all, sneaking up on you and slowly devouring you from the inside."

Ichigo started to worry. "What are you talking about? What creatures? What's devouring me?"

"Have you ever felt that something else was inside you? That sometimes you can hear something that isn't your Zanpaktou? Something strange?"

Ichigo nodded. "A few times. I heard this voice once years back and once again recently. I was unable to win the fight I was in and I let him take control."

"YOU DID WHAT!"

Shinji rushed towards him, grabbing him by his shirt. "Are you an idiot? Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? You can't trust a Hollow like that. That's exactly what they want. They want you to let them in until they completely dominate your mind and become the one in charge."

"A… Hollow?"

"You really don't have any idea do you? You're a Visored, a member of the Masked Army. And you're the original too, the one who this entire project was based off. The greatest creation of Kisuke Urahara."

"Creati-"

The wall behind them crashed open, pelting them with the rubble from the wall as they increased the distance away from it.

"Found you."

The voice sounded childlike but it was so sinister and creepy to hear. What was causing the sound?

"Hadou Number 54: Haien."

An oblong blast of purple energy shot off Shinji's hand and flew into the whole. A scream of pain emerged but before anything could happen, a small orange barrier appeared over the hole and Shinji started pulling them towards the door.

"We need to move now. I'll answer everything later but we need to move."

"What the hell was that? One of Mayuri's test subjects?"

Shinji laughed. "I wish. That's the man himself. That's Mayuri Kurotsuchi, one of the smartest men in the world. And I have no idea what he's done to himself."

"That's him?" Toushirou was about to turn around in range when he found himself being picked up and swung over Ichigo's shoulder again.

"HEY! What's the big idea? That's the man we need to kill."

"Are you an idiot?" asked Shinji. "Do you even know what he's capable of? Why do you think Ichigo is running too? He has no idea of what Mayuri is capable of so at the very least, he is trying to go somewhere that benefits him more than Mayuri to compensate."

Toushirou looked towards Ichigo and saw the intense look of concentration on his face. Ichigo suddenly turned his head towards Shinji.

"Do you have any idea what he is capable of?"

Shinji's expression darkened for a moment. "Yeah, I know perfectly well what he is capable of. I saw the results, and it is extremely effective. I'll put it in other terms to help clarify what I mean. There were eight of us to start with, and I'm the last one alive."

Ichigo looked at him sadly. "I'm sorry."

"There's time for that sappy stuff later," said Shinji with a smile. "First thing to do is kill that bastard."

They turned a corner and found themselves in the entrance to a long stretch of ground. Shinji looked along the path and nodded. "This will do."

"Are you sure? There must be an area that is more open than this."

"There is. It's back the way Mayuri was. We can't reach it without having to go through him, and that isn't very wise in those smaller corridors."

"What's so special about this one?" asked Toushirou. "It looks exactly the same as the others."

"Pay more attention idiot. It's wider than the others. It's more of a central hallway than anything else, but it is nice and open."

"How does that help us?"

"That's how the others died." Shinji's expression darkened again. "We thought our power would be superior, and it was, but we couldn't make use of it in time. We were trapped in a space too small to survive in. I'm only alive because of Hacchi's sacrifice."

"What makes Mayuri's form so dangerous is his poison. And even then, he's still tough. That Hadou I used is a strong one yet it won't have done much except have forced him back a bit. He really turned himself into a monster."

"A monster?" Ichigo couldn't help but laugh. "I've already seen a monster. Let's see if he comes close to Gildarts's level."

He grabbed his sword and swiped it to the side. "Zangetsu."

The blade shifted shape till it changed to the Shikai state, Shinji eyed the blade curiously.

"No release incantation. That's interesting."

"Can you use Shikai?"

"Of course. It's really very simple." Shinji shot a smirk at Toushirou as he saw the boy get annoyed from that passing remark. "It won't help us here though."

"You want a piece of him like Toushirou?"

"I'd rather have the whole thing."

"Then get ready to follow me when he appears."

A baby's cry filled the air once more, but no member of the group dared move towards the sound, instead retreating back to give themselves more room. Eventually, Mayuri made his appearance.

The form wasn't as monstrous as they had been led to believe but it was still horrific. The creature looked to be a large caterpillar with a red cape around its neck. The disturbing part however was the grotesque golden baby's head on the front of the creature along with a pair of arms further back. A silver halo hovered around the head, giving misinformation on the nature of this creature, with 4 bells on the halo itself.

"So all the rats gathered together in one place."

There was that creepy voice again. It was far too high pitched and childlike to be Mayuri's natural voice, and it was strange hearing the voice from the monster's mouth.

"Toushirou Hitsugaya, Shinji Hirako, and Ichigo. I never expected to see the three of you together."

Shinji glanced at Toushirou. "Why's the brat so important?"

The face of the baby scowled, looked strange to see. "He's not. Just one of my little side projects. I have to say, you were much better than I expected as a lab rat but the Visored were far better to observe. At least you helped me perfect the process. They would all be dead if it wasn't for you."

Shinji frowned and turned towards Toushirou. This kid was the reason the eight of them had survived?

"And to have the original here too is such an honour. I wonder if I should keep you alive, just so I can dissect you later. Kisuke could have found something I missed but I'm sure I can find anything that he did after a few tests. Then again, I've lost interest in this project now. There's nothing new to it. I think I'll just kill you instead."

"With that form?" Ichigo laughed, Toushirou glancing at him with worry. Was Ichigo trying to make Mayuri mad?

Shinji meanwhile hid a smirk. So that was their current plan. Fish for information, and then adapt anything they need to on the fly.

Mayuri seemed to fall for it. "You dare laugh at my perfection? I spent years developing this. I believed that a simple change to my body would be enough but they were all too weak. But this… This is perfection."

Mayuri smirked at them. "This form of mine comes from all that research. I even managed to capture a Shinigami for myself and replicate the form Shinigami Magic takes. And now I have unleashed it into my body, giving me this wondrous form. I guess you could say that if I was a real Shinigami, then this would be my Bankai."

"That explains it," said Shinji suddenly. "That's why attacks have been unable to affect you. That form represents the full release of a Shinigami's Zanpaktou, and a release like that is always powerful."

"Exactly! You think that a mere Shikai will be able to beat me?"

Shinji leaned towards Ichigo. "Whatever you are going to do, we need to do it soon."

Mayuri suddenly opened his mouth wide as a purple mist spewed forth from his mouth. Shinji grabbed Ichigo and tried to force him away but he refused to budge.

"ICHIGO!"

"Stay close to me." Shinji was shocked silent by the calm and confident tone Ichigo was emitting. "And make sure you keep up."

The purple mist kept spewing forth but just as it was about to reach them, it found itself being repelled, an invisible force surrounding Ichigo and the others.

Mayuri's mouth closed slightly as the poison stopped being created. "What-"

Using some of the poison as cover, Ichigo suddenly charged forward, Shinji and Toushirou keeping close. As they approached more of the poison, it would suddenly get repelled away from them and helped provide the cover they needed.

Shinji couldn't help but feel impressed. This idea was definitely smart. By increasing the Magical Power Ichigo was emitted constantly, he had created a force that was blowing the poison away if it got too close, stopping them from even getting exposed to the gas.

Mayuri snarled before he started moving towards them, picking up speed with each second. They could all see blades suddenly shot out of Mayuri's chest and knew what the mad scientist had planned. He intended to skewer them on the blades, and Shinji knew that those blades wouldn't be ones that shattered easily.

Shinji glanced forward at Ichigo, noticing the teen had now stopped. Had his plan been just to grab Mayuri's attention.

Ichigo drew his Zanpaktou back and energy slowly gathered to the edge. It felt even easier to gather than before, just like how he had found it easier to use Getsuga Tenshou when they had broken in. He brought his free hand to join the first on the hilt and waited.

Shinji joined him at his side. Ichigo looked at him confusion but Shinji ignored him, instead raising a hand to his face. Ichigo watched in a mix of confusion and interest as Magic gathered around near Shinji's hand, slowly becoming solid as it formed white pieces of material.

Then Shinji sudden brought his hand down, the material falling into place around his face to create a bone white pharaoh's mask, a short flowing hood continuing at the top of the mask down his head to the back of his neck.

Ichigo suddenly made the connection. "That's-"

"Save it for later," said Shinji, his voice echoing slightly. It was the same type of echo he had heard from whatever was inside him.

Shinji raised his hand and clenched it, red energy gathering towards it in a horizontal line.

"Are you ready?"

Shinji nodded before the two released their respective attacks.

"Getsuga Tenshou!"

"Cero!"

From Ichigo, the large blue arc of energy flew from his blade, slicing through the mist and impacting directly against the skin of Mayuri. At the same time, Shinji's attack fired off in an extremely wide arc, slicing through the walls around them and hitting Mayuri just as the Getsuga Tenshou hit. The result was instantaneous.

The attacks sliced Mayuri completely in half, the top half suspended in the air for a split moment before crashing back down onto the collapsed lower half. At no point did Mayuri move. The trio were in agreement about one thing. It was over for Mayuri.

The poison mist around them slowly disappeared with no one able to maintain its form, becoming one with the Magic in the air. Toushirou slowly approached the remains of Mayuri, kicking the monstrosity a few times before drawing his sword and slashing into it. Neither Ichigo nor Shinji bothered stopping him. Toushirou had been unable to help them kill him so this would be the only way he could get any of the revenge he wanted. And it wasn't like Mayuri deserved any respect after what he had done.

"If I die… I take you with me."

The group froze. Despite being chopped in half, Mayuri had still managed to speak. In his condition, he wouldn't be able to release any poison, but that might not be all he could do.

The body of Mayuri suddenly started swelling and they all realised what was about to happen. Ichigo immediately used Shunpo and grabbed hold of Toushirou before he launched them away in the opposite direction of their fallen enemy, desperately using Shunpo again.

They barely made it out of the blast, the explosion filling the entire hallway and wrecking most of the area around them. They could see that it had ripped upwards too and exposed many of the upper levels along with going down to the lower levels. At least they wouldn't have to worry about the lab getting reused.

Ichigo glanced over at Shinji, relieved to see the man had escaped the blast as well. Despite being what Mayuri would have called a lab rat, Shinji had been trained well. He knew Shunpo which was a good indication and he had already said that he could use Shikai easily.

One question still bugged him. "That mask of yours..."

Shinji raised his hand to his face and then pulled it to the side, the mask glowing before it broke apart into energy towards his hand and disappeared. "That's a little process referred to as Hollowfication."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Hollowfication?"

Shinji looked up at the new hole in the ceiling before pointed upwards. "There should be enough of the lab at the top there to help explain things." Shinji quickly reached towards Toushirou. "Follow me."

The three Shunpoed up to the higher floor before Shinji let go of Toushirou and let the kid wonder over to the corner to recover. Shinji meanwhile lead Ichigo over to one of the doors at the right. He reached towards the keypad and rapidly typed in a sequence of numbers.

"How do you know the code?"

Shinji gestured downwards. "Mayuri was always a bit arrogant. I guess in a way, I was his favourite. I was sarcastic and would mess with things but he knew I was the leader of our little group and that the others listened to me. By letting me walk around freely at times, he would observe me and how I interacted normally outside tests."

"Of course, he wasn't a fool to let me see anything that could be used against him. I was better than him however. I stole a mirror from one of the female employees recently and saw how he entered the password. Seeing how he entered it backwards was simple to reverse. As I said, I have a talent for reversing things."

The keypad gave a beep and the door swung open, revealing an office untouched by any of the damage. Ichigo frowned as he compared the two rooms. "How did this place remain completely untouched?"

"You think Mayuri would have the same materials protecting him as everyone else? Of course not. I think he replaced it almost the instant he got set up here."

Ichigo nodded at the answer before moving towards one of the screens and hitting a key on a keyboard attached to it. "This is fancy equipment. The Council really went all out on what they gave him access to if they allowed him to store notes on one of these. Each one is meant to be worth the reward of over a hundred S Class Quests."

"Research equipment for a task like this needed to be the best it could be. There should be a file or something on there for what we're looking for. Anything about Hollows might be it."

Ichigo attempted to access the system and completely failed. "Um, how do you use this thing?"

"I thought you knew how to."

"I know of these things but I never used them."

Shinji sighed. "Good thing I have. I'll take over."

Shinji was about to show Ichigo what they were looking for when he stopped. "How much do you know about Hollows?"

"Just the basics. There's a Spell to become one that the caster uses and it gives them a massive power boost."

"I see. Then you are unfamiliar with the evolution of them aren't you."

Ichigo looked at Shinji confused. "Evolution? I thought Hollows just gained that power boost. I didn't know they evolved."

"They eat powerful Mages to become stronger by absorbing that Mage's Magical Power but they eventually reach a limit where even their strengthened bodies can't hold all the Magic within them. To keep consuming, they have to evolve. They become a Menos."

Shinji raised his hands and held them far apart vertically. "The first level is Gillian. Think massive creatures, taller than everything around them. They are literally the size that their Magic is, yet lacking the control to manage it down to smaller sizes. They all have one thing in common. They are all the same. They lose their mind and revert to a state of being pure beasts."

"However, over time, a Gillian will eventually regain their mind and personality. They will continue to seek out things to devour and are even harder to stop before. It is at this point that a Shinigami would have been sent out to deal with the Gillian before it evolves again."

"Once the personality returns though, and this can be in days, weeks, months, or even years, then the next evolution will take place much quicker than before. There is originally not much change in obvious power seen, but in reality the Hollow gains control over all its new power and will evolve into a form where its power can be managed. At this point, it shrinks down to smaller sizes."

"This form is an Adjuchas. Adjuchas normally keep hunting at this point, though some stay away from civilization. The final level after all has the greatest distance between their powers."

"I'm not really sure exactly how they become the last stage apart from a drastic growth in strength but they have very humanoid like shapes and are one of the most powerful creatures that exist in this world. I doubt there are even more than a few in existence at this point if any even exist. They are called Vasto Lorde."

"Not to sound rude," interrupted Ichigo, "but how does this link to Hollowfication?"

Shinji smirked. "Barely anything. All that was important was that there were different forms. You see the Hollowfication is the process of giving a Shinigami the powers of a Hollow. It creates an entity inside us that tries to devour us and the only way to stop it is to beat it into the ground and make it submit. Hollows respect strength after all. They are instinctual creatures, and they won't fight something that can kill them."

"These Inner Hollows that are created however are always at least Menos types, or they are by the time we can hear them. They probably start of as a normal Hollow but they quickly evolved beyond that. After that stage, it all depends of the level of resonance that exists between the two powers."

Ichigo raised a hand, stopping Shinji in his tracks. "Hold up. I'm confused here. Resonance?"

"Have you ever performed a Unison Raid?"

"Partly. It was more of an artificial one that my friend and I created, practicing constantly till we got the timings done."

"Did you know that is impossible to know when you have perfected the Unison Raid? How did you know that the combination you had was the perfect blend to work?"

"I…" Ichigo found himself unable to answer. How had he known that the combination had been completed? How had he known that the timings had been right?

"The answer is because of what you are. You're a Visored like me, and that means you have a Hollow inside you. Resonance exists between the two powers but there is actually a massive jump in power when one is added to the other. It isn't just that you add one to the other. The powers resonate with one another and form a Unison Raid between themselves. The level of resonance means how much they amply one another in the Unison Raid since not everyone has the same level as everyone else."

Shinji pointed at himself. "I'm at seventy six percent resonance which is why I can use a Cero, a technique only Hollows can use. I was the highest in terms of resonance among the other seven, yet if I'm correct yours is probably higher."

"Mine is higher? What makes you so sure?"

"Because Kisuke Urahara is smarter than Mayuri. If I'm correct, you're probably in the nineties at the very least. Haven't you ever wondered why your Magical Power was so high? When you were younger, there would have been no way that it could be natural. It would have burned out your body and killed you without the appropriate physical reinforcements Hollows have."

"I see." Ichigo looked down at his hand. It certainly did explain things. Why he had always had so much Magic and certainly why that it been possible all this time. And it explained that voice too like Shinji said before.

"So this Inner Hollow is dangerous?"

"Going by your level of resonance, it could eventually evolve into a Vasto Lorde. Mine will probably only ever reach Adjuchas stage which is dangerous enough. Trust me, you don't want to fight a Vasto Lorde at your state. You need to beat it down while it is still weak and you need to do it soon."

"And if I don't beat it before it's too late?"

"Then you'll become a Hollow for certain, and you'll kill everyone."

Protector Of The Fairies

Chapter 18 and we get the new member alongside Toushirou. Shinji is here, and congrats to the ones who guessed it right. I saw a load of guess from other Shinigami to even Arrancar and I was glad to see all the guesses people had.

One more chapter in this Arc if I'm correct and then we have the interlude. I've done more work with the Battle for Fairy Tail and I can honestly say that I believe you will love some of the stuff there (or at least I hope so). And I have worked especially hard with Laxus's battle in that section. It will be the longest fight scene I've ever done, even longer that Gildarts. Means that the Battle for Fairy Tail will end up being my longest Arc too.

Tell me what you thought of this? Did you guys like Mayuri? He was never going to be a tough enemy but he is deadly in the right places and I thought that his Bankai form would be a nice way to show what he had done to himself and how he had managed to kill the other Visored.

Also, thanks to you guys, I'm third in favourites too. Not only that, but last chapter just got me up to 300 Reviews. Not only that but last chapter had 31 reviews in total. Thank you so much all of you. I couldn't have got this far without all of you loyal readers. I sound like I'm accepting an award but who cares. You guys are awesome.

Out of curiosity, did any of you see the latest chapters? Didn't expect Natsu to be up so quickly but at least he stopped Lucy having to make that horrible choice. I get the feeling it would end up being made in mine, just because it would be a darker theme to it. Who knows.

And with Bleach, I feel so sorry for the wolf guy whose name's spelling escapes me. He wanted so desperately to avenge the one who took him in but his strength failed him before he could make it. It was like when Uryuu used the Quincy's Final Form and was struggling up the stairs to reach Rukia before the mode ended. And what's going to happen to Bomb Girl (again names escape me in terms of spelling)? She looks scared of her own… friends? I'm not sure what they are to each other so they could be rivals or enemies so who knows. I hope Shinji gets back in the fight soon though. I want to see his Bankai so I can use it in this story.

Anyway, till the next time. I've been Takei. Thanks for reading.