Rebirth in Bleach

Itsuki stood behind Black Itsuki as it was cut in half. Before the black Itsuki fully dissipated he threw both his zanpakuto at it. They placed themselves right in the middle of the two parts as the black Itsuki started dissipating. A formation appeared underneath them filled with unknown and ancient runes.

Itsuki had come up with a theory. Ichigo's hollow had become a zanpakuto spirit. So, as it can become a zanpakuto spirit, it should be able to strengthen one. A Shinigami and their zanpakuto were one entity, so strengthening one would also strengthen the other. It was just a theory so he was trying it now, he didn't know the chances of success.

Itsuki didn't want to have a temporary power boost, he wanted a permanent one, so this was the result of that. Looking back at his zanpakuto, it seemed to be successful as he could feel his zanpakutos becoming stronger. The raw power from the hollow seemed to be stored in his body increasing his physical strength.

An hour passed to absorb the hollow when it finally disappeared. On top of the mountain, Ryurai and Byakko appeared in front of Itsuki. They had their same clothes on but now a part of a skeletal mask covered part of their faces. While Byakko had her right side covered from the forehead to her cheek, going over her eye, Ryurai had a similar one on the left.

"It seems your theory worked, Itsuki"

Itsuki just nodded as he felt the power in his body. He seemed to be neither a hollow nor a Shinigami, he was somewhere in the middle. The two zanpakutos just looked at him as felt the changes in his body. Knowledge of some techniques flashed through his mind; it was instinctive.

Opening his eyes, he felt as if he was shedding his outer layer. Well, he was shedding his outer layer, as his hollow shell started breaking apart. What was left was just Itsuki standing in the middle of a barren land with a trail behind him, a trail of bodies. Bodies littered the place behind him as he looked back.

Thinking of leaving this area, he stepped forward only to find out that he had overshot it. A hint of Sonido was used with that step. Looking at his body he felt he needed to get used to his new strength. So, he went on another massacre but only using his physical abilities. After getting used to his strength, he started experimenting on himself. His outer layer of skin had hardened, and his regenerative abilities had increased, only taking seconds for a cut to get healed.

He succeeded in mixing Shunpo and Sonido together, creating an advanced Shunpo technique, sending his speed to new levels.

He felt his senses also increase with the addition of being able locate reiatsu easier. Bringing his hand up, he pointed a finger at a lone hollow in the distance. The hollow was minding its own business when a beam of azure pink light obliterated it from existence.

Seeing the smoke released from his finger, Itsuki confirmed that he had most likely got all the base abilities of an arrancar. That move he just used was cero. He could increase its strength by deciding how much reiatsu he inputted into the move.

Itsuki suddenly heard a shuffling noise to his right. He was too engrossed in forming that cero that he forgot to pay attention to his surroundings. A midget was there trembling as it tried to hide by rolling into a ball and putting her hands over her head. The child had short green hair and a broken hollow mask on her head. The hollow mask had a crack run alongside the left of her mask while four of its teeth were missing. She had a long scar that reached down to her nose and a crimson line running across her face. She was wearing a green gown with a hood that covered her entire body.

Opening her hazel eyes, she looked around and saw no one. It seems the bad guy is gone. Suddenly she felt something behind her and jumped forwards. Looking at the figure, she was first mesmerised by his face but then remembered that it was the bad guy that fired that scary beam. Sweat poured down her face while tears were threatening to come out.

"WAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

A loud cry left her mouth as her tears gushed out like a waterfall. You could see her long canines from her lower jaw. Itsuki was stunned and didn't know what to do. He was currently in front of Nelliel Tu Odelschwank, a former espada and an arrancar that has lost her abilities. Being reverted to a child's form, she also reverted to that mentality.

Itsuki had no experience with children so he was stuck there, unable to do anything. Picking her up, he just held her in front of him like a football as she cried. Her legs were dangling in the air as her cry slowed down.

She got a proper look at the man in front of her eyes. He was too pretty. Seeing the difficulties in his eyes as he held her, she started feeling sorry for him. Maybe I should play eternal tag with him?

Itsuki saw that she had stopped crying as he heaved a sigh of relief.

Nel looked at the clothes the guy was wearing and started trembling once more.

Waving her hands and legs, she screamed while pointing at him

"Y-y-you, who are you?!"

"Minamoto Itsuki, a Shinigami."

'S-Shinigami… That means that he is a bad guy!!!!'

At first, she panicked and squirmed but realised that he wasn't letting her go easily. Suddenly a though flashed through her head as a scheming smile appeared on her face,

"Shinigami-san, want to play eternal tag?"

Seeing that she wasn't squirming anymore he put her down. Once her feet touched the ground, she immediately tagged Itsuki and ran,

"Tag you're it"

Itsuki just watched her run away.

'Children are a handful'

Suddenly sensing something, he disappeared into the direction where Nel had just left.

Nel was slowly running with her short legs while looking back. Seeing that the bad guy wasn't chasing her, and the plan seemed to be successful she came to stop while giving out a sigh,

"It sweems dat I'm too fwast for the bad guy"

A smug smile was plastered on her face as she imagined herself beating Itsuki up.

'Like that's possible…'

Observing her surroundings, she got confused,

'Where am I? Where is…?'

Suddenly, a shadow engulfed her as a large hollow appeared. A scream left its mouth while it swept its claw at Nel. Nel was too shocked to move as the claw got bigger in her eyes. A mysterious light welled up in the eyes of her mask when another figure appeared blocking the strike. Itsuki quickly dispatched the hollow that attacked.

Turning to Nel again, he saw that once again tears were threatening to come out of her eyes.

"D-did you just save me?"

Itsuki never replied as he checked for injuries on her body. At first, he thought it would be fun meeting the child Nel, but reality hit him harder than a truck. He just decided to ignore her as he knew she wasn't alone.

Seeing Itsuki walk away, she suddenly shouted,

"A-are you running away?"

Itsuki never looked back,

"A-a-are just going to run away?"

Seeing no response, she started bawling her eyes out,

"Meanie, I wanna play some more! I'd wather die den stop now"

A tick mark appeared on Itsuki as he got annoyed for the first time in history. Seeing that she wasn't leaving, Itsuki turned around and gestured for her to follow. Nel was immediately joyful when she saw this and ran up to Itsuki, hugging him out of the blue.

Itsuki was frozen with the sudden hug while Nel blabbered on. Picking her up, Itsuki looked at her in the eyes,

"Guardians, where?"

"I dwon't know, I lost dem"

Itsuki didn't know what to say. He knew that her two 'older brothers' were unreliable, but he never expected them to be this unreliable.

"Shinigami-san, want to carry on playing eternal tag?"

Itsuki was about to shake his head when Nel was already running off. Tired of being led by the whims of this kid, he just grabbed her and put her on his shoulders.

"D-dis is not how eternal tag works…!"

Itsuki chose to ignore her and carried on looking for her older brothers so he can leave her to them, and he can leave this place. While walking, he found out that the ability of his eyes had upgraded. Activating them, he would see floating lines here and there. To experiment on things, he put Nel to sleep and went some distance away. He traced the lines with a sword only for a large rift to open up and suck everything in.

Creating some distance, the rift began to close similar to someone healing a cut. It seemed he can, on some basis cut though the concept of space. He couldn't kill it yet as he didn't know how, and he felt his eyes weren't strong enough. Returning to Nel, they carried on their journey when she woke up. Itsuki didn't know how long he had been in Hueco Mundo, due to being in that hollow mode and the fact that there was no concept of night and day within Hueco Mundo. The sky stayed the same wherever Itsuki went.

Currently, Itsuki was just walking with his tattered Shinigami attire and captain's haori when he heard a few voices.

"NEL…!!!!"

"NEL, DON'TCHA KNOW!!!"

"BAWA! BAWA!"

A group of misfits looked around shouting for Nel, unaware of the possible dangers it can cause.

One of them was a humanoid Arrancar whose head is almost completely covered by his mask, which resembled an insect-like head with large mandibles and horns. His left eye was yellow in colour and could be seen through the eyehole while the right one was covered by a purple cloth. Blonde hair could be seen falling onto his back while the upper part of his purple body was covered by a white armour like vest. Beneath that was a hollow hole positioned near his stomach and he wore a loin cloth that was a lighter shade of purple. He only had three toes on each foot.

The other was a rather large fellow. He had a large body with small limbs. He wore a hooded yellow body suit with black polka dots of various sizes. His head was very large, being almost as big as his body. Unlike other arrancar, his tiki hollow mask covered his whole face where the eyes and mouth functioned as if it were his own. The mask had exaggerated colourful features including large eyes, teeth and a prominent nose.

Lastly wasn't an arrancar but rather a snake like hollow. His mask was a simple plate on his head with horns on either side. He had large pink lips and teeth. His body consisted of a hard and solid back with a lighter coloured underside.

"Pesche! Dondochakka! Bawabawa!"

Nel was started to run to them when she noticed the absence of Itsuki.

"Itsuki…"

Itsuki looked back at Nel as a Garganta opened next to him. Itsuki gave a small smile as he saw reluctance in her eyes while a bit of water appeared on the edges. She had gotten quite attached to Itsuki throughout their journey and didn't think that they would part when she reunited with her brothers.

Seeing this Itsuki took out a feather and gave it to her, it was from Seikyo. Itsuki had found it in one of his pockets, it must've fallen off some time before his hollow transformation.

Itsuki didn't speak as he patted her head and walked into the Garganta. Her three companions had just noticed Nel and rushed towards her.

A brave face replaced her sad one as she wiped her tears off and grasped the feather.

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Author's note

I, using my intellect, have come to a conclusion, it seems my health is ok now. Or I was just sick for like a day and gotten better the next day. you cant tell with the nose blocks caused by hay fever and the coughing caused by asthma. Was too tired so my last two chapters weren't of the best quality, but, if I can be bothered, i'll go back and redo them