Hollow Dress Chapter 1 (Patreon)

Bleach parody: Tier 1/Halloween special-Symbiotober 

Symbiotober Day 3

Hollow Dress

Ichigo was quite unique, he could sense and see spirits sure, but on one day he gained an unusual little friend. Aizen created White to corrupt Soul Reapers, but instead it attacked a quincy. It bonded with her soul and evolved into something not even Aizen was expecting. Ichigo is able to manifest his hollow in a crazy and unique way, the two have a symbiotic relationship.

Chapter 1 Hollow Dress

Sosuke Aizen experimented on hollows, his latest creation White, was a thing of beauty. It was designed to infect and corrupt shinigami, but he was surprised when White went after a quincy woman. Seemingly defeated, his experiment was over...or so he thought…

He believed the bite from White would kill the quincy girl and that was that.

-x-

The quincy woman was Masaki Kurosaki, she married Isshin Shiba and had a family. The hollow infected her soul, and as a quincy she had no anti-bodies to fight off the infection. Isshin sacrificed his powers to save her, but he couldn’t expel the hollow from her.

When they had kids there was a concern the hollow could pass on. When their son Ichigo started to see spirits at a young age they had their suspicions, he was spiritually aware he could be a quincy or a shinigami or…

Masaki kept her powers and used them to protect her family, but they should have warned Ichigo about the dangers. Hollows love souls with strong spiritual energy, living or ghost. When he was a kid, he was lured into a trap by Grand Fisher.

She wanted to save her son but in that moment, someone took her powers away. Grand Fisher had a bad habit of playing with his food, this and Masaki’s distraction gave Ichigo a chance to manifest his power. White goo spread over his body and acted as armor, the wound Fisher inflicted on him was healed instantly. “High speed regeneration...is he one of us…” A tail whipped out and smacked him away and he was forced to flee.

“Mom…” Ichigo approached her, his hair had grown wild, a mask was over his face and his body was encased in a white shell. “What...what am I?”

Masaki hugged her son. “It’s okay sweetie...everything is gonna be okay…” She brought Ichigo to Kisuke Urahara, a shinigami who was exiled from Soul Society for a crime he didn’t commit. He had helped Masaki and Isshin out of the pinch they were in. If anyone could figure out what was going on with their son it was him.

Kisuke ran some tests on Ichigo and got him a hair cut. He found that he had the powers of a quincy, shinigami, and hollow inside him. The three cores were not acting normally and had evolved in a unique way. As for Masaki, her quincy powers were gone, completely, she was completely human now.

She hadn’t been the only one as other quincies in the world had lost their powers in the exact same way, in the exact same moment. Ichigo’s quincy powers had evolved from their connection to the shinigami and hollow elements.

There was nothing Kisuke could do for her, but he suggested that Ichigo start his training. As for his current state, the hollow shell eventually liquefied and returned to inside the orangette. Urahara managed to nab a sample, and found that it was alive.

Thanks to Masaki he had been able to study quincy and their abilities. She was an expert of the ability known as Blood Dress or Blut Vene. She had been using it when the mysterious white hollow attacked her. In Ichigo the power seems to have mutated and mixed with his hollow power.

When the liquefied hollow armor vanished Ichigo’s veins had been glowing similar to when Blut was activated. Kisuke was right, not only was it alive it had a consciousness similar to a zanpakuto spirit. It was still a hollow so there was some concerns that it was dangerous.

Tessai and Kisuke put Ichigo to sleep and used a spell to draw the hollow out. It manifested as a tiny blob creature, connected to Ichigo. At first it just hissed and latched out, so Tessai tried to quiet it down with a small spell, it zapped the hollow. “That was rude you jerks.”

“So you can speak, that makes things easier. What are your intentions with Ichigo?” Urahara asked.

“You supposed to be smart huh? You idiot! My intentions are Ichigo’s intentions, we are the same. I hadn’t intended to come out until the King was older, but that damn bastard would have killed us otherwise. It was a huge strain on the King’s power.”

“Do you know what you are?”

“Dunno, do you? Did you know what you were when you were born or did someone tell you?”The white blob nuzzled against Ichigo. “All I know is I’m connected to this kid, I feel what he feels, and if he dies so do I. So I’m gonna protect him!”That put some minds at ease.

“He’s gonna need help, would you be willing to help him get stronger.”

“We shall get stronger.” It said before sinking back into Ichigo.

It was a hollow, but a hollow symbiote, it was bonded to Ichigo’s body and soul. With that out of the way, they could begin training Ichigo and prepare him for the world he was living in. Isshin had intended to give his son a normal life, but that didn’t appear to be in the cards.

-x-

Training Ichigo was a bit difficult at first as his powers seemed to be a blend. Masaki gave her son her quincy cross, but he couldn’t manifest a reishi bow like a quincy could. He also didn’t have a sword like a shinigami, and well he didn’t appear to be able to conjure a mask like a vizard.

While they tried to figure things out they had him take kendo and archery. Masaki called in a favor from an ex of hers, the Ishida family. Ryuken didn’t have any interest in being a quincy despite having a talent for it. Thankfully Soken had grown kinder in his later years, he saw Masaki as a daughter even if she hadn’t married his son. The way his late wife treated her made the man feel he owed her a debt.

Ichigo met Soken and Uryu, for Reishi training. The two didn’t get along at first, but Soken was fascinated by Ichigo’s strange wavelength.

“Fascinating, your quincy powers aren’t connected to the king.” Kurosaki didn’t really understand. Soken believed the hollow powers severed that connection making them truly his. Which made the next discovery all the more impressive, the quincy powers had mutated along with the hollow and the shinigami powers.

If Ichigo managed to create arrows, they wouldn’t just destroy a hollow it would purify them like a shinigami zanpakuto. Soken was older and wiser, having been around the block more than once he was able to give Ichigo advice that helped him. He’s met humans who have been touched by hollows and gained powers.

With Soken’s help Ichigo learned to conjure his hollow dress, and this was the start of things to come. Ichigo’s vast well of spirit helped make this easier. Instead of making a bow out of reishi, he made a bow out of his armor, and he could fire arrows this way. ‘He may be able to save the quincies.’ It was a dream he wouldn’t get to see as sadly he would pass away a year later.

Soken’s death hit both Ichigo and Uryu hard, but the young quincy had the hybrid to lean on. There was some suspicions that the shinigami were involved in Soken’s death. Given the history between the quincy and shinigami it was possible.

-x-

Ichigo had bonded with his hollow, over the years his strength grew and the hollow became more lively. Kurosaki gave him a name, Shiro. Uryu butted heads with Shiro often calling him a parasite.

To Ichigo, Shiro was a part of him, without him he’d probably be dead. Isshin saw their relationship similar to that of a zanpakuto spirit. Even Karin and Yuzu saw Shiro as part of the family. He even got a bowl at the table.

The hybrid lived a pretty normal life, for him. By day he went to school, did his homework, hung out with friends, spent time with family, and at night...well that’s when things get weird.

Thanks to Shiro Ichigo’s body was evolved breaking down all food and converted it into energy. So Ichigo only needed four hours of sleep to be fully rested, so he spent his nights patrolling the town. He protected the ghosts from the hollows, sometimes he’d sit with them and listen to their problems and help them pass on.

His efforts caused a stir, both in a positive way and a negative way. Soul Society became aware of Ichigo’s existence, even if they didn’t know what he was. They decided to send in someone to investigate, because of the risks and the unknown it was a small team.

Rukia Kuchiki, Hanataro Yamada, and Renji Abarai.

To be continued