"Check it out! He's turning into a Hollow!" Jinta exclaimed.

The mask was already halfway formed on Ichigo's face and I was frozen, watching from the edge. I whirled around when I heard Urahara approaching. "Do something, goddamn it! Or he's going to become a Hollow!"

"I'm taking preemptive measures," Ururu said, holding her arm out like it was a weapon of sorts.

"Wait," Urahara grabbed her arm.

"What are you doing?! Stop the process! Save him!" I screamed angrily, grabbing Urahara. "This isn't a joke anymore!"

"Look at him closely," Urahara merely said and I turned my gaze to him. "Ordinarily, when a whole becomes a Hollow, the spiritual body bursts into pieces and rearranges itself. But just like you Kera, he's not following the usual pattern. The mask is coalescing while his body is still whole. That's a sign of his resistance. There's still a remote chance that he can become a soul reaper in time. Let's wait a bit longer until his transformation is complete."

Hesitantly, I stepped away from Urahara and faced the shattered shaft again. Ichigo's screaming became louder and louder until all I could hear was his tortured voice. Is this what I sounded like before my Hollow took over?

My nails dug into my palms as I stood looking down at him. And I knew, I just knew, that Ichigo would beat it. Ichigo would beat the Hollow and prove himself stronger. Because that was just the type of person Ichigo was: he didn't let anything stand in his way.

We barely had to wait a minute and each passing second watered the seed of horror in my chest. The mask had almost completely covered Ichigo's face. Then Ichigo stood and the bonds holding his arms back strained against his strength.

"We can't wait any longer, sir!" Tessai shouted, "I'm switching to suppression mode! Binding spell 99 Number 2! Ban-Kin!" White swaths of something indescribable wrapped around Ichigo. "First incantation! Shiryu! Second Incantation! Hyaku Ren San!" Metal bolts appeared out of the thin air and punctured Ichigo all over his body.

"What're you doing?!" Jinta shouted, afraid. "He'll die if you do that to him!"

My body broke out in a sweat but all I could to was watch. I couldn't so much as force a syllable through the lump in my throat.

"I have no choice! I can barely restrain him!" Tessai exclaimed. "He must be destroyed before this change is complete!"

Destroyed?! "No, Tessai, don't do that!" I found my voice and screamed, gripping the edges of the shaft beside Jinta.

But our shouts had no effect on the man. "Final incantation! Ban-Kin Tai-Ho!" A giant, solid block of rock descended from the sky, falling quickly onto Ichigo.

Then someone grabbed me and forced me to the ground.

The shattered shaft exploded.

The hollow boom echoed for a few seconds as dirt and dust rained down upon our heads.

"What? I-it exploded?!" Jinta cried. "Something's coming out! Is it him?"

The something was still covered in dust as it hit the wall, then the ceiling, before returning to the earth with a ground shuddering thud. I extricated myself from under Urahara's arm, followed by a coughing Jinta.

"What... what the heck? Hey, is it you, mister?" Jinta called out to a dust covered figure in the distance. My skin tingled as I watched the dust slowly part. "Answer me, carrot top! Is it you?! If you're still alive, answer me!"

Two glowing eyes appeared and I stood, feet spread wide. My heart thumped wildly against my chest.

"Something's coming out," someone said but the voice was lost as the figure emerged from the dust and uttered a low guttural sigh. It was Ichigo alright.

With a Hollow mask plastered firmly on his face.

"A Hollow's mask and a soul reaper's shihakusho? Is it a Hollow? Or a soul reaper? Which is it?" Jinta questioned hurriedly.

Then Ichigo's hand moved slowly to grasp the hilt of the zanpakuto strapped to his back. Jinta and Ururu quickly moved into position, ready to fight. But when Ichigo drew his weapon, it was shattered. The blade was barely an inch or two thick from the hilt.

"C'mon! Come and get some! C'mon..." Jinta's bravery was admirable.

Ichigo's arm raised with the broken weapon... and he smashed the hilt into his mask. Shocked, I could only watch as he cracked it enough to pry it off with his fingers, an act not that different to what I had done to destroy my own mask.

"Phew!" Ichigo exclaimed.

"You didn't turn into a Hollow?" Jinta asked.

Ichigo flexed his fingers and my knees almost gave way. If Ichigo had become a Hollow, we would have had to kill him and I don't think I could have stomached having to destroy him. That and his death would lead to Rukia's own death.

"Congratulations!" Urahara clapped. "You succeeded in becoming a soul reaper! Hooray, you passed lesson two! Both of you did."

I turned my head slowly and glared so hard at Urahara, I'm surprised he didn't keel over.

"Screw you," Ichigo said, jabbing his hilt into Kisuke's face. "Hmph, you should've been praying I'd never come out of that hole alive," Ichigo threatened, looming over the hurt Kisuke, "cause I swore that if I ever made it out of there I'd kick your butt!"

"Wow. That's perfect." Urahara looked pleased as he stood. "Let's carry that spirit right into lesson three, shall we? Lesson three... has no time limit!" cried Urahara. "If you can knock my hat off with the zanpakuto..." Ichigo began moving before Urahara even finished his sentence, a whole of a lot faster than when he was a soul, "...you pass."

Ichigo struck with his broken zanpakuto, nicking the edge of Urahara's striped hat. Urahara looked surprised by that, only marginally though. "Not bad. You got this close with a broken zanpakuto."

"That's right!" Ichigo crowed. "And I wasn't even trying! Forget the time limit stuff! I'll finish this in five minutes!" He held his hand up, five fingers spread wide.

"You think so?" Urahara questioned, gripping the curved handle of the cane. Slowly, he pulled the handle and with a hiss, a hidden blade was unsheathed. "All right... Let's see you do it."

There was a sword hidden in there the whole time? Just who is this man?

"Kera." My head snapped to Kisuke. "You're training is done for today."

"What? But you haven't taught me anything!"

"What is there I need to teach you? You already know how to fight with a zanpakuto to it's full power from your time in the soul society."

"Yeah, but Kisuke, I don't have a zanpakuto anymore," I stressed angrily. "That was the whole point of this training regime. You were going to help me out!"

"Kera, I promised I would help and I will, but for the rest of today, Ichigo will be training. To have you both ready in time to leave for the soul society I need to get Ichigo up to speed."

"So what? I'm the weak link?" Ichigo looked unimpressed with that statement.

"At the moment, yes. Kera, I'll send for you later."

Grumbling and cursing colourfully under my breath, I stomped my foot several times, not intent on leaving. Kisuke gave me a look and it finally clicked to me why he wasn't letting me train with Ichigo.

"Hey, Kera, are you alright? You've gone really pale," Ichigo question, looking at me. My hand went up and covered my neck, covered the gaping Hollow hole in my skin.

"Fine then," I snapped, trying to cover up my fear with anger, "I'll leave. But you better send for me soon or I will hurt you."

Turning on my heel, I swiftly walked back to the ladder, picking up – well, putting back on – my gigai as I did so. When I reached the top, my body was shaking and I realised that I had been holding my breath.

I sucked in oxygen as I headed for my room. A quick look in the mirror showed just how tired I was. Dark grey rings lined the underneath of my eyes and my face looked drawn, staring back at me with a gaunt expression. Groaning, I flopped gratefully on my mat.

Ggggrrrrmmm.

"Okay, maybe I'll look for food first," I muttered, pushing myself up with a groan.

The little fridge downstairs though was empty.

Completely, utterly empty. So empty that the shelves looked unhappy and water dripped down the back of the fridge as if it was crying tears.

And no matter how many times I closed and opened that door, food did not appear. Suddenly, something fluttered down onto my head and I slapped it away. The piece of paper rocked on the wind before settling on the ground next to my foot.

Kera,

Hey dummy! You ate all the food so now you have to do the shopping. Sucks to be you. Have fun; the mall's a crazy place!

Jinta XD

~

The long bar of light above my head flickered and I glanced at it worriedly, hoping it wouldn't fall on my head or try to crush me like those sliding doors at the front. The store owner snorted then ruffled his paper noisily as I picked my way through the aisles.

Because I had had no sense of time down in Kisuke's underground training facility, what I had thought had been early morning when I flopped back into my room and wandered into the kitchen for a meal had actually been around 11pm at night.

So now, because of Jinta's stupid little note and my stupidly gigantic high metabolism and empty stomach, I was in some dingy little corner shop searching for food. Even just a packet of ramen with some seasoning would do for now. It wasn't like anyone else was going to be coming up to the surface anytime soon so I could go to a proper store tomorrow. Or today? I think it might be past midnight already.

The owner grumbled under his breath and lit a cigarette and I hurriedly scooped the closest ramen from the shelf and went to leave.

"Yo' gonna pay for that?" the owner asked – more like threatened – in his weird accent.

Pay? Oh crap! I didn't bring money!

"Uh, could I get... a raincheck on the paying?"

And just like that, I was chased out without my ramen. Scowling with shoulders hunched, I stalked down the street, stomach grumbling.

Stupid Jinta. He could have at least left me some money.

"Excuse me miss, but do you want some ramen?"

I blinked then looked around. I'd somehow ended up before a little cart in the centre of the street, manned by a man with a noodle cup hat on his head. I'm so hungry that the smell of the cooked ramen had unconsciously forced my body to find it.

"Uh, do I have to pay?" I questioned and the man shook his head, scraggy beard swaying from side to side.

"No sirree. At this time of night, my ramen is completely free. I get a lot of homeless folks and it just doesn't seem right to let them off without some hot food in their stomach."

The only words that registered in my brain were: 'ramen', 'free' and 'hot food in', 'stomach'.

"I'll take three bowls!" I shouted, grasping him by the shoulders. "Please," I moaned, almost drooling.

"Calm ye' down. You'll get your ramen," he exclaimed, laughing. He dished out several spoonfuls into bowls then sealed their tops with a plastic covering. They all went into a cardboard rectangle with a handle, along with several napkins and some plastic forks.

"Thank you." I bowed to him and he looked embarrassed by that. We exchanged a few words after that before he started to wheel his chart away. I, on the other hand, found the closest seat and devoured all the ramen in one go.

Blowing on my hands, for they cooling quickly in the cold breeze that had picked up, I decided it was time to go home. As I walked along the silent dark streets, I craned my head up, noticing a few stars winking in and out of existence.

It reminded me so much of the soul society that I stopped in my tracks and the events of my life this past week washed over me, threatening to swallow me whole. Before all this, I thought my life would be easy.

Train, get into the soul society, make it to Squad 11 and live a happy life fighting my enemies and my friends.

No manipulation, no breaking zanpakutos, no accidental maiming of my lieutenant and definitely no executions.

My feet had once again carried me away by their own will and I recognised the place where I had revealed my identity to Ichigo and Rukia. It felt like such a long time ago. Sighing, I dropped onto the cool grass.

"I'll go back to my stone cold demeanour tomorrow," I whispered to the sky, lying back. "But right now..." I trailed off as my lip trembled. With haggard breathing, I let the tears fall, let the sobs out, and curled into a small ball.

Never again would I be able to live in the soul society, to live in the same room as Yachiru and eat lollies all day. I wouldn't be able to fight Ikkaku and all the guys, nor would I be able to challenge the captain.

God, it had been so long since I had last thought about Squad 11 itself and it broke my heart as the realisation sank in.

I would never be able to return to them. Not now, not ever. Not with what I was, still am and have become.

All I could do, for the rest of eternity, was remember the memories I had created and ponder what was going to happen the next time I would face my squad next.

As their enemy.