Save Me from the Dark (Old)

A Fun Camping Trip

Disclaimer: All rights of Bleach and its characters go to Tite Kubo (unfortunately) except for OCs in future chapters! I hope to heck that you enjoy!
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"You're just in time to see the man whom you've entrusted all hope to die." An expressionless voice spoke.

The dark haired man rose his hand to the center of the carrot top's chest, a green and black light pierced through it. "Ichigo!" Screamed a female voice. An auburn haired girl bursted forward as Ichigo's limp body fell from the giant stone pillar, barely catching him with her Santen Kesshun. The dark haired demon stood in her path blocking any view of Ichigo. Bright blue arrows shot toward the demon at uncharted speeds.

"Orihime, I'll hold Ulquiora off, you do what you can for Ichigo." A dark haired Quincy said.

"Thank you Uryu!" Orihime replied. She rushed over to where Ichigo lay limply, barely breathing.

When Orihime was close enough she released her Soten Kisshun to heal Ichigo. She sat down beside him and was shocked to see she was to late. He lay there limply and unmoving, his face forever frozen in fear and shock. Tears streamed down Orihime's face in realization that Ichigo was already dead. Despite that she couldn't give up yet, not after all they've been through. No matter how hard she tried, she could not break through the remaining reiatsu from Ulquiora's previous attack. If she couldn't break through then she couldn't heal Ichigo and if she couldn't heal him, she couldn't bring him back to life. New, hot tears swelled and streamed down her cheeks. There was loud grunt followed by crash. When the dust cleared it showed an injured Uryu. Orihime whipped her head around and sent out her Santen Kesshun to shield Uryu from the next attack, but Ulquiora broke through the shield and hit his target.

"Uryu!" Screamed a frightened Orihime. 'Ichigo, what do I do? What would you do? I need you Ichigo, tell me what to do! I feel so helpless.' These thoughts ran through Orihime's mind as Ulquiora approached her.

"Please help me, Ichigo!" Orihime called out in a final attempt to bring him back from oblivion. Not a moment later there was gigantic spike of spiritual pressure from Ichigo. His hair elongated and a thick, white liquid encased him forming a strong armor. A mask covered Ichigo's face, red and black stripes ran across it in animal like way, his eyes were a feral gold color. Slowly Ichigo stood and held his hand out to reclaim Zangetsu.

"Who are you?" Questioned a confused Ulquiora. A screeching howl rang through the air as an answer to Ulquiora's previous question.

"It appears you do not understand me." Ulquiora stated as he rose his hand and prepared a cero. Ichigo aimed his bull-like horns at Ulquiora and prepared his own cero. The two ceros fired, Ichigo's deep red cero quickly overpowered Ulquiora's sea green cero. For fifteen minutes the battle went like this till Ichigo landed a devastating blow to Ulquiora, slicing him into two. Ichigo threw Ulquiora's upper half to the ground and held his sword over his throat to finish the fight. A hand stopped Zangetsu from reaching Ulquiora's throat.

"Stop Ichigo, you already beat him, there is no need to mutilate his body." Reasoned Uryu. Ichigo swung his sword out and stabbed Uryu clean through his stomach. The long, sleek black sword protruded from where Ichigo hit Uryu.

"No! Uryu!" Screamed a horrified Orihime. Ichigo turned to face Orihime, worry and fear crossed through the girl's eyes. "Must....save her. Protect......her."

Orihime woke, gasping for air as the nightmare that has met her so many times in dreamland, ended. Relief spread throughout her body. 'Thank God it was just a dream.' Orihime thought gratefully. She turned her head to look at the neon green numbers on her alarm clock, reading 6:30 a.m. It took her a minute to remember that she and her friends would be leaving on a camping trip today at noon. 'Oh no! I haven't packed yet!' She thought with sudden realization. She scrambled out of bed, to her closet to grab clothes and bag for the three day trip.

"Everyone ready to get going?" Asked a familiar male voice as everyone stowed their luggage on the travel van. His response was a loud course of cheers.

"Alright let's go!" He said after the cheers died down. Including him there were six people going on this trip, which worried the boy a bit. There wouldn't be many soul reapers still in Karakura town to protect it. As he stood deep in thought he did not notice a certain auburn haired girl walk up to him.

"Is there something wrong Ichigo?" She asked. Suddenly snapped out of deep thought Ichigo felt disoriented and confused, but replied, " No, it's nothing you need to worry about."

"Alright, but if something is bothering you, you'll tell me right?" Orihime asked.

"I will," Ichigo said as if he were swearing an oath, "Well, let's get your stuff in the van and we can get going, alright?" He added on a more cheerful note.

"Ok!" Orihime agreed enthusiastically.

Ichigo stared out the window at the forest scenery, completely lost in thought. The van bumped and rumbled down the dirt road leading to their campsite, where they'd be staying for the next three days. Soon enough the bumping stopped, but Ichigo remained lost in the world of thought. There was a light tapping on his shoulder and a sweet voice that awoke him from his thoughts.

"Come on Ichigo, we're setting up camp." The voice belonged to none other than Orihime. He grunted in response and rose from his sitting position. He grabbed his luggage and followed Orihime to the clearing where their camp was already starting to take shape. Ichigo set his stuff down with all of the others' luggage. Afterwards he set off to help set up the tents. No more than twenty minutes later the tents were up and other tasks were ready to be assigned.

"Alright let's assign tasks!" Said an enthusiastic, black-haired midget. "So, Ichigo and Orihime, you will be collecting fire wood. Chad and Uryu, you will be looking for a water source. Renji and I will be dealing with whatever else here at camp." Listed Rukia.

"Everyone alright with their task?" She asked. A course of "Yeah!" was her reply.

Ichigo walked over to Orihime,"Hey, you ready to get the firewood?"

"Yeah!" Orihime replied over enthusiastically. Ichigo started walking into the woods with Orihime tailing right behind.

Renji turned toward Rukia with a knowing look. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?" He said, jabbing his thumb at the spot where Ichigo and Orihime disappeared into the woods.

"Maybe." Rukia replied with an unconvincing and mischievous tone. Renji rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the camp, where many things were still undone.

"Well let's get to work!" Renji said with false enthusiasm.

Ichigo and Orihime walked a good ways into the woods, before they found any good sticks for the fire. When they were carrying all they could, they headed back to camp. Along the way Orihime started a conversation. It started off pretty normal until she started talking about her dreams.

"This morning the evil blue men woke me up at six and then I realized I hadn't packed for today's trip!" Orihime stopped talking for a moment and snuck a peek at Ichigo. Even though he wasn't looking, Ichigo was intently listening to her every word.

"Hey Ichigo," Her sudden outburst caught him off guard, he swiftly turned his head toward her. "What would happen if you lost control of your hollow again?"

Horror flashed through his eyes. This question caught the poor substitute soul reaper by surprise, he should've known she wouldn't forget about that horrible trauma so soon. "I don't know, but we'd probably be in a heck of a lot of trouble beforehand," Ichigo reasoned. "In fact I'm really hoping it never happens again. It could have just been a mishap of the moment." He quickly added trying to reassure her.

"Alright, I just don't want to see you get hurt again." Orihime replied modestly, her case rested.

"I'll do my best," Ichigo promised as he turned away, a mild blush painted on his cheeks. Seeing that their conversation had ended, they walked back to camp in silence.

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