73Chapter One
"Youruichi!" he screamed, jumping forward as she began to fall. Time seemed to slow as he shūnpo'd forward to catch her. Blood flowed everywhere, staining the white of the lining of his shihakusho and obi.
Aizen laughed lowly, beginning to walk slowly towards them.
"Ki..suke…" she whimpered, gold eyes fixed in place as her breathing began to slow. Ichigo jumped forward, feeling her anxieties beginning to rise to the surface as her inadequacies added up in her head.
"Go…!" She managed, bringing her shaking sword up as she passed her father to stand between Aizen and the downed pair.
"But-" Kisuke started, trying to argue even as the woman in his arms seemed to grow dimmer.
"Go!" Ichigo shouted, putting all of her doubts aside. Aizen regarded the scene coolly, smirking at the pain in each individual's face. A moment later, Urahara was gone, barely a blur left behind in his speed. The only sign he had been there was the blood staining the ground.
Isshin gaped at the woman that used to be his daughter, shocked at the strength Ichigo put forward. He realized, in that moment, that he could never be a true father to the daughter he could've once had. Ichigo had grown somehow, without his knowledge or guidance in the matter. After a moment, Isshin saw Gin in the background, sword raised slightly. Isshin leapt forward, raising Engetsu just barely enough to block the blade.
"I've got Gin," Isshin said over his shoulder, just barley loud enough for the daiko to hear. Ichigo nodded once and turned back to the chrysalis that was once Aizen.
"How interesting…" Aizen murmured, cocking his head to the side slightly, "You are clearly filled with fear, understanding the odds stacked against you, but still… Still you stand."
"I have to," Ichigo responded, barely able to get her voice to work, "I know what you're going to do! I… I have to protect them!"
"You will never succeed," Aizen retorted, "There is no way that you can beat me as you are!"
"It's not that I want to beat you!" Ichigo returned, blade coming to a halt in its minute motions, "I have to beat you! I will defend them!" Ichigo's reatisu skyrocketed moments later as she felt the agreement of Zangetsu in her soul. Aizen raised a single eyebrow, knowing that Ichigo's reatisu was still nowhere near his own, but surprised that the daiko was still able to stand and in fact, push back.
"I will win!" Ichigo shouted, moving forward to strike against the being that was once a shinigami. Aizen blocked the blow, but frowned as Ichigo moved away, preparing yet another strike.
Before Ichigo could once more strike against the being in front of her, a choked cry caught her attention. Glancing over her shoulder revealed a sight that would haunt her for some time to come.
Isshin lay, a sword through his abdomen as he knelt on the ground, blood leaking out around him as Gin stood looking down upon him.
"Oyaji!" she shouted, her anxieties rising once more in a desperate attempt of her fight-or-flight instinct to drive her to safety.
"Come, Gin," Aizen said, smiling cruelly down at the broken warrior fleeing to her father's side, "We have more work to do. If we are able to create a King's Key, it will be far more convenient to do so in the Soul Society. Kurosaki Ichigo!"
Ichigo ignored him, horror coloring her vision as she knelt down next to her father.
"I will leave you here. If I am to devour you later, here you will be easier to find." Gin fled from his position near Isshin to Aizen's side. Quickly, he brought his sword up, opening the shoji doors that led the way to the world of the dead.
Ichigo turned back to Isshin, eyes going dark and looking down. Isshin managed to start a small kido to heal the gaping wound in his side. Luckily, the sword had missed any massive internal organs and was more of a flesh wound than anything else.
After a few moments, he looked up to see Ichigo's bangs hanging over her eyes. Her hands balled up the hakama of her shihakusho and he could practically see the despair filtering through her being.
"Don't," he murmured, placing one bloodied hand over her heavily calloused one, "It's not… Your fault…"
"Yes, it is," she answered shortly, tears beginning to fall from her eyes, "I can't… Protect anyone…"
"Yes, you can!" Isshin inserted, a scowl taking up a rather uncustomary appearance on his face instead of his daughter's, "You are the reason that so many people are here right now!"
"But I'm also the reason that so many people aren't," Ichigo responded, tears choking her voice, "I can't… His reatisu… Was so monstrous…" Isshin's eyes widened slightly at that realization.
"But Ichigo," Isshin returns, "You are the reason that Orihime-chan is still alive. You are the reason that Rukia-chan is still alive. You are the reason that the Soul Society has already not fallen."
"…How did you…?"
"Kisuke has kept me informed," Isshin returned with a half-smile, "Come, you have to keep going!" Ichigo looked down at her hands, clenching them into fists, a single hand on Zangetsu's hilt. Isshin stepped forward, glaring at his daughter.
"What will you do if you don't?" he demanded spreading his hands wide.
"What?" She asked, faltering slightly as she took a step after him.
"Will you sit here and cry? Cry your heart out about how you failed to protect something again?" Ichigo looked away, tears on the brink of falling.
"Think about what Aizen heading for Karakura Town in Soul Society means!" Isshin urged, faltering in his footing but not his resolve, "If you don't go, everyone you want to protect, and everyone else in Karakura Town, is gonna die at Aizen's hands!"
Faces flashed in front of Ichigo's eyes and she closed them to fight off the pain rising in her heart. After a moment, she opened them again. She looked up, eyes glimmering with something other than sorrow.
"Oyaji, open the senkaimon."
Isshin turned and raised his blade. Moments later, it pierced the fabric of reality and the pair stepped forward. However, Isshin faltered once more. Ichigo noticed and grabbed his arm supporting his weight as she began to shunpo forward.
Several long moments later, Isshin tugged on her shihakusho to get her attention.
"What?" she asked, shifting his weight across her shoulders.
"Stop," he murmured, beginning to center his reatisu on the objects tucked in his shihakusho. She knelt down, leaving him sitting. Nervously, she eyes the restrictive currents around them.
"Shouldn't we get going?" Ichigo asked, wondering at Isshin's insistence to stay despite his earlier encouragements to push her to move. For a moment Isshin was silent. Then, chords shot out from his hands, the tips digging into the restrictive currents near them. Light flooded down them. Ichigo felt Isshin's reatisu tower in the air around her for a split second before dying down into a steady stream, feeding off into non-existence as the restrictive current began to devour it.
"Usually," Isshin began, finally breaking the silence between them, "the cleaner passes through here, knocking anyone and anything that happens to take up residence out. However, it's not usually something that shinigami can fight. I don't feel it in the area and, judging from the traces of reatisu, Aizen most likely did something."
"Isn't that bad?" Ichigo asked, wondering where her father was going with this.
"Usually, but this time it works in our favor. The dangai is completely cut off from the time and space of both the living world and Soul Society; it passes about 2,000 faster. Here, you can be taught."
"Taught what?" Ichigo asked, frowning.
"The final Getsuga Tenshou."
"Why?"
"That means that we have about two thousand hours, or about three months, to train and only an hour will pass outside. In that time, you've got to get it out of him."
"What?" Ichigo asked again, still feeling confused.
"Get the secret of the Final Getsuga Tenshou out of your Zangetsu." Ichigo nodded, taking a seat and laying her zanpakuto across her lap.
"That form is called Jinzen," Isshin murmured, "A form that shinigami have used to communicate with their zanpakuto for millennia. All of your techniques until now… You've forced them out by breaking open your soul. But now… Now you must go through those millennia."
Moments later, Ichigo felt herself falling, first through the air and then into water. She flailed, feeling the water surge past her like every hope and dream that had ever soared through her heart was slipping through her fingers. Panic rose and she began attempting to swim, back to the air she had originally felt upon stepping into her world.
Something grabbed her ponytail from behind, dragging her back into her darkness. She hit the building, pain erupting around her as the cement began to give out.
"This is pathetic!" a voice called, seething with rage and oozing with disdain, "It pains me to look at you. You should at least be able to breathe!"
Bubbles streamed upwards as Ichigo took a few rapid breaths. She didn't understand how, but oxygen began flooding back into her lungs.
"Well?" they asked.
"Who… Are you?" she asked, glancing up at the figure as she climbed to her feet. "The only person who should be here is Zangetsu-Ossan!"
"That's some way to speak to the person who just taught you how to breathe!" the man snapped. Ichigo frowned, studying the black rugged coat and the hood that the figure wore. Her frown deepened as the figure raised his right arm. With a single flick downwards, the sleeve seemed to flow down. The man now held a sword.
"Tensa… Zangetsu?" Ichigo asked, surprised at the revelation. The now confirmed Tensa Zangetsu pulled down his hood, revealing a younger Zangetsu staring down at her.
"It makes sense that you wouldn't recognize me," he sneered, "You've never come here in Bankai before." He leapt forward, sword held high as he attacked his wielder.
"Zangetsu!" Ichigo protested, raising her own blade to block, "You are Zangetsu… Right?"
"Wrong," he replied, face changing of one of rage to one that vaguely reminded her of Kuchiki Byakuya's, "What is your Bankai's name?"
Power flared around them, and Ichigo leapt back, just barely avoiding the worst of a Getsuga. Still though, it nicked her shoulder and sent her flying through the water. Tensa leapt after her and they began to exchange blow after blow. No matter what she did, Ichigo was pushed back. There was no way to go on the attack against this man.
"Wait, Tensa!" she called, barely avoiding referring to him as Ossan, "I didn't come here to fight!"
"No," he snarled back, rage present once more as he fought to control his emotions, "You didn't. You just want to ask me about the Saiga no Getsuga Tenshou." Ichigo felt slight surprise at the animosity he displayed towards her in that moment. She frowned slightly, not all that shocked at the fact that he could hear what was said outside. After all, he'd come to her aid several times.
Before she could comment on the fact, a blade was in front of her nose. She dodged back, just barely avoiding what would have been a fatal blow.
"What are you doing?" she spluttered, "You've helped so many times before! Why this? Why now?"
"Before it was necessary to teach you," he snarled, turning slightly from her, "Now it is necessary to avoid teaching you!"
"Well," she returned, shifting her footing, "This is something that I have to learn!" She leapt forward, bringing her blade up and rushing her zanpakuto. A moment later, he stood behind her, her blade in his hands.
"And what of it?" he asked, face eerily calm once more, "Why should what you want to protect concern me?" Ichigo frowned, before grabbing the front of her zanpakuto's robes. Moments later, she stood from a newly formed crater in the side of a nearby building.
"We have different goals, Ichigo!" he called, tossing her sword to the side, "What we wish to protect are vastly different things!"
The fighting continued as he rushed her. Desperately, she retrieved her sword. Several times, she went to question his statement only for him to prevent her by attacking. Finally, she let herself by thrown back by a blow and stood up.
"What do you mean?!" she demanded, finally getting angry herself.
"Which part?" he questioned as she climbed to her feet.
"You made it sound like you don't care what happens to the things I want to protect. I wanna know what you mean by it!"
"That's exactly how it is," he replied after a long moment, staring down at her. For a fleeting moment, she wished to see the yellow glasses covering the grey eyes boring into her soul. Then the indignation rose again.
"Look at this world!" Tensa shouted, gesturing to the buildings around them, "It was once filled with skyscrapers so numerous that you could not see the far horizon! Each one was representative of your hopes, dreams, and potentials…! Now it has shrank into the tiny town that you are allowing to define you! The rain.. The rain that I have hated so much has finally stopped… Only for everything to sink into the sea because you gave in! You gave in to the despair that lines your heart!"
"What…?" Ichigo tried to form a sentence, to deny the truth, but she found that she couldn't. Once more, her eyes became downcast. Tensa appeared in front of her and plunged his hand into her chest, into her very core.
"I won't leave you like this!" he shouted. Ichigo could not move or speak as… Something began to swell inside of her. "You will face your despair!" Slowly, she felt as Tensa's hand enclosed the feeling and began to pull. Blood rose in her lungs and she coughed, pain erupting through her entire being as white and red swirled behind Tensa into a form that caused her to freeze.
"Yo," it greeted, tossing a white Tensa Zangetsu from hand to hand as it chuckled, "Long time no see, Ichigo… Do you not recognize me?" Slowly, one white clawed hand lifted the crimson mask with white streaks to the side. Her reflection looked back at her, a cruel smirk twisting her lips.
"I-it's you…" she mumbled, trying to defeat the fear inside of her, "I thought… I thought I'd gotten rid of you!"
"I told you," the reflection laughed, moving the mask back into place, "It's like I already told you. You had to stay strong until I rose again."
"Kuso…" she cursed, "I thought I'd been rid of you back then…"
"No," the reflection laughed once more, "You poor girl, you will never understand…"
"W-What's with that weird outfit?" Ichigo asked, trying to contain some semblance of normality, "And that weird mask?"
"That's right…" Tensa murmured, "You've never seen this for yourself… This is the form you assumed to defeat Ulquiorra Schiffer." Ichigo's eyes widened, her sword dropping ever so slightly as the despair began to rise once more.
"You assumed that this form would cost you your heart…" Tensa spat, calm face disappearing, "And now instead it has cost you your resolve…"
"So, what?" Ichigo asked, sword raising once more, "I have to fight her as she is to win?"
"No," Tensa responded, frowning, "You must fight the two of us… As one…" Before Ichigo could reply, both figures vanished, blurring together.
"What… Is that?" Ichigo asked, barely able to make it out as the two began to fuse. It looked… Similar to Tensa… But had the white hair and one of the inverted eyes of the reflection.
And so the fighting began. Blow after blow, dodge after dodge, it was immensely clear that the power gap was immense. No matter what she did, she could barely make it out of the way of each blow. Cuts opened all over her body, each one closer and closer to its mark.
"Why are you still persevering?" it demanded, growling at Ichigo as she dodged yet another attack.
"Because I will beat the technique out of you if I have to!" Ichigo growled back, leaping forward.
"Be gone from this world!" it growled back. With a series of attacks, it began a whirlpool, sucking Ichigo down towards the middle.
"Damnit!" Ichigo screamed, "At this rate… I won't make it!" Their faces flashed before her eyes and she felt her resolve return at once. She pushed her way out, flaring her reatisu.
"Getsuga… Tenshou!" the energy cut through the whirl pool and towards the creature that used to be both her zanpakuto and hollow respectively.
"So you do still have the will to keep trying."
"I will keep getting back up, no matter how many times you beat me down!" she growled, jumping towards the creature.
"Let's test that theory!" it snarled back, leaping towards her. Ichigo's reatisu swirled around her, causing bubbles in the water as it began to superheat.
"You've… Changed…" It murmured, eyes widening.
"I don't know why," she returned, face hardening into her typical scowl, "But they're waiting for me. And I'm going to protect them, no matter what your goals are!"
"You say they're waiting for you…" it murmured.
"Yeah," she returned, "Let's get this over with." Again, the pair leaped at each other, blades poised to kill as they struck against each other. The fighting continued with occasional exchanged comments with their blows. However, her adversary continued to be adamant in its belief that she was not ready for this potential eventuality.
"Why won't you teach me?!" Ichigo screamed, avoiding yet another blow from them.
"Why won't you stop asking?!" it returned, sending yet another strike of their blade towards her. However, despite her best attempt to avoid the strike, it nicked her ponytail holder, sending orange locks flowing in every direction. She scowled, retaliating and yet the creature avoided every attempt.
Again and again, they clashed. Exhaustion seemed to come at certain times, but she ignored it and persevered. Time seemed to have no meaning whatsoever. Eventually, her hair began to cover her eyes, a true indication of how long time had passed.
Blood flowed from every joint, fading off into nonexistence.
"I told you I won't go down easily!" she shouted, "Not until I make you tell me!"
"No," it replied, "You will never learn it!"
Thoughts raced through her head as they clashed again and again and again.
If they really didn't want to teach me… All they had to do was disappear… And yet… All I feel from them is loneliness…
Yet another blow sent her spiraling back and she finally understood. Without a doubt, she knew. It came at her once more, blade poised to stab through her chest. Slowly, she let her own blade slip out of her hands.
"It… Doesn't hurt…" she said moments later.
"Of course not," it replied, slowly letting go of the handle before it, "Tensa Zangetsu is you. If you accept this fact, this blade will never hurt you."
"Why… are you crying?" she asked, reaching a single hand up to caress its face gently.
"Do you remember what I said at the beginning?" It asked, lowering its head and backing away, "About wanting to protect something different than what you wanted? …What I wanted to protect… Was you Ichigo!"
AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS
So... I'm not dead... I've been working on this story on and off for about a year now, so I actually have a legitament amount of this story already written. (Which means there will actually be consistent updates and not two to three years where I fall off the face of the internet.) And yes, Ichigo is a girl. The hollow is female, Zangetsu is male. Everyone else is still their original genders. Let me know what you guys think!