4To answer a guest reviewer: The crossover with FotNS (if I follow through with it) will have more of a cameo style of relevance rather than in the actual plot. I'm sure that the Introduction makes it obvious as to what I'm going for here. By the way, please read it, it has all the rules the story follows. This story is a massive retcon to Bleach, completely ignoring whatever you saw, or rather read, in the Thousand Year Blood War Arc. Whatever was established after the Fake Karakura Town Arc, or even the Fullbrings (in case I decide the opposite), does NOT exist in this story. Because this is a just for fun project, I don't know how relevant the possible crossover will be, though I do have some ideas to make it so. For now, the story format will be Standard. It might change in the future, if there is one at all.
Also, the story includes martial arts, something I'm not very confident in describing fights for, but bear with me.
Still, I have decided to make romance a stronger point than I initially thought. All you salty shippers out there, rejoice!
Violence warning.
His memory was too fuzzy. That light that appeared before him came out of nowhere. There is definitely something he's forgetting, but all he could think of was Aizen and his demise in his hands. That is his last memory. He needed time to think about it, but right now there is no such luxury. He stood between his younger self and Rukia, with the former being behind him.
''Hey, are you gonna answer, or what?'' the young substitute seemed quite persistent. It was no hallucination, this was his younger self indeed. The issue was that he was somehow too slow to get away; most likely due to the time travel putting a strain on his body. Slowly, though, he was feeling the power coming back to him.
Meanwhile, Rukia was terrified. The man reacted to Ichigo's voice, so her could see and hear him, and he was certainly no regular Plus. If he was a Soul Reaper spying on them, that means the Soul Society had found her, and by extend, Ichigo. She didn't want to endanger an innocent life, just because of her own incompetence during a dire situation. Had she been more capable of handling the Hollow that night, everything would have been fine. She internally cursed herself for her weakness. Though, the man did not seem to belong to the Onmitsukido, the most likely unit to follow her. He was shirtless, and those fighting pants and short boots did not fit the image at all.
The black haired man knew exactly what she was thinking, not just from intuition, but also because he could read her face. He knew her very well. He knew that Rukia would start suspecting Soul Society was trailing her, resulting in her being in panic. Rukia in panic sometimes was worse than him in normal conditions. This wasn't the mature and experienced woman he knew in his time. Truly, time changes a person greatly, especially someone of their age.
Ichigo had enough. ''All right, then. You'll talk by force!'' he drew out his sword and ran towards the man in front of him. He attached with a downward slash, not intending to cut him down of course, just to make him take the young substitute seriously. All three of them were surprised to see the black haired stranger simply slide like a ghost to the side. It was extremely fast, but so precise that the two youngsters could comprehend it. The time traveler was shocked by his actions. He knew the boy put no killing intent behind the attack, but he dodged it anyway. Even though his power was back, his reflexes were not working properly. He had to get rid of this disturbance right away and re-gather his Ki.
He was now ready to run away. ''Hey.'' he called out to Rukia calmly. ''Don't worry, I'm not with them.'' he was clearly referring to Soul Society. Before they could process anything, the man vanished instantly. There was no trace of Reiatsu on him, so she couldn't tell where he went. Ichigo was dumbfounded. Whatever just happened, it wasn't normal at all. That speed was truly unreal.
Ichigo needed rest. Rest and lots of meditation to get it all together. He found a large tree where he could hide between the branches. People were walking around, but he didn't mind, as all he needed was to hide. He created an energy field around him to mute all sound. Now he could gather his thoughts in peace.
The first thing he had to do was realize that he was indeed in the past. Everything happened too quickly. Had it not been for his mental training, he would have frozen in place for hours. Then the two of them would have an easier time interrogating him, though, he wasn't sure what type of interrogation those two of all people could perform. He gave a smile as he realized how much he had grown. 67 years. 55 of which were full of happiness, while the other 12 were nothing short of a massive train wreck.
For 55 years he served as a Soul Reaper Captain. Then Aizen managed to somehow escape his prison. The next 10 years were spent under the reign of Aizen's dream. His dream that was their nightmare. The Soul King was in a weakened state, unable to move or speak, so he was crystalized in his throne room. The only one who could communicate with him was the at the time Princess. The six High Royal Guards carried out his orders through his daughter's words. From what he was told during his training, the King's crystalization happened a few years after Aizen's first attempt to break through the barrier through the Ouken, the Key to the King's Realm. The only way to achieve the Ouken's creation was through the power of 100.000 souls combined. The Hokyoku was the perfect tool to gather the souls and use them for the Key.
When Aizen broke out, he had used his Reiatsu to recreate the Hokyoku almost from scratch. He apparently was able to keep a piece within him, and used the poor Rukongai souls' energy to feed it. Having spent whole days with it in him during his stay in Las Noches, he made sure to study it thoroughly. The fact that the influence of his Reiatsu could reach the outside of Seireitei was truly horrifying. He was powering up in the prison for a long time, and eventually, one year before his breakout, he was able to communicate and directly interact with the outside world.
He was the first he communicated with. When he told the others they thought he was delusional, but quickly began looking into it. It all happened too fast.
...
He suddenly stopped thinking. Remembering all that filled him with negative emotions he couldn't handle properly. He went through too much. He needed to learn to handle it. He couldn't continue living like this. He had too many emotions suppressed in him for the sake of fighting with a clear mind. He remembered his master's words.
''Your emotions are clouding your Ki, Ichigo. Even after all these years of training, your fighting spirit is weak. I hope you can overcome your grief, because you are a capable warrior, and a true man with a pure heart.''
He held those words dear. His master was truly a man among men, someone he admired like he eventually admired his father. He was there when his wife...
No. He shouldn't go further than that. For now, he had to focus on a plan, but not before recollecting himself.
One thing was for sure: Everything was going to change!
Future chapters will be way longer than this, so don't worry about that. If this was an anime, I'd say this and the preview would be 70% of an episode, I guess.
Thank you for reading. Criticism in reviews is always appreciated.