ha. ha ha. im gonna be honest man, i dont know where the hell this monstrosity will go, but its gonna go somewhere...

Story Summary: Ichigo, after bonding with and then losing Aizen, is given the opportunity (aka forced) to go back in time to change what the future has wrought. Time Travel AU - Aizen/Ichigo pre-slash, implied slash. Pining.

Chapter Summary: Preview of Ichigo's future, pains explained, and the thing that which forces Ichigo to change the past.


Seikatsu


First Now...

It's something else, staring into your own eyes and not being able to comprehend what you have become. Usually, you wake up one day and look in a mirror and realized that you've changed; something about your eyes is different from that last time you'd taken the time to look. For Ichigo, it's much more disconcerting.

He can almost feel the uncomprehending shock emanating from his friends behind him. He knows he's adding to it, the tenseness of his shoulders and the stutter in his breath creating a pulsing feeling as more and more people try to understand what exactly is going on. Because Ichigo is staring up at Aizen, hatred boiling in his veins, as the man turns to what appears to be Ichigo.

"You have the cannon set up?" Aizen asks nonchalantly, his voice calm.

"Yes, Aizen-sama," the man next to him answers, his voice just slightly deeper than Ichigo's. It causes Ichigo to twitch and scowl, his brow furrowing at this sudden doppelganger.

"Good," Aizen replies, taking a step closer to gently lay his hand upon the man's face. He keeps it there, caressing the tan skin gently. The other man stares back at him, unintimidated. Aizen eventually smirks slightly, chuckling as he takes his hand away. "You will have to tell me your story someday, Seikatsu. I've been very patient. How you managed to accomplish all of this on your own..."

"Yes, Aizen-sama," the man replies just as dryly, raising an eyebrow at the man's chuckle.

Aizen leaves without another comment, the man he called Seikatsu stepping towards them with a familiar scowl falling on his face.

"Who the hell are you suppose to be?" Ichigo grunts out, his jaw clenched tightly as he grinds his teeth together to keep from saying more.

The man snorts, drawing both of his blades to settle in front of him, his demeanor relaxed as he looks them all over. "I am Futatabi," he replies. "I am Aizen's adviser."

"His adviser?" Urahara inquires from Ichigo's left, the man lifting his hat up to meet Futatabi's gaze. It's an odd thing to call yourself 'again', but Ichigo supposes he can't really make any comments. Besides, everyone is surely wondering the same thing Ichigo is; who is this man to Aizen?

Futatabi's lips twitch slightly, like Ichigo's own do when he fights back a smile, before flattening out. Futatabi shrugs in response before admitting, "I'm also his personal guard."

Urahara doesn't say anything in reply and Ichigo can see his eyes narrow in his periphery.

Futatabi finally breaks from his straight faced persona, a mischievous smirk falling upon his face. "Emphasis on personal."

Before Ichigo even has the chance to let the crawling feeling of disgust worm its way up his spine, Kukaku's cannon goes off in the distance. Ichigo shouts, his heart pounding, but Futatabi is already pushing back Urahara and Yoruichi as they try to make their way past him.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do whatever you think you need to," Futatabi says, pushing the two shinigami back. "Aizen-sama has plans that must come to fruition."

"Why the hell do you have my face?" Ichigo finally asks, the question burning against his tongue as he glares at the man before him.

Futatabi takes him in once more, his eyes looking Ichigo up and down as he assesses him. He tilts his head, much like a cat would when trying to understand something that is going on in front of them. After a moment, Futatabi let's out a breath, raising one arm to unhook the cloak that had been covering him. As it flutter to the ground, Ichigo feels himself swallow at the sight revealed before him.

His chest is battered in scars, some of them rather uncomfortable to look at. Some Ichigo recognizes, which is disconcerting, but others Ichigo does not, yet can imagine how much they hurt when they occurred. What grabs his attention, however, is the hollow hole in the middle of the man's chest. It's eerie, seeing something missing from a body that looks so much like his own.

"I have my own face," Futatabi finally replies, his gaze boring into Ichigo. "In fact, I'd even go as far to say it was mine first."

Ichigo doesn't get time to think because suddenly Futatabi is in front of him, his golden eyes glowing right in front of Ichigo's own.

"Let me tell you a story, Kurosaki Ichigo," Futatabi says, his voice growling as black reiatsu fills Ichigo's vision.


Now Then...

"The irony is truly amazing," Aizen chuckles, blood trickling out of his mouth as Ichigo cradles the man's head in his lap.

"Shut up," Ichigo scolds him, clutching the man even tighter than before. He can feel his eye stinging and he hates that it's Aizen of all people that has brought him so very low.

"You once gave up your powers to see me dead," Aizen continues, ignoring Ichigo's sharp words. "Now here I am, dying, and you look ready to shed tears."

"I told you to shut up," Ichigo chokes, tears falling freely. The hole in Aizen's chest is slightly larger than Ichigo's fist and it bleeds freely. The bloody mess of what was once Yhwach is somewhere off to Ichigo's right, but he can't bring himself to really give much of a shit about the now dead Father of the Quincy.

"I'm not a good man," Aizen says, grabbing Ichigo's attention. His eyes are blurry from the tears, but he does his best to focus on Aizen's paling face. "I would just have used your weakened state to get what I wanted."

"Duh," Ichigo responds, sobbing slightly.

"I wouldn't have been happy about it," Aizen confesses, giving Ichigo a grim smile. "Against all odds, I've grown rather fond of you, Kurosaki Ichigo. You gave me a brief glimpse of the life I wished I had been righteous enough to live."

"I don't even know what you're going on about," Ichigo chokes out, cupping the man's face in his hands.

"Seikatsu," Aizen gurgles out, fresh blood building up in his mouth as he hacks violently. "Livelihood. You are the life, while I am the death."

"You don't even know what the hell you're saying," Ichigo whispers, grief washing over him as Aizen's eyes started to dull.

"Maybe so, Ichigo," Aizen says, his eyes drifting towards the sky above them. "I still wonder-what would life have been like if I had had you at my side?"

"You have to stop talking so much," Ichigo whispers, wiping at some of the blood escaping Aizen's mouth.

"I would have cherished you," Aizen mutters, closing his eyes. "I wish I would have..."

Ichigo cries freely, his tears dripping down off of his face and mingling with the blood that coats the entirety of Aizen's front. "You would have used me and then threw me away when I no longer had a use," Ichigo chokes out bitterly, gently laying Aizen's body onto the cold ground beneath them.

Ichigo steps over Aizen's body, straight into a Garganta, before falling onto his bed face first. He doesn't care that he's covering his bed in Aizen's blood. He doesn't care that he's sobbing like a child. He doesn't care that he doesn't know who survived Yhwach's attack. All he can think about are Aizen's parting words, his dark smile, and his false promises. Ichigo curses him in his head, ashamed that Aizen, of all people, is the person who has brought him to hysterics.

It is Aizen's death that makes Ichigo wish he could change anything.


Ichigo knows he's dreaming because it is Aizen standing across from him, smiling serenely at him. He's never seen any expression like it on Aizen's face, so Ichigo finds himself tensing up at the unfamiliar feeling it sends through him.

Ichigo has spent the past week interacting with the people who survived the Quincy War, but he could never let himself meet their eyes. He had clutched his sisters to his chest, had gripped his father's shoulder fiercely, and had even given a brief smile in Urahra's direction, but he had not been able to bring himself to look into sorrow filled eyes.

The fact that he finally forces himself to do this when a dream version of Aizen confronts him, does not escape him.

"Hello, Kurosaki Ichigo," Aizen says, his voice gentle as he takes a few steps forward. His eyes are warm, contrasting the dullness that had overtaken them in death. It sends a sharp pang though his chest.

"I'm dreaming," Ichigo replies, physically feeling how tired he truly is. Seeing an unharmed Aizen in front of him, his demeanor open and fond, is driving Ichigo to a panic attack.

"Mostly," Aizen shrugged with a smile, finally stopping in front of Ichigo. He reached out, ignoring Ichigo's flinch as he gently rested a hand on Ichigo's right shoulder. Ichigo felt himself stop breathing as he looked into Aizen's eyes.

They were no longer brown; they were purple.

The hand on his shoulder suddenly clenched down, Aizen's visage slowly melted away, leaving a softly smiling woman in his place.

"Kurosaki Ichigo," she repeats, her words are softly spoken, while her grip remains harsh.

"Who the hell are you?" Ichigo grinds out, suddenly finding himself unable to move.

"We were once known as Kyōka Suigetsu," she tells him, her smile never leaving her face. "We were also once known as the Hōgyoku."

Ichigo wants to start at their answer, but his limbs are frozen under their steady hand. He can't leave their gaze either, his head feeling fuzzy as his heard starts to ring.

"He thought of you often," they tell him fondly, their grip lightening just slightly. "His wish, at the end, was one we would've granted had we been able."

"At the end?" he gasps out, feeling his legs shake under an unknown gravity. He doesn't remember thinking the question, nor figuring out how he moved his mouth when everything else refuses to budge, but he can feel it echo throughout his entire being.

"His wish was simply that he would have known better," they answer him. "That he would've known to cherish you sooner."

Ichigo feels himself break inside, that same desperate cloying feeling attaching itself to his throat, just like it had when he held Aizen's dying body in his arms. They spent weeks fighting together, trying to defeat Yhwach. They were the only two strong enough in the end to get close enough to him to truly land any blows. It had created a bond between them, one that Ichigo had taken for granted until Aizen's dying breath left his body.

"We were dying, finally fading, when your soul called out to us, Kurosaki Ichigo," they tell him, dragging him away from the grief slowly swallowing him whole. "You made a wish so powerful that we found it in ourselves to break from Aizen before he truly faded away. We are here, Ichigo, to grant your wish."

"My wish?" Ichigo asks in a daze, his eyesight fading in and out as his knees tremble in an effort to stay standing.

"To change anything," they respond, their grip shifting into a harsh shove as Ichigo falls backwards. "Change the outcome of the first war, Kurosaki Ichigo, and you will change the outcome of the second."

When Ichigo opens his eyes again, the sand of Hueco Mundo greets his vision. His head is fuzzy, but the parting words of the combination of Kyōka Suigetsu and the Hōgyoku echo in his head.

Change the first war, to change the second.

How in the hell is he supposed to do that?


how the hell is he supposed to do that? lol

so this was originally part of an idea i had for the bleach big bang, but then i didnt sign up in time, and i put this idea on the back burner. i have the entire plot basically planned out, but the details are fuzzy as fuck because i 10/10 dont have a good grasp on what is and is not bleach canon.

*shrug*