A.N.: This scene is a little bit of a meta reflection of my own absence from fanfiction and trying to get back into it again, as well as a bit of my prediction on how things might roll out in the last chapter of Bleach. Most likely we won't see Grimmjow again, but of course, since he's been one of my main characters for so long, I just had to have this conversation happen between him and Ichigo. If you want to know more about the status of my other stories, please read the additional note at the end of this chapter. Enjoy!

"Yo Kurosaki, how long has it been?"

"Ten years."

Ichigo stepped up onto the ledge of his apartment building, surveying the city below. It had been over a month since he'd taken soul reaper form, and he felt oddly stiff. He looked sideways at the being who landed next to him. The past ten years hadn't touched him one bit. His clothes were the same as back then: black shirt and pants and that short white jacket. His hair was that same wild blue mess. Suddenly, Grimmjow Jaggerjaques looked young compared to him. It was an upsetting reminder to Ichigo about how close to thirty he was getting.

"I thought Nel was coming," he stated simply, unsure of how to interact with a man he hadn't seen in a decade, and who had only barely become his reluctant ally in the fight against Ywach.

Grimmjow shrugged nonchalantly. "She was busy."

Ichigo assumed this meant she was having trouble with the fluctuations between her adult and child self, as she sometimes did, but he didn't press. He wasn't sure how to read the sixth espada after all this time.

"She told me you found Halibel." This news was also roughly ten years old, but he went with it, because he didn't know what else to say to his old arch enemy.

"Yeah. Ywach messed with her."

He didn't elaborate. Ichigo didn't press.

"Anyway…" he went on after a while, "Nel was coming to meet me to go to Rukia's captain ceremony…"

"So you're wondering why the fuck I'm here."

Ichigo nodded.

Grimmjow, tilted his head, looking Ichigo dead on, serious. "Something ain't right."

"What?"

"The sensors in Las Noches are going crazy. Something fucked up is going on and it's exactly ten years since then, right?"

"Yeah…it is…"

"Well, what the fuck does it mean?"

"I don't know, Grimmjow, how could I?"

"'Cause it was you who followed him that day!" he shouted back. Ichigo actually had no clue what Grimmjow knew about the details of that day but he'd gone over it with Nel so he guessed the sixth espada was up to date. "Didn't he tell you not to follow him? Didn't he say he'd come for you and your future, no matter what?"

"Yeah but…he's dead."

"Is he?" Grimmjow shifted on the spot, clearly uncomfortable with the idea himself. But he locked eyes with Ichigo and went on. "Those sensors were made by Aizen. They say something weird is happening in Soul Society. What if this was his plan the whole time? What if he's just been waiting to rip your future apart?"

"For ten years?" Ichigo argued, but blue eyes regarded him with harsh coldness.

"Tell me, Kurosaki, when have you been happier, than the day of Rukia Kuchki's ascension to captainship?"

Ichigo balked. He'd had many happy moments between now and then, but a small, frightened part of him told him none of them had matched the magnitude of this, which brought together friends from this world and the next, in an ultimate celebration of their success ten years ago.

"You know don't you?" Grimmjow said under his breath just next to him. "He's back, ain't he?"

"No…" Ichigo tried to argue, not wanting to even entertain the idea that he past ten years had all been a lead up to this. "It can't be. He's dead. I killed him."

"And who says he was dead? You? Aizen? Who can kill a man who sees the future?"

"But—"

The building beneath them trembled. Ichigo looked out in alarm to his town—the place where everyone he knew and loved lived. He pulled out his zanpakuto for the first time in a long time.

"I can't believe this. I have to do something."

"Do something?" Grimmjow scoffed. "It's been so long. You've been out of the game for ages. How can you expect to make a difference now?"

Ichigo stepped back a moment from the edge of the building, but he looked down the length of his blade, and remembered its strength and all he'd been able to achieve with it. He shook his head, brushing aside Grimmjow's negativity.

"It doesn't matter how much time has passed. This is a fight I cannot ignore."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Alright then," Grimmjow smirked to the darkening sky and rested his own blade back on his shoulder. "Sounds like fun."

So Grimmjow would join him once more. That fact alone revealed how much the espada believed in the potential threat. Now it was time to warn the other.

But right at the edge of the building, just before he shot off into the open sky, he came to an abrupt stop.

"What?" Grimmjow asked but his question went unanswered because another thought was forming in Ichigo's head.

If Ywach had waited all this time to come back, did that mean he'd spent all this time creating the future? Were the past ten years of happiness and success forged by the Vandenreich king, just to ruin him all the more?

Zangetsu hit the roof tile as his breath escaped him. What would happen to this future, if he killed the man who made it?

"Kurosaki, it's go time," Grimmjow stepped out into the sky. "Or do you forget what to do, old man?"

"No…I don't forget what to do…just…"

"What?"

"I remember the cost that usually comes with doing it…" he stepped out into the air after him, lifting up his blade anew. He had to do this, even if he cost him his perfect future.

So when I decided to take a break from fanfiction, I didn't plan for it to be so long. The moment I stopped making time for writing in my schedule, that time instantly got taken over by other things, so I find it very hard now to come back and spend the amount of time on stories as I did previously. I am sorry for leaving "After the Apocalypse" hanging. I have been working on this again so there will be more added to this story eventually. I've also got a few other stories started, many from the "Beginnings" collection, but I will just have to wait and see if I can find the time to finish them before I start publishing on a regular basis. Also, I will try to get a couple more chapters for "Encounters" done but if I can't I will probably just change it to a one shot. I decided to do this one shot because I really couldn't ignore the apparent ending of Bleach and I also just wanted to keep you up to date on where I am with my writing.

Thank you all so much for your readership and support over the years,

Riza.