I don't own Bleach and do not seek profit from this work. The characters and the original plot all belong to Tite Kubo, and this is but an idea for a different take on the story of the One Who Protects.
-Prologue: The End of the Fairy Tale-
This tale usually begins with a boy, famous for his orange hair, a scowling which seemed to never leave his face and a strong sense of justice.
Said boy was able enter in a world that others could not, for he could see, speak, and even touch those who had already left the land of the living.
When he was not living as a student, a friend, a son, or a brother, he helped those who lingered after death, doing what little he could so they could pass on without regrets.
Then, one day he met the girl and the monsters who truly changed his view of the world.
A Shinigami, a Death God, one who ruled over the fate of the souls, and who had the task to either send them to the afterlife, or purify them once corrupted.
A Hollow, a soul that fell into corruption because it could not pass on, and the emptiness in its heart grew to the point where it became a shadow of its former self, a monster bent on devouring other souls to fill the hunger born from such emptiness. Those devoured where either absorbed or became new monsters themselves.
The boy accepted the Shinigami's offer to save his family and, taking her powers, become a temporary Death God himself. He slew the monster.
For a little while, as acting Shinigami, he pursued different Hollow targets with the aid of the recovering girl, and in the way new bonds were born and old ones became stronger. He even befriended a young Quincy, humans who developed their own spiritual power in order to fight the Hollow and avenge their loved ones, and whose power did not purify but rather destroyed those souls.
Because their actions were destroying the balance of life and death born from the cycle of reincarnation, the Shinigami first threatened them to stop and, when negotiations failed, waged a war against Quincy that almost brought them to extinction. But even with a reason to justify his hatred, the yound QUincy and the fake Shinigami started a strong, though silent, friendship.
This power, borrowed as it was, allowed him to not only help those he cared about and those dead in need, but even to come to terms and face the ghost of his past, the guilt over the death of a beloved mother.
But then, the girl was taken back by force, because her kind considered the act of lending her own power to help a Human as a crime punishable with Death. And despite his efforts, the boy met defeat and lost such power.
He received a new offer from a shady but seemingly trusful character, a candy shopper who was on good terms with the kidnapped girl and could help him attain the power to save her.
The boy almost lost the bet, but in the end he emerged from the pit with his own powers, a Shinigami.
With the help of his friends and a teacher in cat skin, he departed to the afterlife, The Soul Society; the goal, infiltrate the home of the Shinigami and their Headquarters, The Seireitei, and rescue the girl who helped him in his time of need.
The infiltration became a set of battles from different fronts, both for staying alive and for achieving the main goal. Victories and defeats came for his allies, but he managed to overcome every strong enemy he faced, becoming stronger with each one of them.
He trained to gain a new level of power, necessary to fight on equal grounds with the man who took back the girl, her own brother. He could not accept that one who had the role of the elder shibling did nothing to protect the younger one, for the sake of duty.
He saved the girl with the help of a new friend and some Shinigami who disagreed with her fate. He fought and defeated her brother.
But the power who pushed that man to the limits was of a darker nature and possesed a mind of its own; it took his battle, even if temporarily.
And when the mission seemed complete and escape would have been the next choice, the true villain appeared.
A leader among the Shinigami, hidden behind a kind smile and the orchestration of his "apparent" own death. He and his companions had manipulated the fights and the trial on the girl, so she would be executed and the prize inside her, taken. They were labeled as traitors just as they were going to be detained, for their escape was aided by the Hollows, the monsters they were supposed to kill and purify.
Nevertheless, they were successful. The girl was safe, his friend alive and mostly well. He could repay the girl for saving him an his family on that fateful night, and got new friends from that encounter and this adventure.
The Shinigami were indebted to the brave boy and his friends, and they did not only stopped pursuit after them, but declared them allies for Soul Society.
During the next month, the boy and friends passed trough another adventure.
A fourth player, the Bounts, were aiming to reach Soul Society, to extract revenge on the Shinigami for the massacre of their kind; this time because the Bount fed on human, Shinigami and even Quincy souls to prolongue their almost immortal existence. To arrive there, they needed the power of a Quincy, and chose the one from the boy's team.
Fighting ensued, and wether by rebellion or the blade of the Shinigami and their allies, all the invading Bounts except for one were killed. Their leader fell to the blade of the boy, celebrated once more as a Hero.
But said boy would never stop feeling regret, deep in his heart, for slaying that man.
Not long after, the Traitor made his move.
Two of his soldiers, Hollows whith Shingami powers called Arrancar, did a brief incursion into the Human World, in order to bait the Shinigami Substitute and try his strenght.
Even though he did a good start, he ended up as a punching bag because of the meddling of the dark power inside him, only surviving because the intervention of both of his teachers.
Few days later, the Shinigami sent those in good terms with the Hero, as well as some of their strong assets, to create a team capable of facing another of the Traitor's attacks. It was revealed that his goal was to sacrifice the city and its people in order to create a powerful item to enter the realm of the Spirit King, the Ruler of Soul Society, and slain him to become King himself.
The Hero would not allow such thing, for he was a protector and both his family and friends, as well as the innocent citizens who had no idea of the incoming danger, should have nothing to do with the war between the Traitor and the Soul Society, or any of their interests from it.
A bigger incursion took place and after a though battle the Team was able to deafeat most of the Arrancar except their leader who, after trashing the Hero, was forced to retire by one of the Traitor's trusted officers. Victory but a hard one, and the Hero realized that if he could not control the dark power within him, he would lose his important people, whether by weakness to fight or by killing them himself as a monster.
So, he decided to train with others who shared his situation, The Vizards. Former Shinigami forced to enter into the Hollow Domain, they resented Soul Society for ordering their execution, for something not their fault. While they offered the Hero to join their group, he instead decided to ask them for training to gain their skill in ruling over their Hollow Power.
And he faced his other self, the portion of his power which strived for fighting and conquering new foes, the violence within him. Only after accepting such instinct and the need to kill and abbadon his doubts in his own strenght, he was able to gain the right to use his own Hollow Powers conciously.
The amount of this new power was very limited in the beginning but his future battle would allow him to handle it more properly and for a longer time. Even if he was only able to matain it for a few seconds, he could go toe to toe with the more powerful Arrancar.
Then one of his friends was kidnapped again.
The Shinigami denied help to the rescue. In fact they even branded his friend as a possible traitor, as it seemed she had time to say goodbye and then go with the Traitor willingly.
He called it bullshit.
There was no way she was going with the Traitor's men without a good reason. Even though a very small portion of himself admited that going willingly with the enemy without anything to loose would look like betrayal, he crushed that tought immediately. She was in danger, alone, in a hostile territory. A friend of his needed protection, and he would protect her.
Even if he had to go by himself.
Fortunately, he was once again in the company of his old team from the invasion of Seireitei, except for their friend in need. With the help of the shady man's invetion, they were able to cross to the place where their friend was hostage, and the Headquarters of the Traitor. The homeland of the Hollows, Hueco Mundo.
There they were joined by the Shinigami girl who he saved, and his other Shinigami friend and ally. Then he met Her.
On that time she was nothing but a girl, a child hollow with human form, who in company of her brothers had the strangehobby called Eternal Tag; which was basically them chasing after her, while she was crying like she was scared. Hell, she even said she was a bit of a masochist. Honestly, while the Hero was a little freaked out by this, he nevertheless befriended them quickly.
The now bigger group traveled Hueco Mundo in order to get into th Traitor's base of operations, the palace of Las Noches.The little hollow was childish and a little braggy, but they still enjoyed her company and the help she lent them by a new way of transportation.
They all got separated for a while when they entered the Menos Forest, a place full of mid to high level Hollows commanded by a Guardian under the Traitor's order. By the end of their fighting to pass through they received the help of a lone Shinigami who had spent centuries trapped in the forest, fighting the Hollows by himslef, even after his squad and friends had long ago perished by the seemeninly endless onslaught of enemies. They were able to get out, but the lone warrior stayed back to continue his fighting, while the only way back colapsed.
Once again, the Hero could not help but feel regret at leaving that man behind, but respected his path.
The team had to split in different paths, wishing good luck to each other and the hope of finding their captive friend and getting out of Hueco Mundo alive.
Each path led to a different battle and different outcomes. Some where victorious, only to be left almost death; others where put in a long and losing battle. The Hero won his first real fight in Las Noches, but then he was faced with the one responsible for kidnapping his friend.
He was completely outclassed. It didn't matter his better control over his Hollow Power, the Arrancar, the Espada, survived his strongest attack with just scratches and the proceeded to crush him. He was left half-dead, with the knowledge that this frightening enemy was not even the strongest in the Traitor's army. His concious faded in black.
He was still so far from the power of the enemy, despite risking to use the cursed power of the monster within him.
Then light came back to him.
He saw his friend, the one he was supposed to rescue, doing her best to heal him, and the proud Arrancar he had fought two times before in the Human World; he seemed willing to hurt her if she did not finish healing him so they could fight to the death. The Hero decided to step in and asure her that it was alright to do so, for he would settle things with that guy and then they could reunite with the rest of their friends and escape.
She trusted in him.
And so, the final fight between the proud Arrancar who called himself the King and the Substitute Shinigami who believe himself to be a Protector, began. They both used their maximum power, the best of their tecniques and tactics and their will to stand their ground despite their wounds. It was thanks to his friend support that he could endure.
In this battle, the control over his cursed power was boosted greatly and he could extend its use long enough to force his enemy to reveal his trumph card, and defeat him afterwards.
Victory. Finally he could take his friend back... or so he tought before he was trashed once again, this time by an even more powerful and completely rested Arrancar, only to be saved by the child Hollow. She however didn't look like a child anymore. A beautiful woman stood in her place and pushed the new foe to the wall, countering every of his strategies. Sadly, this power-up was limited in time and she reverted back to her child self just as she was about to struck the man down.
He tried to fight the Arrancar again to defend both of his friend, and the man got so bored with his poor performance that he passed the responsibility of dealing with him to his subordinate. Before most of his body was completely dislocated and beaten to mush in the sands, help arrived in the way of the Shinigami from Seireitei.
While the berserker from the Shinigami fought the berserker from the Arrancar, his friend offered to heal him.
However, this is where the story changes.
He denied her help, instead asking to prioritize the one who tried to help them, the Arrancar child-woman. She complied and surprinsingly, the woman came back, but this time with all of her memories. Her mind in place and aware of the current situation she took a drastic decision.
She took the Hero with her without saying anything and departed in a rush, leaving behind both the Shinigami and the friend the Hero risked so much to rescue.
The Former Espada and Arrancar revealed that Las Noches and the endless sands arround it, even the forest and whatever may lay beyond, where not the true face of Hueco Mundo. The real thing was isolated in the same way the Soul Society, the Human World, and Las Noches, by being a different realm with only one way in, located far away in the sandy plains.
She explained that her mission was to inform the True King of Hueco Mundo about the Traitor's Plot and actions in Las Noches and the War with the Shinigami, and she needed his support into it, both as a witness and because he was the only Human or Shinigami she trusted enough to risk her life and to not hide some scheme behind her back.
They reached the portal and entered in there, to arrive into a city which had nothing to envy both Seireitei or maybe even his home town. Even the citizens, Hollow by the way, behaved in a completely different way. Except for those which tried to play them to test their strenght.
Then the Shinigami arrived one more time.
How did they do that, was something the Hero had no idea and at that time his mind was between them, his friend holding him and the great pain and tiredness he felt. He had never stopped to rest, only the times he was almost killed or left to die and, but now the mental strain finally caught up to him; it didn't help that going to the True Hueco Mundo worsened his condition for he was nor accostumed to that way of travel. So, as sorrounded and tired as they were, both of them were taken by the Shinigami into Soul Society. And his conciousness faded again.
In Seireitei, or more properly, in the barracks of Seireitei and in the lab of the crazy monster known as Mayuri Kurotsuchi, the head of research for the Shinigami, he was given the cruel truth.
After being given to the scientist under orders from the Military Leader, the Commander-Captain, the Hero was turned into a lab rat, dissected while alive, given drugs to pull out his Hollow side and left in a cell while he was not needed. His friends were left alone because they were of no importance to the Shinigami now that thay had him in their hands, powerless. The one who was taken in with him, put in another cell, until a test beffiting her was invented into the mind of the mad man, and the relationship she had with him.
The gril who he saved from Death many months ago, and who had become a friend of his, was then given the role of watching after him, holding the leash of a dog not ordered to kill yet. And when he did, he felt completely terrified of himself.
Under influence of a drug, weakened, and in the midst of surviving with the little he had, he turned into a Hollow and slaughtered men whose only crime was to oppose the rule of the Seireitei. When he regained his senses, he was met with the carnage he had unleashed, and the expression of his friend that held both terror and disgust. There he realised how she truly saw him and how everyone in there saw him.
To the girl who saved him and he saved in return, he was a friend as long as he remained within the standards of Human and Shinigami. But she would still obey the orders of her superiors without doubt, and even reject him when he showed his darkness. The friendship had some truth, but it had turned into the same way as one would look out for a pet or a slave. And the slave had become rabid.
The Shinigami in general were afraid of and despised him, a fact to be reinforced by the slaughtering. They were never his allies, nor even his friends; that illusion was sustained so long he proved to be useful and until a chance showed when the enemy had grown weaker and the boy was the most vulnerable... and alone. Now he was to become their weapon, to stain in blood of enemies both inside and outside Seireitei, and to fight and to be experimented until it completely broke with no way to repair.
Those who fought at his side before showed somthing akin to pity for the loss of an asset, maybe an interesting one.
Those indifferent did nothing to help him in the end.
So he decided to take the chance his fellow captive warned him about, and when the time came, he used what little strenght he could save to that point and managed to get both of them free. She opened a way to Las Noches, with the idea of arriving near the portal to the True Hueco Mundo and cross together again.
But as she crossed, the strain of a forced opening was too much for the gate, and it collapsed behind her. The Hero was left alone, unable to reach for her.
And then he finally understood.
This tale has a more cruel beginning. It begins with the machinations of a man, a Shinigami, who wanted to defy the order which determined the fate of both Soul Society and maybe the Human World and Hueco Mundo. To become a new God, he was willing to cheat, manipulate and destroy others. And he had, by conquest or charisma, swayed many to his side.
Then it shows the many examples of the duty of the Shinigami, and how ruthless they can be when commited to such duty. Never accepting other points of view, and killing any failure of their making, fully believing in the conviction that order preavails everything, and holding onto their power because said order never changed.
This was mainly a war beteen mad men and women. The ones who cared only for order, and the ones who only cared to defy order. Neither of them caring for whatever lies beyon concepts and power; never truly caring for the ones dragged into the conflicto. All playing with both Humans and Hollows for their games.
And this tale did not need a Hero.
For the winner would become one with time.
He had no more role than a tool for war.
He had no way out of Las Noches into the True Hueco Mundo, Soul Society or even the home he missed so dearly. His friends safe but out of reach, same with his family. The old life he once had before trusting the blade of the female Shinigami had become the day he doomed himself. He would never regret protecting his family however.
He would regret being so naive to trust those who had shown many times how willing they were to manipulate and then kill to ensure their ideal world. To see the battles as just him and his friends standing against the evil one, when he was playing into a game of power bwtween powerful forces that had nothing to do with the everyday lives of humans, but still messes with them when they stepped into their realm, even a little.
But even if he had every reason to fall in despair, he would not stay still.
The words of his Zanpakuto, his partner in battle, he still remembered.
'Abandon your fear. Look forward. Move forward and never stop. You'll age if you pull back. You'll die if you hesitate.'
So he would keep forward. Even alone in this forsaken place, he would not give the Shinigami the pleasure to find him and submit him again to their whims. Even without allies, he would still fight against Aizen and his army, for that man probably had a sure plan to destroy the city where his important people lived. And maybe, he could find a way to control his reawakened monster and not bring more pain to his loved ones.
So, with little hopes but the will only found in the undead, Ichigo Kurosaki began his wandering in the seemingly endless white plains that made the fake Hueco Mundo.
And the wanderer must eventually find his resolve.
A/N: Before anybody says anything. No, I'm not leaving discontinued The Demon who wished to become a Hero. I wanted to do this work for a long time as well and the movie Dracula Untold inspired me to advance in both. Chapter II for my first work is almost complete so no worries, but next update shoud wait until thursday at night.
Now, about the story. When I read Green Jolt, I was very surprised by the dark turn it had by the simple fact of choosing to restore Nelliel completely during the fight of Kenpachi with Noitora. The idea of the Shinigami putting on a facade to ensure the cooperation of Ichigo is very plausible if you consider how willingly they are to crush those who they view a threat to their ideal of "balance". Sure, the True Hueco Mundo concept and the insistence of Nell in going back there after realizing that the Shinigami had found a way in seem pushed, but not every character has to make logic decisions. In fact, the rush would probably justify the lack of better options, as informing her King was the only way for Nelliel to act against Aizen and the Shinigami in the future.
Concerning Ichigo. I think that the Quincy War arc is very interesting for the character development, but it was likely a way to invent a war against the Final Big Bad, that being Juha Bach. In this work, though the Vandereich may still appear in the future, I won't allow to simply ignore the actions of both Aizen and the Shinigami in favor of putting them as the good vs Juha Bach. Ichigo will be bitter for their betrayal and the the torture inflicted on his person.
Hope to hear your opinion soon.