Bloody Xcution
It had all come full circle.
Ever since he orchestrated this plan he had been playing this amateur from the start. He had thoroughly researched his activities: both as a Shinigami and as a Guardian of Karakura Town. His attainment of Shinigami powers, his mastery over his Inner Hollow, and his victory over Aizen following his loss of his abilities. He knew it all, and the boy had played perfectly into his hands.
As his memories, the real him, returned he laughed with joy that everything he wanted came into his possession. This game he played out where he manipulated everyone, friend and foe alike, into the players he wished to participate as was complete. All that needed was to tie up loose ends.
"I'll be taking those powers of yours," Kūgo said in a dark tone, plunging his sword through Ichigo's Fullbring armored chest. The look of stark confusion looked pitiful, causing the man to sneer. Even as he explained the boy's predicament and how everything transpired, the look on his face brought a twinge of emotion buried inside of him.
Was it guilt? No, he used him in the way he wanted. There was nothing to regret. It was only his naive nature and his blissful ignorance to the truth of his existence that he was suffering at this moment.
Was it anger? Maybe, for someone who so readily allied with those who betrayed him. The feeling of indignation of seeing someone who inherited such a farce of a title that had little to no meaning other than branding you as dangerous and uncontrollable. The badge that was now fused to his sword was little more than a collar, a leash to keep a hold over their precious human dogs.
Now that very badge that was used to spy, restrict, and maintain awareness over him was used in a way to hide him from their watchful eyes. Their recent conflicts over the last two years helped him take bolder actions. Gathering Xcution, teaching them to understand the nature of their powers and establish a plan to gain more strength to fight back against those who would see them chained or killed.
Feeling the warping threads of Reishi that made up the second Substitute Shinigami's person flow along his sword, his smile toothily spread, "About time. It took a little longer than I thought."
Pulling his enlarged double-edged weapon from the man's chest, the last of the Fullbring was absorbed into the base of his sword's guard; this caused the skeletal eyes to glow a bright red light. Seeing that any signs of an injury had been erased, courtesy of manipulating the last of the former bearer's power to close his wound, Kūgo watched the Fullbringer sapped of his personal Fullbring. Dropping to his hands and knees, the orange haired man began to weep, crying aloud at the helplessness that enveloped his being. A downpour cascaded over their forms, drenching them and the sullen Substitute as powerlessness once again captured him.
"Oh, how sad," His protege and partner, Shūkurō Tsukishima, said with a pitying tone as he stood next to Kūgo. "The poor boy is crying. He must be devastated."
"Forget him," Kūgo said in a cold, detached tone. Turning his back to the fallen Ichigo, his feet began to trod wetly across the earth. With sword in hand, objective achieved, all loose ends were tied. There was no reason to stick around a beaten man to hear his cries. "We got what we came for. We'll regroup and plan our next move. When the time is right we'll mount our attack."
Shūkurō smiled thinly, eyes narrowing at the mullet donned 's scalp. After closing eyes in sync with a slow exhale, he nodded with affirmation, "Very well."
Joining him in his slow trot back to the manor, where all of the other Fullbringers and Ichigo's collage of family and friends resided, the two's casual gait was drowned out by the dark sky's tears. Blanketed in moisture, the two knew that all obstacles had been removed. With no sign of aid by the Soul Society or any of his shady affiliates, their next objective would be launched soon.
Nothing stood in their way now-
"Give it back."
Those words struck Kūgo at his core, halting his stride immediately. Eyes widened at the exclaimed choice of demand.
"...my powers...give them back to me..."
He was broken and crying, muted by the storm that slowed its sheets of cold moisture. Now his voice hardened and in control, as if he wasn't close to death moments ago. Narrowing his eyes, Kugo huffed with disbelief at what he was hearing. Had he lost his mind, he could only wonder.
"What are you talking about?" Kūgo asked incredulously, propping his behemoth weapon onto one shoulder while waving his free hand with emphasis. "I gave you your powers. If you think about it, all is fair that I can take them back. I spared your life on a whim, in honor of your unwilling tribute. Don't push your luck, Kurosaki."
Turning on his heels, Kūgo resumed his walk away from the all-fours positioned man. The asphalt continued to echo his movement as he chose to not engage in further verbatim with the victim. He knew better than to linger...
"I said give them back!" Ichigo shouted aloud, his voice now filled with vigor and determination.
Turning fully to face him, Kūgo scoffed at the strawberry tressed teenager, "And what exactly will you do if I don't?"
"I don't know," The Substitute retorted, slowly rising to his feet till he faced his enemy and teacher fully. "But I have no intention of stopping. Not until the powers you stole are mine again!"
This caused the breath to become hitched in Kūgo's throat. His pupils dilated and the wave of remembrance kicked to the forefront of his mind's eye. What he saw was a mirroring occurrance; a young man, younger than Ichigo, bloodied and holding a sword, stared defiantly at his own aggressor. His glare was mimicked by the same orange haired boy who projected his dagger-filled vision straight at him.
"What the Hell...am I looking at?!" Kūgo thought with visible apprehension.
"I'll say it again," Ichigo snarled, taking a step forward as his voice raised in volume, "give me my Fullbring back. Give it back, GINJŌ!"
It all happened so fast. In a flash of silken framed movement a trio of figures shimmered into view behind the shouting boy. Eyes wide and mouth agape as a blue outlined white sword penetrated his back and perforated out of his chest. He looked over his shoulders, noticing two familiar figures.
"Mr. Urahara? Dad?" Ichigo asked the grim faced pair. Upon hearing no answers from either of them his face began to shrivel into one of despair, having come to the worse conclusion. "So, that's how it is. They got to you too, and twisted your memories, didn't they?!"
"Shut up, you idiot!" Isshin rebuked his son openly, gesturing his head to the posterior of Ichigo's back, out of sight of both Shūkurō and Kūgo. "I'm not the one holding the sword. Open your mind. You should be able to see it now."
As what lingering fog of powerlessness washed away, the look on Ichigo changed from despair to outright shock. His body froze stiff and his breath hissed out just as the last raindrop hit the ground. Speaking now, Kūgo realized too whom it was, "Rukia?"
There was no verbal response. Only an action. The blade that burrowed through his body seemed to ignite with power, sending a buffeting wind to flourish around Ichigo and Rukia. What followed that was a collosal whirling twister, filled to the brim with a undeniable force of Reiatsu too indistinguishable for the Fullbringer to distinguish.
Raising his sword to cushion the waves of blistering air currents while his partner raised his forearm, both kept their faces from feeling the stinging flaps of the wind cascading over their bodies and the environment. When the twister vanished as suddenly as it came, the trio plus Ichigo were revealed and it was much to Kūgo's shock of what he saw.
Standing there was Ichigo, towering over the fallen frame of his mortal body in his Soul form. His body was enamored in black silk of a Shikhakushō, a single crimson bandoleer strap wrapping over his chest and shoulders while a pair of sandals covered his feet. Strangely enough he looked different than what he saw him from a distance as. His butcher blade had peculiarly different design, appearing slightly more curved at the tip and its hilt looked more like a black tube instead of a bandage wrapped piece of metal. Aesthetic changes included leather straps over his digits trailing to the back of his hand, a white and black collar stitched to his kosode top and a X shaped band wrapping over his chest, stitched from one open side of his kosode top to the other.
"Impossible! I stole his Shinigami powers!" Kūgo breathed aloud under his breath. Looking at his sword, his hand gripped tightly upon the hilt, eyes glaring at his weapon. "No! I stole his powers. What he had left was in his Combat Pass and that's inside of my blade!"
Looking up, his gaze wavered at Ichigo, now engaging in dialogue with Rukia. He saw her land a comedic doublekick, reprimanding him of his attitude. All the while he tuned it out, analyzing the body that contained an ominous Reiatsu, filling him with a newfound form of power.
"If I stole his Fullbring and his Shinigami powers, what the Hell am I looking at? A faux replica?" Kūgo thought to himself.
When she swung her sword at him, once again as a sign of hilarity, Ichigo barked at how close his life was to be ended by her. Her correction that the sword had no edge piqued his interest.
"This is a blade created by Kisuke specifically for you. Thanks to this, I was able to give you your Shinigami powers back. It's extremely effective," Rukia responded with a confident emphasized flourish of the weapon in question.
"A power transference tool? So it is a farce," Kūgo declared aloud, earning the hardened gaze of Ichigo and the cool stare of Rukia respectively. "What a joke. You almost had me worried, but I remember the facts. The last time you transferred powers to him was by means of a Zanpakutō, giving him your powers that are reinforced by his own Reiatsu. But what you gave him can't replenish what was stolen," holding up his sword for example, Kūgo grinned cockily as he thrust it at her for reinforced emphasis, "I stole what was left of his powers he threw away all those months ago. What you gave him is a far cry in comparison what I stole. That boy is a shell of his former glory. Your Reiryoku alone cannot give him the boost that'd compare to what he had!"
"Shut up, dumbass! What made you think she acted alone?!"
A voice, shouting from the heavens took him off guard. Looking up, he witnessed an enormous Senkaimon open above his head. Splitting apart, a crimson haze distorted five silhouettes. Vanishing within moments, their figures became more recognizable and put the Fullbringer in a state of unease.
"Ikkaku! Renji! Byakuya! Tōshirō! Kenpachi!" Ichigo called out, recognizing their forms and their distinguishing forms of Reiatsu they projected from above.
Acting as if Ichigo said nothing, Renji continued to rebuke from above, "Every last one of us and more put our Reiryoku into that sword. That's more than enough to rejuvenate anybody's powers!"
Feeling his brows twitch at this information, it put any confidence he had down a notch. The nail in the coffin came when the adopted Kuchiki chimed in.
"Ginjō, wasn't it?" Rukia inquired pointedly. "What you stole was only the surface of Ichigo's powers. That and what was bonded in his Combat Pass that created his Fullbring are the only things you managed to pilfer from him. His powers that lied dormant within him are out of your reach, no matter how hard you tried to gain them!"
"Tch," Kūgo clicked his tongue against his teeth, turning himself away from her towards Ichigo. Raising his blade to rest against his shoulder, he faced his adversary. Fake or not, the prior mercy he showed him was going to be discarded now. Kill or be killed. It was that simple.
After the speech Rukia gave to Ichigo reinforced the Substitute Shinigami's resolve, Kūgo scoffed with a smile.
"Words can only carry you so far," Kugo said, kicking off the ground, launching his blade to arch over his head and slam into Ichigo's guarding weapon with a mighty clang. "Real or not, you've got no chance against me, novice!"
Pressuring the boy, the Fullbringer couldn't hold back a gleam of malice in his eyes. Sparks flew between the two opposing metals, audible grinding heard as two pairs of feet skid across the asphalt covered earth. A single hand reinforced Ichigo's guard while Kugo used both hands on both hilts of his weapon.
"I went out of my way to spare you. If this is the way you want to repay me I'm going to crush that arrogant body of yours. After that, I'll steal these powers-!"
Kugo felt his line of mental dialogue halted when he felt himself move involuntarily up into the air. A buffeting wave of wind flourished around him, the wake of a single backstroke of Ichigo's guarding weapon. After ascending twenty meters Kūgo clawed at the air, creating sparks of Fullbring energy as he manipulated the molecules around him to create a hovering platform him to levitate upon.
Seeing Ichigo make haste to continue his assault, Kūgo readied himself to exchange blows once again. With a diagonal slash downwards, it was met with a mutual angled stroke of his sword, causing another resounding clang between their swords. This continued to be exchanged, their behemoth sized weapons striking each other repetitively, continually sending the sounds of their crashes to the spectators in the air and the ground respectively.
Breaking off from their attacks, Kugo skirted across the air and staggered back. He felt his lungs already begging for air, forcing his throat to inhale mouthfuls of oxygen to recouperate himself. Seeing that Ichigo unfazed and undeterred, he realized the powers given to him were incredibly substantial in comparison to the Fullbring he got.
"I see...you've gotten a bit stronger...more so than when you had your Fullbring," Kūgo commented offhandedly, earning a scowl from Ichigo.
What followed caught Kūgo by surprise.
Swinging his blade in a horizontal fashion that was akin to a blur, the air between him and his enemy warped - becoming a blanket of white and cerulean colored space. It passed between the distance of attacker to target within seconds, barely giving time Kūgo to raise his sword to defend the majority of his body against this offensive power. Searing heat engulfed his person, roaring and surging around him. His feet barely found purchase to push against the voluminous pillar of power that surrounded him. In an audible explosion, Kūgo managed to descend, escaping the remnants of energy that culminated into that attack.
"Ha!" Kūgo howled up, feeling only minor stings as trails of steam ebbed from his person. Burns enamored his face and fingertips but did little to faze him in the slightest. "That Getsuga Tenshō of yours was certainly impressive! Stronger when you used it in Fullbring! But if that's the best attack you got, I suggest you give up-!"
"Idiot," Ichigo reprimanded, causing his enemy to flinch and turn around, shocked by his sudden appearance behind him. "That wasn't a Getsuga Tenshō. That was only my sword striking the air in front of me. There was no Spiritual Pressure in that attack."
"What?!" Kugo asked incredulously, finding himself taken aback by what was said.
"Haaaaaaa," Ichigo breathed out gutturally as he held his blade out in front of him, body ablaze by his own Reiatsu. The fiery Reishi created a warping column of blue light that speared into the dark stormhead above, sending out blistering air currents to swirl around the landscape and lap over Kugo's person. Such Reiatsu weighed on him, that it cause his mouth to open agape and his body to shudder with fear.
"What the Hell is this Reiatsu?!" Kūgo shouted, fully turning to face the empowered Substitute he had stripped of power minutes ago.
"Getsuga," Ichigo uttered, squatting low, hugging the back of his blade in a withdrawn manner. In a fluent blur of swinging motion, the eldest Kurosaki child slashed the air within the cauldron of Reishi brimming from his person. It was words that Kūgo never thought would be uttered out of the young man's lips, but were directed straight at him. "TENSHŌ!"
Kūgo didn't have the time nor strength to raise his arms up to defend against the blinding wave of cerulean pale light that flourished in his direction. It moved faster than he comprehended and soared through space in a fraction of the time the wave of air pressure did just seconds earlier. He didn't even hear the thunderclap of force that followed until it passed over his head and cleaved a sizable portion of the manor behind his back.
Said thunderclap seemed to part the heavens above, revealing the crescent moon shining down upon them, illuminating Kūgo's shocked visage. A dollop of hair slowly graced his brow as he gasped, feeling his whole body paralyzed by what had happened. He didn't need to look behind him to know that part of the environment, including the manor that was refuge to his associates and Ichigo's collage, that he purposely angled it to miss him and the others.
"Sorry, I missed," Ichigo said in a dark tone, his gaze lingering upon Kūgo's paled face, "I won't the second time."
It was then a jolt of alarm passed straight through Kūgo's being. After shuffling warily back a few steps, Kugo quickly took to the air, jettisoning his body to a higher altitude. He briefly exchanged a look down at Tsukishima before returning his gaze towards the night sky, "We need to regroup! I need time to adjust Ichigo's powers to merge with my own! Facing a power like that in the state I'm in would be-!"
A strong hand grasped his shoulder, causing a sudden swivel of his head to see Ichigo's person already behind him.
"Where do you think you're going?" Ichigo asked in a hardened tone, his hand painfully digging into his shoulder as he kept his ascended pace. Seconds later, Ichigo threw him forcefully in a complete opposing direction where he intended to go. Such force was placed that Kūgo lost balance and descended quickly to the forest. He barely had time to raise his sword in a defensive posture as his careening frame drew closer to a number of tall trees, guarding against a two handed strike on Ichigo's part.
"Gah!" Kūgo exhaled out, feeling a searing wave of wind-broken force snap within the air and careen him through a handful of horizontal aligned branches. Had it not been for his instinctive discharge of Fullbring around his person, he knew he would have suffered the back breaking impacts of the wood and the gravity pulled impact into the soil below.
Flipping back onto his feet, he ignored his mud caked state and quickly launched a counterattack to the instantly arrived Ichigo. His wide sword swing was deftly evaded by a backward leaning motion, causing his claymore to drive its edge easily through the tall tree next to him. With the tall mass of wood groaning as it fell in between them, Kugo aligned his blade to swing down towards Ichigo while the latter maneuvered his blade to swing upwards to catch his blade.
When both edges cut through the trunk of the falling tree like knives to butter, an explosive blast of air pressure was released. Meeting Ichigo's sword swing, he couldn't help but inadvertently soar upwards by the power of the Substitute's parrying attack. He clawed at the air with bristling lime-hued Fullbring energy, slowing his ascent and braching himself in the sky once again.
"I won't lose to you!" Kūgo thought as he glared viciously down at Ichigo's speeding form. Grasping the second hilt along with the first, a brilliant emerald light wrapped and thrummed outwards from the cross guard of his sword. With a mighty swing, he swung his Cross Lance at him, intending on cutting him down with his volatile sword shaped attack.
It was only when the blast halted not but six meters away from him, curtailing out in a wafting manner, that Kūgo realized his attack was being deflected. Adding insult to injury, Ichigo backstroked his weapon to his right, scattering his attack into dozens of fragmented sparking lime colored sparks. Taken back by such an effortless gesture, he realized just how outclassed he was in comparison to his young yet powerful enemy.
Taking a step back, a fiery spout of blue outlined white energy spewed forth from his Zanpakutō. Reishi flourished out and about as if it was an animated geyser of cobalt flames roared to life from the sword itself. Grasping it with both hands, it flickered and wrapped around his person, briefly obscuring his visage altogether from the Fullbringer.
"Getsuga," Ichigo whispered faintly. A brief flicker of a visible hazel eye glared through the mantle of Reishi bursting from his blade before the final word was shouted voluminously with a over the shoulder swing of his infamous weapon. "TENSHOU!"
Having the decency to at least raise his blade in a vertically guarding manner, Kūgo managed to cushion the crescent shaped wave that mauled through his scope of the horizon. Like a blanket of sapphire coated snow, it was all he could do to keep it from cleaving him half, let alone destroy his body at an absolute level. His body sprawled through the air with the path of the attack, incapable of slowing himself to better defend against this monstrous gale of fiery light.
"Have to do something or this will kill me!" Kugo thought with trepidation. Bullets of sweat flowing off his scalp as he continued to feel the wind lap at his being with the scalding wave kept barely at bay by his weapon. Glancing down at the skull portion of his claymore's guard he noticed with amazement that its eyes began to burn, ebbing raw crimson tongues out of the empty sockets.
"About damn time," Kugo whispered aloud with a smile. Another breath escaped him before returning a glare at the technique that continued to push him across the skyline. Only this time he returned it with a vigorous shout, "Pillage, Sanzoku!"
It was a single instant that caused the mass of Reishi to be whittled down to nothing, evaporated with a downward stroke. Finally halting his backward trail, Kugo grinned with success of his sword's awakening. A stream of blue-black liquid substance trailed up his form, wrapping and entwining his with his clothes, morphing and changing it. By the time he was fully encased in it, all of the power embedded into his blade was brought out in full.
"This is nice," Kugo said aloud, raising up a white gloved hand, looking down at it with fascination. Clenching it tightly before unfurling his digits, he looked down at his sword and smiled at it. "how long has it been since I've used my Shinigami powers in sync with my Hollow powers? I can't remember since the time I went into hiding."
Swinging his weapon around in an arc, he set it upon his shoulder as he eyed the unaware Shinigami and Ichigo hovering in the air. His grin thinned as a thought came into his head. It caused him to laugh under his breath as he tread across the air towards their midst. When he got close enough, he unleashed a massive burst of rose colored Reiatsu, howling like thunder and shaking the heavens above the surprised 2nd generation Substitue along with the Shinigami gathered below him.
The time for a bloody execution, has begun.
A/N: Hey guys. I had wrote this on a whim awhile back and I thought to release it to see how people feel about it. I think I wrote this with the intent of, not only giving the Fullbringers a better send-off but also give some closure to the unfulfilled and undiscovered backstory of Ginjō Kūgo. I saw no reason why this seemingly important character and his colleagues had little to NO explanation given, so I'll do my best to divulge into his story chief above all while showing a smarter way of utilizing these Xcution members' powers.
Will they survive this time around? What will the outcome be? Find out, on an eventual update if this gets good reception. I'll see ya then!