Hey all, and to whoever's already following me, here I am with a brand new story. Here, I'll be describing what might happen if the soul king himself were to decide that Ichigo is too powerful to be allowed to live, and decrees that he is to be executed. On this fateful day, ten years after the end of the Aizen incident, Ichigo will find out just who his true friends and allies are.

"Shit", was the first thing out of the mouth of one Ichigo Kurosaki. "It's been ten damn years. Just how long can the freaking soul king possibly take to decide whether or not to kill me anyway?"

Nobody answered, mostly because everyone present knew it was a rhetorical question. The fact that ten years had already passed without a decision was answer enough. What they didn't know was that the decision had been made, and word was on its way.

Every head in the room turned when knocking sounded on the door, followed by a message. "Ichigo Kurosaki", the messenger said, "please report to soukyoku hill to await the final word of the soul king."

"Well guys" he deadpanned, "let's go get me killed." He looked at everyone and saw that they had all seemed to have gotten a Jigokucho, and were now being called back to their respective squads. "Never mind, I'll see you all later"

"Is it just me, you guys," said a certain raven haired shinigami by the name of Rukia Kuchiki, "or is Ichigo way too cheery considering that he might be put to death today?" Nobody seemed to be able to come up with an answer to her question.

One hour later.

"Where the hell is everybody?" Ichigo asked in futility, as he had barely finished the question before the air was filled with the sound of numerous flash steps. He turned around to see that before him now stood every captain and lieutenant, as well as every single person that he knew in the Gotei 13.

The soutaicho spoke up. "Ichigo Kurosaki, your fate has been decided. We will now await the arrival of the royal guard, so that we may all hear the decision." As if on cue, a massive gilded senkaimon appeared in the air high above soukyoku hill, and opened to reveal what looked like the entirety of the royal guard. Once they were all out and the gate had closed, Kyoraku turned and addressed them. "Good afternoon, officers of the royal guard, I trust a decision has been reached.

The apparent leader of the group gave Kyoraku a curt nod before addressing Ichigo with sufficient volume for all those assembled to hear. "Ichigo Kurosaki, you have been called here today to hear the final decision of the soul king regarding your fate. The king has decided, Kurosaki-san, that you are too powerful to be permitted to continue living. Therefore, as of right now, you are to be executed."

A collective sigh rose from all the captains, lieutenants, and others who were acquainted with Ichigo before the sound of mass flash steps filled the air again, though this time Ichigo could swear he heard the characteristic boom of sonido mixed into the noise. He turned around and saw everyone he ever considered a friend or ally standing there ready to back him up.

As he looked he identified captains Shunsui Kyoraku, Sui-Feng, Rojuro Otoribashi, Shinji Hirako, Byakuya Kuchiki (much to his surprise), Sajin Komamura, Kensei Muguruma, Toshiro (that's CAPTAIN Hitsugaya to you) Hitsugaya, Kenpachi Zaraki, Kisuke Urahara (Kurotsuchi managed to get himself killed during the Wandenreich invasion, no big loss there), and Jushiro Ukitake. Continuing his scan he saw the lieutenants he had befriended over the previous ten years, including Izuru Kira, Isane Kotetsu, Momo Hinamori (She had surprisingly not tried to kill him more than twice after he defeated Aizen), Renji Abarai, Tetsuzaemon Iba, Nanao Ise, Shuhei Hisagi, Mashiro Kuna, Rangiku Matsumoto, Nemu Kurotsuchi (how that happened he never could remember), and Rukia Kuchiki.

Finally, there were the friends who weren't members of the Gotei 13, such as Yoruichi Shihoin, Orihime Inoue, Sado 'Chad' Yasutora, Uryu Ishida (however much he may deny it), Tatsuki Arisawa (exposure to Ichigo's reiatsu caused her to develop powers at some point, allowing her to summon reishi swords at will), as well as his father Isshin, and even two more people he hadn't expected to see again, Grimmjow and Neliel, as well as a third who Ichigo had never actually met, though he knew her name was Halibel.

At the sight of so many people willing to stand up and protect him Ichigo felt himself nearly bursting with pride and joy.

Due to his status as the current head of the practically extinct Shiba family, Ichigo had to marry more than one woman. As luck would have it, the choices of who to marry had been his, and so he chose three women who he knew were of similar temperament to himself, and whom he had become close to over the previous ten years. Those three were Rukia, Yoruichi, and Sui-Feng; Though Ichigo suspected that the latter had agreed partly because of Yoruichi.

It was only after Ichigo realized just how many he could truly consider his friends that he realized he now had an answer to the question he didn't know he had. He was about to step up and say something when Kyoraku cut in with his own speech.

"I assume we all know what's about to happen here so I want to say something before we get this started", he began. "Because of all the help he's given us over these past ten years, as well as the fact that he saved all our asses from Aizen and Juha Bach, I've decided, and every captain here agrees with me, even Kuchiki, surprisingly enough, so it's already been arranged that if he survives this day, then Ichigo Kurosaki Shiba will be given the vacant position of captain of the eighth division, and free choice of his lieutenant amongst all qualified officers,"

Ichigo sighed and stepped forward to make his own speech, which was short and to the point. "Over these past ten years I've gotten to know a lot of you, and after what I've seen just now, I can safely say I'm glad I did. Whether I live or die today doesn't matter. No matter the outcome, I'll at least know that all of you are the best damn friends a guy could ever ask for. This is it, win or lose, live or die, I have my answer, so I'm gonna go beat the crap out of these jackasses or die trying! In other words, Bankai!"

So this is the end (or is it?). To be honest, I might be persuaded to write a short follow-up describing the aftermath of the battle (reviews will help). Anyway, tell me what you think of my first one (or two) shot. Read and Review, Thank you very much.