Chapter 01

Enlighten the Path

- Now -

(Oji* — Uncle)

A meeting was assembled during midday in the usual chambers of the first quarter that was under the Commanding-General's watch, and it of course made everyone rather curious as to what was going on. The three eldest captains that stood were patiently waiting for the reason of while they were summoned from their units, while some of the others were not so great about being near disliked captains. Already, Zaraki Kenpachi of the eleventh squad and Kurotsuchi Mayuri of the twelfth squad were bickering at one another, causing the captains of the other squads to roll their eyes with distaste. Perhaps the only one who did not mind their senseless bickering was the captain of the fifth squad who had joined after his death in the human word; yes, by request of seven fellow captain's and the Commanding-General himself, Kurosaki Ichigo became a captain. It was rather pathetic of how he died—someone as strong as he was had died from some sort of virus a couple of years back, but he was barely in his human body in order to take care of it for that matter. Everyone somehow managed to fight for his behalf due to the hollow in his soul, but he showed the government in Soul Society that he had dominance over this danger, which allowed him the chance to be accepted instead of dealt with as a threat.

"Forgive the sudden summoning for you all, but I thank you for showing at the urgent calling," the old man started, "a message had been delivered earlier this morning, but the ones delivering this message are rather difficult to communicate with." This had everyone raise a confused brow to this, and none knew exactly how to react. "The messengers declared that all of you must be present for this message to be acknowledged," he looked to the orange-haired man at his left side, "with that said, I will leave the two in your care; Fifth Squad Taichou, Kurosaki Ichigo."

Hearing his name called out made him baffled, "wha—?"
His cry went unheard, "bring them in!" He announced.
"H-Hey wait—" too late, the doors were already opening.

The guards outside the chamber pushed open the doors and at the entrance were two small kids; an orange-haired boy and a white-haired boy that stood at the same height in shinigami outfits, to top it all off, they both had a zanpakutou on their back. All eyes went to the little ones in confusion while instantly noticing undeniable characteristics of the boys looking like fellow captain members Kurosaki Ichigo of the fifth squad, Hitsugaya Toushirou of the tenth squad, and Ukitake Juushirou of the thirteenth squad. Both of the two had vanished from their sight in order to tackle the fifth squad captain down as they cheered with pure delight upon seeing him, yet somehow it seemed that they knew who he was before the doors had a chance to be opened. What had everyone's attention was that, for just a brief moment, they all lost sight of the two little children which meant that their speed was top class… meaning that the two of them were obviously no ordinary shinigami. Finally managing to capture the two rascals by their collars before they gave him any head trauma from their cheering, he set the two down and glared at them both of them for tackling him in the first place, and yet they just grinned at him with stupid looks on their faces. Seeing how his glare did not succeed on the two children for the tackle, he crossed his arms in the sleeves of his haori while looking upon them, but they still gave him the goofy grins and smiles—obviously these two were not intimidated.

"We did what you told us to do Daddy!" They stated in unison.

All of the captains took a step away from the fifth squad captain in surprise as to hearing what the boys had called this man such a foreign name because none of them had any kids at the moment other that Kurotsuchi Mayuri, but he created Kurotsuchi Nemu—but she did not count! Everyone's attention went towards Kurosaki Ichigo's now paling face as both ends of his lips began rapidly twitch endlessly at the announcement the two had declared this complete made up fantasy of him being their father. His attention went pleadingly towards the Commanding-General who would only nod at him to get the answers from the kids, which was not something that he really wanted to do at the moment due to severe head trauma at what all has just happened. It seemed that no one would be willing to talk to these little ones for him, and so he took in a deep breath to try keeping what sanity he had left, and talked to the kids gently as if talking to his two little sisters that he had missed so terribly for the past twenty or so years.

"So, are you the messengers that were sent?" Ichigo asked sheepishly.

"Daddy said to use the Kuchiki Clan gates to come back to this time portal," the white-haired boy replied and fished out something out of his robes and raised it up to the man, "once we were to arrive, we had to have every taichou gathered together as you told us to." The two then spoke in unison, "you should know what to do with it because Urahara-oji* gave it to you long ago."

Ichigo stared widely at the little black glass sphere with astonishment, "that's…"

"Ichigo-kun, what is that?" Juushirou asked a little worriedly; mysterious objects startled him.
"I asked Urahara-san to make this about ten years ago in case we ever needed help." He replied.
Mayuri snorted at this and demanded, "then hurry up and tell us what it is already, I'm interested."
"Ah shut up already," Kenpachi growled in annoyance, "just 'cause it's something new to us all."
Before they could start a fight, Komamura Sajin of the Seventh Squad spoke, "how about it then?"

"Ah," Ichigo nodded and started, "it's basically a transmitter that I requested for." He looked up to the canine, "after going through all of those experiences, I thought it would be a good idea in case we ever needed back up from allies." His hand went into his robe and brought out a little glass ball to show them, "Urahara-san said that once something is recorded into it, it would turn black, and as you can see, I haven't used mine yet." He waved it twice before putting it in his sleeve.

"Kurosaki taichou, will you present the message that has been sent to us?" The old man asked.

"The message in this ball can only be viewed once, so with all due respect, I suggest we have a recording done by Kurotsuchi-san." Ichigo stated seriously for all of his fellow captains in the room right now. "Also, block off all light sources so we can view it better."
"I'll create a recording with this chip," Mayuri held out a small square looking device as he went on with his speech, "by placing it against the wall, it'll record and memorize everything in here so I can upload the file into the computer for repetitive analysis."
The Commanding-General nodded to the task and Mayuri went over and placed it on the doors as he stomped his staff against the wooden floors which had the room darkened instantly, "now then, demonstrate the given message in your hand, Kurosaki."
"Yes sir," Ichigo stepped forth in the aisle and looked at the glass ball, "I suggest everyone takes five steps towards the doors and two steps back." After all of the captains obeyed his suggestion, he sighed. "Well, here it goes," he threw it on the ground.

The black ball shattered in the center of the room, causing ash colored smoke to arise which had some of them worry about the magic held within this. Suddenly they saw a hologram come from it, but the surprise that they got from it was an older looking Kurosaki Ichigo; he looked like he was about thirty or forty years old while the one standing in the room still looked like a teen.

"I'm Fifth Squad Taichou and Second in Command, Kurosaki Ichigo." His attention went side to side.

"If this message has been received, then it means that my sons have succeeded on their mission of deliverance." Again he looked around. "I have given the order to my sons, Kurosaki Daichi and Kurosaki Machi to go to the Kuchiki Clan to use their gate to go exactly fifty years into the past." His eyes jumped to the side and sent out an attack. "In fifty years, Soul Society will be torn apart from creatures that seem much more powerful than anything we have ever seen before. We have lost five captains; Soi Fon, Kyouraku Shunsui, Hitsugaya Toushirou, Kurotsuchi Mayuri, and Ukitake Juushirou." Ichigo's eyes widened in fear, "get back inside!" He was yelling at someone, but turned to them again. "These monsters, they are said to have been remains of the Arrancar that we have defeated in the war long ago, but because of our zanpakutou sending them to a different location due to the hollow side, it seems that they were gathering powers—Byakuya! Behind you!" He disappeared from sight, female and male screams alike were all being heard as the background with maniacal screeching cries. Then he finally appeared again with a flash step, panting heavily. "Kurotsuchi-san suggested a while back… that they were harvesting their energy, their nesting grounds somewhere in the Severed World, feasting on the blanks that remain in the lands…"

The canine captain jumped in from behind him, "what are you doing? You're going to get yourself killed!"
"I know that damn it! I'm trying to hurry—damn! Behind you!" Ichigo lashed out an attack quickly.
"Thank you friend." Sajin stated. "Their headed for the base; looking for Genryuusai-dono."
"I still need to gather a little more strength before I can use that technique." He panted lightly.
"Then I'll hold them off as best as I can until you regain what energy is left that's required."
"Byakuya's exhausted and Kenpachi is starting to get slowed down, when I'm at full strength, get everyone to the base, I'll use that technique to the limit." The orange-haired man lashed an attack.
"Fool! That will kill you!" Sajin roared as he turned and grabbed him by the robe with a very vicious snarl. "Zaraki Kenpachi and I will fight by your side as Kuchiki Byakuya gathers the—!"
"Enough! Just get going to the first sector to hold them off until I give you my signal!" He roared angrily, causing them to glare at each other, and he softened up. "I ain't gonna die, I still got a promise to hold."
The canine stared at him for a long time, and then let go, "as a friend, I trust you. But as the one in charge of this while Genryuusai-dono is ill," his golden eyes softened at him, "I'll hold you to it."

With that, Sajin vanished and Ichigo turned to the transmitter and began speaking again, "that's all the information that we're lead with because Jii-san is somehow having a health crisis and Unohana-san is trying her best to recover him." He took in a breath. "Out of all of the fukutaichou, only Isane Kotetsu, Abarai Renji, Hisagi Shuuhei, are alive." Ichigo took a moment, "Hinamori Momo is also alive, so don't go panicking about me breaking any promises, Toushirou." A huge explosion came from his right side and he continued to try standing through the gust of strong waves. "Damn it!" He looked to the transmitter again. "All the information I can give is only I can sense their reiatsu! We believe that their somewhere right now in your world trying to create an army to destroy Soul Society so that everything will fall out of balance and cause total destruction for us! This has nothing to do with the King as it did the last war!" The screen started to create a major static issue. "Its—revenge—!" A monster appeared from behind Ichigo and bit his right shoulder, causing him to cry out in horrid pain and swung it off immediately and killed it. "Damn it… this is getting nowhere fast…" he told himself, "at this rate I will die." Ichigo turned back to the transmitter again, blood oozing over his uniform. "The younger ones—they have poison that we can't fight off, Machi has a sample for you, Kurotsuchi-san." He held his shoulder. "Ichigo," he called out to himself, to the one watching this. "The twins that came to you are your sons with the other, so please take care of them in my place in hopes of letting them live a better life," the man was getting drained by the blood loss. "I'll say this because only I know what it means, and it would be best if you took it seriously, because they are the other." He panted.

"The last glimpse of snow will perish because you listened to the cold wind that laces your neck through day and night when the time comes for when summer and winter collide soon during the full moon that crosses age twice. Also, beware of the kids, they're very mischievous," Ichigo was panting even slower. "All of you, become stronger and protect this world that was once beautiful and peaceful." His tone became serious as he announced to them. "With this as my message, I tell you to train with one another, become one another, and together—you all will fight as one."

He raised his hand and Komamura Sajin and Kuchiki Byakuya flash stepped to stand at Ichigo's side while Zaraki Kenpachi filled in the blank spot by going back to back with him. Abarai Renji, Hisagi Shuuhei, and Hinamori arrived afterwards and knelt in front of Ichigo "Kenpachi, form a diversion with all the power you have. Byakuya, scatter off the bastards that get to the sectors, Sajin, gather the remains of the shinigami with bankai, I have my energy back, and I'll use it all."

"Yes sir," Byakuya and Sajin answered to Ichigo respectfully, and the three dashed out.
"Keh! You got it boss!" Kenpachi threw the bells off and threw his eye patch, "let's do this!"

"Daichi, Machi," Ichigo knelt down and two boys went to him. "You ready for a taichou mission?"
"Yes sir!" The two called out, surprisingly serious despite their little figures. "We won't fail!"
"Abarai, Hisagi, I know it'll be tough, but guide them to the Kuchiki mansion." He requested.
"Tch, that's all we got to do?" Renji flexed his shoulder. "Alright, this'll be a blast."
"Kurosaki soutaichou—taichou I mean," Shuuhei corrected himself, "what's there?"
"I can't explain, but the kids know where to go, and what to do." Ichigo stated.
Momo frowned. "W-What about me taichou? I can go with them!"

"I know you can, and you will, the gate that they have to reach has a barrier over it, a barrier that only you can break down right now as we gather the others." Ichigo placed his hands on both of her shoulders. "You've made a lot of progress of the years serving at my side, Toushirou is very proud of that, as am I." His hands went up to the two men. "Don't let me down you guys."

"Yes sir!" The five all yelled.

The transmission then ended as Ichigo screamed with unbearable pain.

Everyone stood there in the darkness until they heard the staff hit the ground twice and it revealed daylight, which showed that everyone had their attention drawn to Kurosaki Ichigo whom just stood there dazed for the moment. None of them knew what to actually say or how to even react about what their eyes just witnessed right now, it was something that none of them could swallow while being suffocated in confused horror of the future that will come to them in time. All the captains managed to snap out of the staring trance when Ichigo knelt down to the two boys and placed a hand on each of their shoulders with a small smile as if trying to assure them of something when really he was only going to try to find out just a little more information.

"So what do we call those ugly things?" Ichigo asked calmly.
"Guerrero." The two replied in unison. "You named them that."
He blinked confusedly. "Why would I call them that?"
"The Guerrero can't talk, and so they had to be named."
His eyebrow rose, "…and why would I decide their name?"
Their heads tilted in unison. "Daddy's Second in Command."

Ichigo was going to retort to this, but decided against it as he lowered his hand and lifted one up, "can I have the sample of the poison, Machi?" He did not look at either of the two until a hand placed five vials in his hand and saw that it was the white-haired boy. 'So the other one is Daichi, huh?' His smiled lifted more and spoke to the two of them happily, "good job, I'm proud of you both."

The two grinned at their father's compliment.

"Kurosaki taichou," the old man called out quietly, which had the fifth squad captain to stand and look at him. "I will trust that you will try to gather all information relating to these Guerrero from your two sons?" When seeing him nod, the old man added. "For now, I will let the message sink in for all of us before summoning everyone once more to find out how we should act upon this future threat."

As captains began to leave, Soi Fon stated confidently, "we should do as Kurosaki taichou said."
Sajin nodded his furred head in agreement; "we should train with one another to gain strength."
The long white-haired man smiled at this, "Ichigo-kun seemed to know through experience."
"Especially since he was in charge from the looks of it." Shunsui sided with his friend.
Kenpachi snorted with amusement. "If all I gotta do to get stronger is to follow Ichigo, hell yeah."

"That's enough." Ichigo demanded quietly, causing all captains to turn and look at him. "You say it as if that man you saw there was the 'me' that you see right now, but it's not." He began to walk towards the doors, but stopped to hand over the five vials. "Use two of them for testing and the rest and the next two for antidotes, hopeful you can configure more so that we'll be ready when the time comes." Mayuri blinked at him in surprise for the intellectual words, and Ichigo left with the two kids on his heels. "I doubt that I'll be any Second in Command any time soon. I'm sorry."

Things became rather quiet after the orange-haired captain left the meeting with the two kids by his side, but Mayuri did not bother wasting his time on leaving the room to play with his new little experiment that would most likely save him in the future—to think that he would die; ridiculous. At any rate, the five captains that had spoke out their opinion on the upcoming war stood their ground firmly while Kuchiki Byakuya of the sixth squad and Hitsugaya Toushirou stood there in question to the entire scene that was played for them. It seemed that there was going to be a lot of gory bloodshed in the future that will not be prevented unless they think of something within the next two to three decades or else they all might as well be sitting on their hindquarters. Surprisingly, Kuchiki Byakuya stepped up and gathered everyone's attention with just that simple act, and so the old Commanding-General gave him his full attention due to actually wanting to speak out.

"It appears that Kurosaki taichou will somehow manage to be Second in Command when this new war appears," Byakuya started out and closed his eyes, "if he has the trust of the remaining leaders in the future, I would think it best that we take in this information, and do as told." His eyes slightly opened, "and it would be in our greatest interest to take this matter seriously for everyone."

The elder hummed as he bowed his head with agreement, "it seems that it is settled then."
Everyone one that was still there looked at him stoically, but waited to hear him, "…"
"We'll give time to Kurotsuchi taichou to analyze the message and have it replayed." He stated.

The captains nodded and left the chamber.

"Who would think that Kurosaki would go from substitute shinigami to Second in Command?" Soi Fon asked in annoyance, crossing her arms. "To think he would've warned us upon how we die."
"I'd rather not know that," Shunsui retorted, swaying his hand, "it might scare me when it comes."
"But at least we know that Ichigo-kun will be loyal to us and to Soul Society." Juushirou commented.
"I don't see how Kurosaki could become in charge of anything," Toushirou sighed in annoyance, "I wouldn't follow his lead if I were the last taichou standing next to him, which may be why I died."
"I don't mind sucking up to Ichigo, he's kicked my ass once already." Kenpachi stated. "Looks like you two suck up to him too, calling him 'sir' and shit like that." He pointed to Sajin and Byakuya.

Komamura Sajin remind silent to this statement because he too could barely believe he would call the orange-haired captain by saying 'sir,' and the fact that he had called him a friend during that message given to him. So somehow within a fifty years he would manage ease up to the fifth squad leader and become friends with him, and this was a surprise to him because he tried to avoid trusting others so much due to what happened with Tousen Kaname those years ago. It was also quite a shock to Kuchiki Byakuya himself—to obey the commands of the a man that was once named a ryoka, then fought equally with him and other captains; after all that Kurosaki Ichigo had done for them, it would not surprise him. The only thing that he would compliment from the message that was sent from the future, would be the fact that Kurosaki Ichigo actually looked and acted like a captain that would be needed for the wars to come, but the question was, what had to have happened in order to make this seem at all possible?

"What was the hidden message before telling us to fight?" Byakuya asked aloud.

Shunsui hummed in thought and recited the words, "The last glimpse of snow will perish because you listened to the cold wind that laces your neck through day and night when the time comes for when summer and winter collide soon during the full moon that crosses age twice." He gave out a light sigh as he rubbed his neck. "It seems as though he understood what he meant though."

Juushirou frowned, "it seems to be Ichigo-kun's will lose something dear to him?"
"More like, he loses it because he listens to it." Soi Fon noted her belief in the message.
"Tch," Kenpachi rolled his eyes at it, "probably loses his bitch or something, having kids and all."
"Saying something like that is so harsh." Shunsui frowned with disappointment to the tall man.
"Summer and Winter collide soon during the full moon that crosses age twice." Toushirou spoke.
"How can summer and winter seasons collide?" Juushirou crossed his arms in thought, and a full moon comes once a month, so how can it cross with age twice?" His head started to pound at this.
"Perhaps he'll meet someone of interest in two months." Soi Fon sighed. "Who cares though."
Shunsui grinned slyly, "oh, it sounds like someone's getting a little irritated about this."

"Kurosaki Ichigo gave the message to himself as a warning to preserve something that may either help in the battle, or to save something that he holds dear to himself." Retsu finally spoke out her opinion on the recited words. "It isn't our business to understand the words spoken, and it's clear that he choose his words carefully in order to have only himself understand what it meant."

Everyone then remained quiet.

Kurosaki Ichigo sat down in his lodge and glared at the two kids with somewhat annoyance when it was obvious which one was his and how the other one was not, but he knew whom the other kid did belong to, but why was he called father from both of them. Kurosaki Daichi was the little boy with orange spiky hair while Machi was the little boy with the white flimsy hair—sure they could be fraternal twins and all, but he did not understand such a drastic difference between the two kids! Kurosaki Machi acted like Ichigo while the other one seemed to be stiffer around the edges that made the poor captain of the fifth squad completely confused with the entire thing, but he wanted to get an explanation that was clear and simple.

"Alright," Ichigo sighed, "so who's your mother?"
Their heads tilted in confusion, "our mother?"
He stared at them blankly, "yes, your mother…"
"We don't have a mother." They stated easily.

The captain's head fell as he face twitched angrily, "listen here you brats…" his head lifted as he was about to yell at them. "W—!" He saw Daichi handing him a box quietly, and so he took it.

"You said to give it to you when we passed the gates." Daichi stated quietly.
Ichigo opened it and looked through the box, 'these are… journals…?'
"You write a lot Daddy," Machi stated, "you said you'd read them when we came."
He looked up to the boys and then saw it growing dark, "you two should go to sleep."
"Aww," the two whined as they began to stretch and yawn sleepily. "We're not tired."
Ichigo smiled weakly and tried the fatherly role, "don't argue, just go sleep in my bed."
"Kay!" They beamed and scurried to the room in an instant, racing one another.

He twitched at this, but sighed as he opened the first letter to read.

His eyes widened to the things that he already began to read within the first letter that revealed a mountain load of information about the upcoming activities that were going to happen; the orders of deaths and what days they would occur. Then there was the next paper that revealed the days of when attacks begin and the theories of the other captains were—he understood why this was not mentioned to the others now; these were reports to himself to keep in mind. Around sometime during the fifth page of the first letter, it was suggested to him that he should beg the Soul Society government to allow the two exiled captains in order to change the future of the world because in the future, they did nothing of the sort. This was going to take a very long time to have everything sink into him, and he was not sure that he could do this all alone in one night, so he would have to take shifts on the paperwork and take down notes on everything… though help sounded nice.

Ichigo rubbed his head at this and growled in frustration. "Where's Toushirou when ya need him?"