Author's Note: This is my first Bleach Fanfiction. I have been thinking about it for a while now, and I just gathered the courage to write it. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or any part of it. Hell, I don't even own bleach detergent.
Chapter One: A Bursting Dam
It wasn't enough, Kurosaki Ichigo thought as he lay on the icy floor of Las Noches. His Bankai had faded from him long ago, and his hollow mask was only a fond memory at this point. Still, he thought, "It wasn't enough. The story of my life." His mind carefully scrutinized each memory he contained in his head.
It wasn't enough that he wanted to protect people but couldn't. His mother had to die to drive that point home. It wasn't enough that people made fun of him for seeing ghosts. His hair turned out like his mother's, bright orange, causing several beatings until he learned to fight for himself. It wasn't enough to see ghosts and spirits, he had to have every nasty, roaring, odorous, masked hollow after his spiritually powerful head.
It wasn't enough that he'd found the burden of the Shinigami powers. His friends had to be involved too. All of them, Chad, Inoue, Uryu... they'd been involved in his battles for the sole reason that his life didn't have yet enough suffering.
It wasn't enough that he nearly died regaining his Shinigami powers. A hollow, his exact opposite, had to make a home in his soul, and was looking to conquer.
It wasn't enough that he had achieved bankai and defeated Kuchiki Byakuya with only eight days of real training. Certainly, that wasn't enough. Aizen Sousuke had to throw his entire life into disarray, just for his own purposes.
It wasn't enough that he'd told Inoue that he'd protect her. She left him and her entire life behind. And now, finally, on the cold floor of the throne room of Las Noches, his own power hadn't been nearly enough to stop Aizen.
"The story of my goddamned life." Aizen now stared down at the fallen boy, the same smug grin on his face that he always wore.
"If it's any consolation, Kurosaki Ichigo, you fought better than any captain in all the Seireitei. Still, your power pales in comparison to mine."
Kurosaki Ichigo. How many people called him that, his entire name? He'd lost count. Zaraki. Byakuya. Renji. Ulquiorra. There must've been hundreds. Ichigo was getting tired of it easily.
He did take pride in one thing, though. He'd made Aizen release his zanpakutou. And what a devastating force it was. The sheer illusionary power of Kyouka Suigetsu was enough to destroy any foe, regardless of strength. But still, he hadn't seen his bankai... and Ichigo had used the limits of his powers.
"Such a shame, really. Your attempt was in vain. This young girl... could not be saved," Aizen taunted him, his grin growing into a twisted smile. He walked toward Ichigo and crushed the boy's hand with the sole of his shoe, causing Ichigo to cry out in pain and look toward's Aizen. "I wanted your attention... because truly, you should see this."
Ichigo focused as much as he could in order to say, "Wh-what... are you talking about... you bastard?"
"I'll ignore that comment. Take a look at... this." In Aizen's hands lay the pale, dead form of Inoue Orihime.
Ichigo's eyes widened without his knowing, trying to clarify the picture, as though he had been mistaken. But no matter what he tried, there was no changing the image before him. There was no light in her eyes. "No... it's... it's not," he sputtered, "It can't be..."
"It is. She's dead, and I will bring her back as a hollow first... then an arrancar. Doesn't that sound wonderful?" Aizen smiled at Ichigo once more before laughing to himself.
"Inoue... Inoue!" Ichigo yelled, before exploding in a cry of pure anguish. His screams echoed all throughout Las Noches, making the lesser Arrancar smile at their foe's pain.
"Isn't it a pity, though?" Aizen said, leaning towards her lifeless form. "She was very... beautiful, too..." his face moved towards hers, and planted a kiss directly on her lips.
Ichigo's body convulsed violently for a few seconds at this display, then stopped. "Are you finally dead?" asked Aizen.
A soft, calm voice replied, "You can't do that."
"Pardon?"
"You... cannot do that." A small trace of reiatsu flared up around Ichigo.
"Do what? You mean, this?" He placed another kiss on her lips and laughed cruelly.
"Yes... that. You can't do it." The reiatsu grew slowly.
"On the contrary," said Aizen, raising an eyebrow. "I can do what I want, how I want, whenever I want. I am the one who sits on the throne of heaven! I can do anything." A muffled reply came from Ichigo's form. "Speak up, Kurosaki Ichigo." He attempted to stomp Ichigo's hand again, but the boy had grabbed Aizen's ankle.
Slowly, he rose, using Aizen's body for support, while Aizen himself merely stood, amused at his attempt. "I said... here's where you learn that you can't!" A fist flew from nowhere and smashed Aizen in the face, causing him to drop Orihime's body. Ichigo caught it and after cradling it for a moment, he gently put it down.
Aizen had let himself be hit, intrigued by his foe's revival. "So you want more punishment. That's fine by me."
"There's something you don't get, you stupid, heartless bastard," Ichigo cooly replied. "The whole point of this trip was to come here to get Inoue under every circumstance available. With her body lifeless..." he took Zangetsu from his back. "I have nothing left. That makes me," with a shunpo, he was behind Aizen, "A very, very dangerous man."
He sliced at Aizen. Aizen easily dodged and fired a kidou spell at Ichigo, who deflected it with Zangetsu. "Remarkable," thought Aizen, "Without even using his bankai, he deflected a level 99 spell. If I were the research type, I would collect him for study. But that's Zaera-Polo's job."
Ichigo placed the massive sword in front of him, parallel to the ground. "For what you've done, you will be brought to justice!" he cried, blue energy crackling around him. With one swift motion, he roared, "Ban-kai!"
"Even though having his bankai forcefully shut down by being near death, he calls upon it once more. What are you, Kurosaki Ichigo?" Aizen wondered, watching the explosion of energy before him. As Ichigo emerged with Tensa Zangetsu, Aizen concluded that if he could call upon his bankai once more, he could probably call upon his mask.
Just as he wondered this, Aizen's thoughts were confirmed. Ichigo pulled down his hollow mask and dove at Aizen. "Getsuga Tenshou!" he yelled, swinging the mass of black energy at his enemy.
Aizen easily dodged it. "All I have to do is evade him for eleven seconds and that little nuisance will be gone. He's already used up about three." Ichigo slashed and hacked and thrusted his blade at Aizen, but to no avail. "Eight... nine... ten... eleven," He finished counting, and raised a palm to stop the semi-vizard's blade. A second later, he let out a gasp and realized that his hand was cut wide open and Ichigo's mask was still on.
Ichigo too was surprised. "Looks like I've passed my limits," he said to Aizen cooly. "Didn't you once say something about limits for a shinigami? Well, at this point, I don't really care. For I," he pointed his sword towards the sky, "am justice incarnate!" With those words, he dove at Aizen yet again.
"What's going on...?" Aizen wondered, "A second ago, he was more dead than alive. Now, he's moving faster and faster with each passing moment. This isn't possible!"
"My konpaku must be getting used to the mask... Well, that's good news," Ichigo thought to himself. Aizen kept trying to rush towards Orihime's body, perhaps to use it as a shield, but Ichigo kept him away.
With one last mad dash, Aizen began to create his final release. "Ban-" he began, but was cut off by Ichigo.
"Not a chance," Calmly, he cut off Aizen's right arm and said softly, "Getsuga Tenshou."
As the energy enveloped Aizen, he managed to say one word: "Impossible," before being disintegrated.
Ichigo landed on the ground next to Orihime's body and sighed. His mask crumbled and his bankai dissipated. He planted Zangetsu next to him in the ground and kneeled, picking up Orihime's body and holding it against his chest. "Why...?" he asked the air, "I won, Inoue. I defeated the bad guy, achieved a new level of power, and everything... the only step is to ride into the sunset, isn't it?" Tears began spilling down his cheeks and on to her arrancar uniform.
When he first learned she'd left, it was as though an essential part of his life had been ripped away. She always smiled, he thought. Even when times were down, she'd always play the cheerful part. He'd begun taking that smile for granted, thinking that her laughter, her glorious laughter, would always be there. But now, it was gone... the sunshine had been stolen from his world, and it would never be daylight again.
In Ichigo's interior world, Zangetsu and the hollow sat on one of the sideways buildings, looking towards the sky. It had been pouring rain all day for days, and now, things only got worse. A typhoon was settling in. Zangetsu's long hair, damp from the storm, drooped around his eyes. "I'm sorry, Ichigo. I failed you. We both did... and now, it shall rain in this world forever." He glanced at the hollow. It did not have its usual twisted smile. Instead, a frown covered his face.
The hollow glanced back and called through the torrential winds, "Hey, what's with the look?"
Zangetsu sighed. "I just thought you wouldn't feel remorse for him."
"Hey. I may hate the king, but I'm still a part of him... and this hurts me too. And it's not like I enjoy being drenched for days."
Zangetsu nodded. "Right... my mistake," he said emotionlessly and resumed trying to block out the sounds of pouring rain and clashing thunder.
Nell emerged from behind the pillar Ichigo had instructed her to hide behind. "Ichigo...?" the young arrancar asked quietly. "Whath the matter?" She walked around the huddled form of Ichigo and saw why he was so torubled. "Oh no... that lady... wath she a fwiend of yourth?"
"Yes, Nell... she was. A very good friend and a good person."
"I'm thorry... she thure wath pwetty, though."
"Yes. Always."
Suddenly, a voice said to him, "What are you crying for?"
Ichigo turned to see Abarai Renji carrying the huddled, shivering form of Rukia. Next to them was a limping Chad and a scratched up Uryu. Pesshe and Dondo stood behind the group, but rushed forward and greeted Nell. Ichigo's rage rose instantly. "What the hell are you talking about? She's dead! D-E-A-D, dead!" His tears began gushing more quickly. "And... we failed... we just failed."
"Idiot," replied Renji. Ichigo began to retort, but Renji cut him off. "Take a closer look at what you're crying over."
All of a sudden, Orihime's form began melting away, leaving nothing but a broken sword in its wake. Ichigo's heart jumped. "What... what is-"
"Kyouka Suigetsu. Everyone falls for it, don't beat yourself up," said Renji.
"Then this means... she's..." he couldn't finish the sentence, for fear of getting his hopes up.
"That's right," said Uryu, "Inoue-san is definitely not dead."
"By the way, where's Aizen?" asked Chad, looking around the room.
Ichigo pointed to a small pile of dust ten feet in front of him. "That's all that's left, anyway."
Renji nearly dropped Rukia as his eyes widened. "No... it's impossible, even for you!" Renji's breathing began to become excited. "You can't expect me to believe that you defeated Aizen Sousuke!"
"Well, Renji, I think that's what happened, either that or he mastered the art of turning into dust," Ichigo replied, a cocky grin on his face. He turned towards the pile of dust and yelled, "Hey, we know your secret! You're not fooling anyone!"
"Glad as I am that you're back to being the jolly idiot we know, we have to get back on task," said Uryu, "Let's find Inoue-san."
Ichigo realized that Uryu was right in both senses (well, except for the idiot part, but he'd get him for that later). He was happier. Aizen was dead, Inoue was alive, and he'd mastered his hollow mask. "Yeah," he replied, feeling out her reiatsu, "She's over there." Ichigo pointed in a direction and began to shunpo towards it, the rest of the group following as best they could.
Meanwhile, Orihime sat in her room, lonely and worried. What had happened to Kurosaki-kun? One of the arrancar had put a barrier around her so that she couldn't feel others' reiatsu. She hated not knowing what was going on. She hated being stuck in this room, not allowed to leave. She hated having to serve the cruel arrancar. She might take her own life, if it weren't for the fact that the arrancar would just kill her friends anyway.
Suddenly, the door burst open. She was hesitant to turn around. It was probably Grimmjaw, coming for another favor. That's when she heard the voice.
"Inoue..."
She turned instantly. There in the door way was the love of her life, Kurosaki Ichigo, having come to rescue her. "Kurosaki-kun!" she cried, tears of joy at seeing him welling up in her eyes. Before she could do anything, he had embraced her in a very tight hug.
"Inoue, I was so worried... they said you might be dead. I couldn't live with that."
"Kurosaki-kun," she said, hugging him back, "You shouldn't have come... Aizen will kill you for this..."
Ichigo grinned. "No he won't. I killed him first. He's dead, they all are."
Orihime couldn't believe what she'd heard. "What... did you say?"
"I told you," Ichigo answered, "I will always protect you. And I did. Aizen and the espada are all dead."
More tears filled her eyes as she tightened her embrace on Ichigo. "Oh, Kurosaki-kun... thank you."
"No need to thank me, " he said, "No need."
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Alright, that's the super-lengthy chapter one done! Please, please review if you've read it. Next chapter: Coming home.