If you are the kind of person who enjoys tragedy, suspense, fighting, and drama, then please read and enjoy.
........
And then review..
Oh, and I don't own Bleach or any of it's copyright material… DANG
Ichigo Kurosaki was not having a good day, In fact, he hadn't even been having a good week. Not at all. And this wasn't your bad hair day kind of bad. Nope, this was the end of the world, Aizen's gonna kill us all kind of bad.
It started two days ago. Aizen had leaked false information for the Soul Society, convincing them that he would enact his plot to create the King's Key that Thursday. However, he caught them off guard by moving three days prior to that (That would be Monday). Aizen succeeded in destroying Karakura Town, and all of it's inhabitants. The only ones left from Karakura were Ichigo Kurosaki, Orihime Inoue, Kisuke Urahara, and Jinta Hanakari all of whom where in the Soul Society at the time.
Today is Friday. Aizen, with the power of the King's Key, has begun his invasion of the Soul Society. He has completely emptied Hueco Mundo of every last Hollow and Arrancar into the Seireitei. The Head Captain Yamamotto has ordered all shinigami into battle. The Vizards as well stand firm on the side of our heroes. And thus began the first battle for the freedom of the Soul Society.
Like I said, Ichigo was having a very bad week.
He was in his battle stance just inside the wall of the Seireitei, with Zangetsu in front of him, fighting off a rather large group of vasto lorde and adjuchas.
The battle was not going well.
Ichigo could feel Aizen's spiritual pressure, even from his great distance. It was enormous. It was crushing, engulfing, enough to shatter one's heart completely. The only way Ichigo was capable of resisting the urge to collapse where he stood was by concentrating on eliminating the incoming high level hollows. How long have I been fighting?? He wondered. It must've been a couple hours by now, but these hollows just keep coming!
While Ichigo's attention was taken by a vasto lorde's swift attack, he failed to notice a second behind him. Pain exploded in his right shoulder as the new threat dug his weapon into the bone. Ichigo released his getsuga tenshou at the hollow in front of him and then spun on his heel to face the second opponent behind him. He strongly disliked full-scale war like this. Ichigo preferred one-on-one battle. In this kind of situation, with so many different fights clashing all around him, he couldn't keep track of everything. Now his right arm was numb. He swung Zangetsu's getsuga tenshou a second time, but the vasto lorde disappeared before the explosion of reiatsu hit him. Ichigo turned to see the hollow bringing his weapon down on his head.
He couldn't dodge it.
"Sit upon the frozen heavens, Hyorinmaru!" The shikai release of the most powerful ice based zanpaktou could be heard by all those in it's vicinity. The great ice dragon crashed down upon the hollow in front of Ichigo, just in time. Ichigo covered his face with his arm to shield himself from the shards of ice. When he looked up, the Captain Hitsugaya of squad ten was standing in front of him, his back turned.
"Kurosaki," He said, "Are you okay?"
Ichigo gave a little huff and said, "yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for that."
Toshiro looked at Ichigo, his teal eyes lingered for a moment at the wound on his shoulder. "You sure?"
Ichigo nodded. Even if his shoulder did hurt, he wasn't going to let that show anytime soon.
"Fine then." The young captain shunpoed forward and returned to the battle. Ichigo couldn't help but notice that Toshiro was injured as well. There was a deep slash on this cheek and a badly bleeding cut in his left leg. That one looked like it hit muscle. Ichigo was no expert, but he knew that Toshiro wouldn't be able to stay on his feet much longer. He decided to fight close behind him, to back him up if anything happened.
Sure enough, while Ichigo was locked in battle with a particularly long-nosed hollow, Toshiro's eyes widened and he fell to the ground.
"Toshiro!" Ichigo yelled for him, but the hollow he was fighting wouldn't let Ichigo forward.
A very large adjuchas lunged at Toshiro and swept his huge claw at him. Toshiro was thrown one way, Hyorinmaru another. The small captain grunted and tried to stand up again, but the hand came down once more. It's palm smashed into Toshiro's stomach and pinned him to the ground.
Ichigo continued to fight his way towards the captain, but he was delayed again and again by more hollows.
The abnormally large hollow brought his hand down again and again on Toshiro, who was gasping for breath and coughing up blood every time it struck. When the hollow was a about to hit his hardest yet, Ichigo finally broke through. He stopped the hollow mid-strike and cut it cleanly in two.
Toshiro coughed again and managed to sputter out a few words. "Kurosaki… thanks for that…"
Ichigo turned and bent down next to him. He picked up Toshiro's arm and pulled it around his shoulder. "I'm just returning the favor" He said
He shunpoed back into the thick of the battle, supporting Toshiro on his good shoulder. Picking up Hyorinmaru, he shunpoed again to an outcropping of rock nearby. Ichigo hoped it was hidden enough so that he could set Toshiro down without anymore hollow attacking. Leaning the captain against a smooth boulder, Ichigo stopped to look to see how bad the damage was. Ichigo gently pressed his hand onto Toshiro's stomach. Toshiro winced and inhaled sharply. Again, Ichigo was no expert, but when you hang out with Orihime and Hanataro a lot, you tend to pick up on some things.
"You've broken a few ribs, but it's nothing life threatening."
"I know that. I can… still go out there and fight." He said unsteadily as he tried to lean forward
Toshiro was breathing heavily and the wound on his leg was still bleeding. While his life wasn't in much danger, he was losing blood and consciousness very quickly.
Ichigo pushed him back down. "You're not going anywhere. If you try to fight again you'll be dead in no time."
Toshiro grunted and closed his eyes, "Ichigo, then you need to… give the order…" He stopped and coughed up more blood.
"Give the order to what?"
Toshiro looked at him "You need to tell everyone… to pull back… to the gate…"
Ichigo's eyes widened, "Retreat? But, we can still-"
Toshiro shook his head. "Use your head. Try sensing some spiritual pressure for once. Several of the captains are already gone… including…" He paused again to cough. "…Including Kenpachi Zaraki and… the Head Captain… we don't have a chance left… The only thing we can do is gather the remaining shinigami and.. Regroup…" The last words Toshiro managed to force out were so faint Ichigo could barely hear them.
"Fine" He said. "I'll give the order. You should shut up and try to breathe."
By the time Ichigo had the captain supported on his shoulder again, Toshiro was out cold.
Ichigo weaved through the ongoing battles, slicing hollows here and there, shouting orders as he went.
"PULL BACK TO THE GATE!! RETREAT!!" He yelled. The message was repeated throughout the mass of battling soul reapers. Ichigo hoped Rukia and Renji got the message in time. He had just lost his family and several of his friends, he couldn't bear to lose them too.
Ichigo was too absorbed in his thoughts to see a hollow come up to his side with a huge club. The Senkaimon gate was in sight, he was almost there when- WHAM.
The hollow hit him with the club and Ichigo dropped Toshiro and collapsed. Before he passed out, he thought he heard someone calling his name. But before he could tell who it was, everything went black.