Prologue

"Is it over? Has it even begun? It's strange, even though two overpowered beings are clashing at this very moment, I can't feel a thing. Not a single shred of reiatsu is emanating from either of them. This must mean…"

He walked through the empty city while gathering these thoughts. It was a strange sensation, for a variety of reasons. All of the noises and activity that encompassed the human's daily lives that he had gotten used to was gone. The silence was unnerving, as if daily life was being put on hold. Although he supposed that last one was actually true and if Kurosaki Ichigo failed in this battle, then the lives of the people of Karakura Town would never return to the way they were.

"It's not just them, of course," he added to his inner monologue. "The fate of the Shiningami also rests on this. It's ironic really, how the lives of Gods now rest on the shoulders of a human. Although, I suppose calling him a human wouldn't exactly be a perfect definition of that boy."

Whether he could still be called a boy was also up for debate. He'd been through so much in such a short amount of time that it had forced him to grow up from that ignorant child with unrealistic expectations to what he was today. To a man fighting for the sake of everything he cared for.

"Just as expected" he thought. "I always knew it, deep down. Despite all of the planning and the schemes we had come up with. Despite all of the training everyone had put themselves through, it was always going to come down to this. This battle was fated from the moment of his birth, from the moment he was chosen by Aizen as his rival. The rest of us never had a chance of matching him."

He had walked all the way to the edge of the city, where the small piece of the real world ended, and the rest of Soul Society continued. It was little more than a wasteland, simply a collection of large rocks and dust. It was unsurprising that the battle had been taken out there; Kurosaki couldn't fully fight if he was worrying about the people of the town.

"Now then, I wonder exactly which direction they went?"

He didn't have to wait long for an answer, as a great explosion boomed in the distance and a fog of dust became visible on the horizon.

"That far eh? I'm surprised that Aizen allowed Ichigo to push him that far away from the town. But I guess I don't have time to ponder about that, given the distance I should probably get moving now."

With a single flicker, his body disappeared from sight. He reappeared a few kilometres further in to the land, where the sounds of battle had reached a peak. He could hear the sound of clashing Zanpakuto very clearly and could feel the vibrations of each swing. He also noted the speed of the wind, which he could tell immediately wasn't natural.

"I can't help but feel a little out of my depth here. With everything they're doing out there, it probably wouldn't have mattered even if I had just Shunpo'd straight to them rather than hanging back here a little, they wouldn't have noticed me anyway. Still, I should probably just get a little closer and stay out of sight for now. I'd only act as a distraction if Kurosaki noticed my presence."

He cautiously began moving towards the top of a particularly large rock, where he could safely observe the battle in private. However, he was soon stopped in his tracks by two different things simultaneously. The first was an incredible gushing of wind, followed swiftly by an explosion of black reiatsu above. He quickly looked up, trying to see what exactly was going on. All he could deduce from the sight was that there were two figures stood at the epicentre of the explosion. The only problem was that he couldn't tell which was which or what was going on in there.

His initial instinct was to stay back. After all, what could he really do against something like that? But, as had happened so many times that day, something forced him to revise this plan. That something was the single most horrifying sound he had ever heard. It was a scream but it was nothing like any kind of scream he had heard before. It didn't sound natural; it was as if t had been put through a filter to make it sound as un-human as possible.

"I need to get closer."

Without wasting any more time, he quickly kicked off the ground and in to the air. Yet, as he approached, everything quietened down. The reiatsu disappeared as quickly as it came and the scream gave way to deafening silence. All that remained was a single jet-black thing floating in the air, it's arm pointing out from its body.

The word "thing" was all he could use to describe it. It didn't look human, nor was it hollow. Its body torso may have had a humanoid structure but that was most definitely an exception. The rest of it was a grotesque combination of features found in children's nightmares. It was truly a monster.

"Even destroyed the body," it said, its voice unrecognisable. "I suppose he wasn't as strong as he thought."

It was at this point that the beast noticed him. It turned its head slightly and addressed its next point to him directly.

"Although, it was a trait of his to overestimate himself. Wasn't it, Urahara-san?"

Those final three letters made Urahara feel sick. Even without the sudden change in voice to something more recognisable, Urahara knew what it meant. Ichigo Kurosaki would never address him in such a polite manner.

"What's this? The great Kisuke Urahara stunned? Well, it's about time!" Aizen laughed, as the monstrous form he was in dissolved around him, bringing him back to his more familiar form.

"He's acting cocky, but he's worn out" Urahara thought, taking note of the sweat on Aizen's brow and his slightly heavy breathing. "But I still can't feel his reiatsu at all. Defeating him now would be impossible."

"No smart remarks either" Aizen mocked, enjoying his superiority. "You really were pinning it all on that boy, weren't you Urahara-san? So what will you do now? You must be the only one still standing at this point. Do you want to fight me? Or would you rather run away? If it's the latter, I can give you a minute head start, to even the odds a little."

"I'm not going to rise to it" Urahara told himself. "This is what he wants, some kind of big reaction out of me. Nothing gives him more pleasure than messing with people's heads, especially those he sees as a threat. No, I have to use this, it's the last chance I'll get."

Without saying a word, Urahara used his Shunpo to escape and head back to Karakura town. Whether it was through fear or confusion, he overshot slightly and ended up a little deeper in to the city than he had intended.

"Need to be quick" he said out loud, to calm himself a little. "It would have been better if Tessai had been here but, oh well. I just hope this works."

Urahara put his left hand on top of his right and concentrated. Then, he slowly lifted his left hand up, revealing a column of light. He looked up to see the outskirts of Karakura Town enveloped in the same light and his heart skipped a beat. He'd successfully done the first part right.

"Aizen may have felt this by now, so it's now or never."

Just as the technique began to activate, Urahara's eyes were drawn to his right. There he saw a robed man, unconscious against the gravel, completely oblivious to the pain he would experience upon awakening.

"I'm sorry Isshin" Urahara whispered, as a single tear rolled down his cheek. "I should never have-"

At that moment, he felt the reiatsu in the air spike. It seemed that Aizen had caught on to what was happening.

"Aizen, you may have defeated us," Urahara thought, as the brightness of the light reached its climax. "But I will not let you claim your prize! And I swear, somehow, someway, I will find a way to defeat you!"

With that final declaration, Karakura Town disappeared from Soul Society in a blinding flash of light, taking those inside with it.