PROLOGUE

Whiteout. A streak of cerulean cutting through the pearl. A shriek of sheer terror. The scent of smoking rubble.

"Ichigo.."

The teen stirred restlessly, attempting to open his sealed eyes. Ichigo coughed violently , before a few cracks of colour entered his darkened world. "Dammit…" Ichigo hissed through his teeth, before sitting up and trying to blink the dust from his eyes. The substitute shinigami's thoughts ran through his head, and he tried desperately to figure out what was happening.

However, before Ichigo could even sort a single thought, he was distracted by an insane spiritual pressure. The standard human would start suffocating at the mere exertion of said force, but due to the many battles that the teen had raged through, he managed to maintain what little composure he had.

"KUROSAKI!" was screamed through the sky by a voice that Ichigo had never wanted to hear again. A bloodthirsty, infuriating voice that had haunted him since the start of the Aizen incident. Ichigo stood in the centre of his room and he groped onto a wall to steady himself. The teen coughed once again, before reaching blindly for the badge on his bedside table. As soon as he found the odd object, he thrust it into his chest and let his soul separate from his body.

Finally having a clear vision after his daze, Ichigo gasped in horror at the state of his beloved room. A massive hole had been caused by the surprise in the shape of a set of claws. The claws had taken out a huge chunk of both the upper and lower levels of the house, and singes were spread about the edges of the damaged zone. Melted glass, burnt fabrics and seared furniture was scattered around the room.

But three glowing blue energy claws caught Ichigo's attention. Desgarron. Quickly shoving his limp body aside, the teen jumped quickly out of the newly made opening in his room, realising that he needed to find his aggressor quickly and isolate the battle to an area that was far less populated. "Bankai!" screamed Ichigo, and a torrent of wind cloaked the shinigami from view, before he burst out, garbed in the cloak of Tensa Zangetsu.

Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez let a razor fanged, feline grin spread across his face. He stood high above the many surrounding homes, a couple of hundred metres from the Kurosaki household. A bony armour covered his body, with a small crest above his brow, holding back the lengthened sapphire hair he had. A garganta quickly shut up behind him, and the former Espada's grin widened the moment he spotted the charging shinigami. "This party is starting faster than I expected. Let's go, Kurosaki!"

The teen let loose a furious growl, before charging a Getsuga Tenshou, and shunpo-ing toward his target. "GRIMJOW!" screamed Ichigo, as he appeared directly in front of his rival, before striking him with a point blank, horizontal Getsuga. The crimson rimmed, black attack blasted the former Espada away from Ichigo and toward the community Park. Ichigo zoomed forward to continue his attack, and he struck a vicious blow to the now angered and burnt Grimmjow.

The arrancar quickly stopped the blade that that was intent on cleaving him in half with the blade on his forearm as he flew backward, before he directed a swing of his free claw towards Ichigo's head. The teen shunpo-ed out of the way, causing Grimmjow to stumble from his missed hit, before Ichigo appeared behind him and raised Tensa Zangetsu over his head , waiting for the barrelling arrancar to come within his weapon's range. Grimmjow flipped backwards mid-air, and aimed a spinning kick to intercept his rival's zanpakuto. Armoured calf met with obsidian daito, and a massive shockwave shoved both attackers back violently. The wave cracked the roofs of the surrounding buildings and homes, and a few unsuspecting bystanders were tossed to the ground. Ichigo slowed his backward slide by grinding his feet into the reiatsu path he had created beneath himself. Smoke cleared from the teen's panting form, and he soon began to wish for an early end to this battle.

Ichigo had stopped himself directly over the edge of the community park. He clutched onto Tensa Zangetsu, still trying to figure out how Grimmjow had slipped into the Living world without Soul Society knowing.

"Already tired, Kurosaki?"

The substitute shinigami couldn't determine where the voice had come from, and his stance tensed quickly.

"Why don't you put on that stupid mask, huh?"

Ichigo resisted the urge to scream in frustration at the taunts. Despite despising the beast, and loving its absence, he still knew that this battle would end a lot faster if he had it. The teen began charging a Getsuga Tenshou once more, his anger fuelling its already exponential growth. However, instead of preparing to loose it, he instead kept the deathly aura around his blade.

"Too slow!"

Grimmjow suddenly sonido-ed directly in front of Ichigo, three Desgarron blades in his black paw. Ichigo instinctively raised Tensa Zangetsu in front of himself in defence. A split second. Cerulean crashed into obsidian. And a cataclysmic explosion shook all of Karakura.

…

Yuzu Kurosaki moaned as she stirred from the edge of unconsciousness. She felt the dirt that was clinging to her small body, as well as the liquid that had pooled bellow her. Opening her eyes, she spotted the large slabs of rubble around her, distinctly representing her brother's room floor… The thought quickly made her rethink, and she tried her best to analyse her situation. She felt completely numb on her right side, and something was pinning her down.

Tilting her head weakly, her eyes widened when she saw the chunk of concrete that had completely crushed her arm, smearing a pool of scarlet beneath its mass, and soaking Yuzu's dress. As her heart rate began to increase in pace, her the last visible parts of her shattered arm was turning a pale grey under the rock, before Yuzu screamed hysterically and it shattered. The girl kept screaming more and more, until the blood loss slowly ushered her into unconsciousness as a huge explosion in the distance lit up the sky.

…

The explosion above Karakura began to dissipate, and slowly, the damage of the goliath blast became apparent. A massive crater had been formed on the border separating the park from the road and buildings beyond. Many of the buildings had lost at least one face, and rubble and shattered building materials were strewn along the roads. A raging flame roared along the edges of the crater, and the fires had begun to ravage the many trees within the community park. Corpses burnt, broken and abused were laying across the edges of hole. Ichigo and Grimmjow stood opposite each other at the bottom of the epicentre. Each glared each other down, anger permeating itself as thick reiatsu in the air.

"You bastard…" Ichigo hissed harshly. The gloves on his hands had been shredded, crimson now staining the black and white fabric. Grimmjow's own hands were bleeding profusely, and cracks made their way up his forearms. Each of their garments were singed from the heat of the blast, and they the two were panting in a desperate attempt to catch their breath.

Suddenly, Grimmjow dropped to one knee, the wear of it all finally asserting itself. Ichigo quickly took advantage, and shunpo-ed in front of his rival in a blind fury, Tensa Zangetsu raised high over his head. However a grin slipped onto his downed adversaries face. Ichigo was confused until he noticed that Grimmjow seemed to be holding his breath.

In a split second, Grimmjow loosed a mighty roar point-blank in the face of the vulnerable shinigami. The resultant shockwave blew Ichigo back violently. Before he could even reach the opposite end of the crater they were in, the former Espada was in front of him, glowing claw drawn back.

"Desgarron!"

Three solid energy claws impaled Ichigo's abdomen, and speared him backward. Ichigo gagged violently, before his body was pinned to the opposite wall of the crater. The teen wheezed desperately as his blood spread onto the blades that may be his killer.

Ichigo's vision began to swim as he tried to pull the weapons from his abdomen, cutting his hands in his efforts. The blur of Grimmjow started to walk slowly towards him, before the teen began to cough once again, his body shaking from the force.

Mucus soon turned to a white, thick liquid, and the substitute shinigami's eyes and nose began to also leak the odd substance. The liquid began to pool near his feet, before it crawled forward from beneath the Desgarron that pierced its producer.

Grimmjow's brow raised at the display, and he began to charge a small Cero as his concern grew over the moving white mass. As Ichigo stopped coughing, the mass quickly formed itself into the form of a human approximately Ichigo's size. While this occurred, a small remnant of white slid onto Ichigo's face as two vertical bars down his fatigued face.

Not wishing to see anything more, Grimmjow raised his fist and fired off a Cero in the sludgy monster that kept on taking more likeness to Ichigo. The ray of light crashed into the white substance, and maintained its massive force as it blew a hole into the side of the crater. Giving a satisfied smirk, Grimmjow was about to leave when his sharp ears picked up the clink of a chain. Turning back, the former Espada barely had enough time to raise his arms in defence, before the monstrosity had struck him with a brutal sword swing.

The beast had nearly completed whatever morphing process it was going through, and it current form was nearly identical to that of Ichigo's Bankai state. However, there were a few differences. The shihakusho it wore was inversed from Ichigo's; where there was white it was black, and where there was black, it was white. It's skin was a deathly pale shade, bordering on pure white, and its black nails ended in sharp claws. Its bangs covered the front of its face, but not enough to mask the fact that it had no face. The blade it held seemed much like Tensa Zangetsu, but its guard was missing, and its colour was a smooth white as opposed to the liquid black of the original. Lastly, a gaping hole was in the centre of its chest, visible between the first two crosses of fabric.

A loud crack was herd from the beast, and the area where its mouth was supposed to be broke open, revealing the sadistic, razor toothed grin within. Two eyes blinked open from its empty sockets that seemed to fill themselves, and its nose stretched itself out, before adjusting to an average size. Two black, horizontal streaks made themselves visible down the creatures face, and its eyes pure white was inversed to obsidian, before two yellow irises appeared.

It opened its mouth and let out empty, metallic, sadistic laughter to the skies. Grimmjow charged it, not wanting to prolong the thing's existence. Drawing back a claw, he prepared to strike it down , but before he could reach it, he forcibly exhaled from an insane force that struck his stomach. Before he could comprehend what had occurred, his chest was struck with a white, point-blank Cero. The blast hurled him backward, his damaged form close to unconsciousness. Reaching out a weak claw, he gathered reiatsu at his fingertips, and tried to open a garganta, as his slide came to a halt. Picking himself up, he made the flicking motion required. The obsidian hole showed itself before him, blinking open like an eye.

But before he could enjoy his relief, a small clap of thunder made itself clear above him, and a shadow covered his form. Grimmjow looked up in horror, before the white terror impaled him into the ground with its duplicate Tensa Zangetsu. Dust hurled upward from the force of the thrust, before silently settling back into its place. Grimmjow, weakly tried to pry the blade from his chest, but it suddenly began to hiss as a pearly reiatsu began to gather around the weapon.

"Say goodnight…"

The beast let the Getsuga Tenshou loose, the blade still wedged in its target. A boom rung through the park, and the earth beneath rumbled from the brutal attack. A shockwave rippled through the air, before the initial blast began to settle, and the gathered smoke began to thin, revealing the winner of the battle.

The monster let loose a victorious roar and it dislodged its weapon from the mess named Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, before its empty gaze fell on the open garganta nearby. Its mouth opened in a grin, as it walked quickly toward the portal and disappeared behind its black depths, leaving a trail of carnage behind.

Ichigo Kurosaki fell to his knees as the Desgarron shattered within him. The remnants of the energy dissipated from his abdomen, and as he murkily stared at his surroundings, he dropped Tensa Zangetsu merely at the devastation that the street, buildings and park had suffered from the short battle with his former nemesis. Portions of whole building laid in ruin and rubble. Flames raged around him, licking at every material it could touch. The injured were left moaning in pain, suffering the cost of the battle invisible to them. The dead were strewn haplessly around the war zone, their souls now wandering aimlessly around the grounds, still trying to figure out what had happened to themselves. A single tear dropped from Ichigo's face, before he fell to the ground, and into the hands of unconsciousness…

[Close Of Prologue]

A/N:

Disclaimer: All Canon and Filler material within this fanfiction that is related to Bleach is under Tite Kubo's ownership, and not my own. The OCs and original plots within this story do, however, belong to me. This story is not for profit.

And that concludes the prologue of Whiteout. What do you think? The next update should be up in the next two weeks, so sit tight. Also, don't forget to tell me whether I have made any grammatical or story errors(don't flame though).

Espada175 OUT