Time's Twist

by Tahaku

Going back in time is a hassle.You never know how things will turn out when you go back, especially when you didn't know you were going back. But having a second chance is always better than never having one.

Hello everyone!

I, Tahaku Monsonoa, have brought to you a re-write of a rather well liked Bleach time travel story:

Time's Twist!

Now I know I haven't been very productive this past year, but I hope to change that soon. I know I said I would post another chapter for Fairy Princess, Shinigami Knight, but I wasn't able to get things right. Plus these past three plus months have kept me from really doing anything in regards to posting, as explained in my last update. I was able to keep my creative mind working, despite the stressful environment I was put to live in for 10 weeks. Not like I enjoyed it at times, but I got some good experience that I could incorporate into my stories that might add more flavor.

I think I'll start having "Naoko's Corner" in all my stories, as a way to answer reviews. I don't really care that she is only a part of one story; she's a descendant of a fourth wall breaker, so I see no problem. Plus, I like her, so I want to find an excuse to have her appear more often.

Anyway, let's get started on this shall we?

Chp 1

030

To begin anew

=3=

Hueco Mundo, a dimension of eternal night blanketing an endless ocean of white sand. The only building there was the ruined fortress of Las Noches. It is here that we find a lone figure atop the tallest pillar that remains standing.

The figure had a humanoid shape, stood six feet tall, had long orange hair that reached down to his waist, on top of his head was a skeletal mask, resembling a human skull. From the back, four black lines stretched, the two inner ones stopping just at the forehead in tapered points, while the outer two went down to the eyeholes, where piercing yellows glowed within, and past them to the teeth of the mask and continuing downward to the jawline and neck to join the markings the adorned his chest. From the temples grew two angular curving horns. His hollow hole rested in the center of his chest, with black tribal markings extending from it all across his pale white skin. Red fur lay around his neck, at the collarbone; similar tufts of fur lay at the wrists and ankles. The only article of clothing he wore was a pair of shredded hakama pants that stopped just past the knees and seemed to shift around with its own wind. The last notable features were the clawed hands and feet, an intricate three metal ring on his left hand, and a necklace with several trinkets attached. At his side was a long black zanpakto, stabbed into the stone. The most powerful of hollows: a Vasto Lorde.

The hollow once went by the name of Ichigo Kurosaki…..but that was over 200 years ago, when there when the Shinigami of Soul Society were still powerful and the World of the Living could still be called as such. Now all three realms lay barren and devoid, doing what they can to fight against their crumbling existence. None remained of the great powers, except Ichigo himself. Before, Ichigo would have been considered very powerful, but now? He could practically be called a god.

There was simply nothing for him anymore. He had no one, they were all gone, his family, his friends, the visored, the arrancars. All gone. All because of one man who brought the destruction of everyone he cared for. He had long ago given in to his hollow side and allowed himself to run rampant for a long time.

Now it was just him, that last reminder of a time when powerful beings existed.

"Hey, King," a dual timbre voice of Hollow Zangestu brought the hybrid out of his thoughts of the past. "Don't you think this has gone on long enough? It's been over fifty years…"

"There's no point in waiting for something you know will never come," Tensa Zangetsu stated. "Searching for a possible reincarnation of any of them has proven fruitless. It is most likely that they are no longer a part of the cycle. Like so many others…"

With a weary sigh, Ichigo answered, "Yeah….you're right, there's no point in continuing such a hopeless endeavor…" His hand went to the necklace that held the most precious objects of his closest comrades: Orihime's hair pins, Chad's coin, and Uryu's quincy cross. That was all he managed to keep intact over the years, and even those were nearing their end, including the intricately designed ring of three intertwined metals on his left ring finger. "There's no longer a reason to continue," said Ichigo as he let go of the necklace, letting his hand to fall to his side, and disappears in a burst of sonido.

Reappearing atop a giant rock jutting out of the sands, Ichigo stabs Tensa Zangetsu into the stone and braces both hands on the handle. Closing his eyes and breathing deeply to mentally prepare himself, the strawberry began to gather his reiyoku within himself; after he gathered what he felt was sufficient he began pouring his reiatsu into the blade, releasing the unnamed Getsuga underneath his feet.

The black reiatsu burst up and around him, blowing away the sand several hundred feet below him and many times more away, tearing into his Vasto Lorde form and revealing him human appearance once more. His face held a calm and serene look, accepting the end that he brought upon himself and he let his eyes fall closed as he felt his body be eaten into by the raging torrent of reiatsu.

A contradictory thing, really…a mass of chaos that gave the man a sense of peace.

…

…

His eyes flew open as a new sensation filled his senses.

It was reiatsu.

Reiatsu that he had not felt in decades.

Directing his startled gaze downwards, Ichigo saw the trinkets of his three closest companions glowing and giving off a faint trace of reiatsu of their respective former owners, and they were steadily growing stronger by the moment.

'Everyone…!' exclaimed Ichigo mentally as he watched Uryu's quincy cross pull in his reiatsu, Chad's pendant steadying and feeding the reiatsu to Orihime's hairpins, which in turn used it to further spread the golden glow of Orihime's reiatsu that had been unknowingly covering the strawberry's body.

It wasn't long before the golden shroud covered him entirely which brought on a new spectacle. The shroud would bubble up in places and rise up with the flow of the Getsuga.

'This is…' thought Ichigo as he recognized the familiar sensation. 'Soten Kisshun…!'

It was then that Ichigo noticed something about the swaths of golden reiatsu that were breaking off from him.

They contained images.

'What…is this…?!'

"Ichigo, while this feels like Orihime's rejection ability,' said Tensa, "I cannot tell what it is that is being rejected, Though, I do have a guess, despite how absurd that may be."

'Well, what is it?!'

"Judging by the images, I'd say that, from the looks of it, what is being rejected is…your past."

'WHAT?!'

'Well, this just proves once more just how godly Hime's power really was! Eheheheheheheh!" cackled Shiro.

'That still doesn't explain what's gonna—!"

He was cut off as everything went black and Ichigo felt like he was falling.

=3=

"…it feels like the sky is getting heavy," said the young ghost girl with brown hair done up in two pigtails, her bangs framing her face, and a permanent trail of blood going down the left side of her face.

"The sky…?" asked a 15 year old Ichigo, turning his head up to look at the sky. "I don't feel—!" Letting out a sudden gasp as though he was suddenly hit, Ichigo put a hand to his head, staggering a bit.

"Onii-san? Are you alright…?" the concern in the girl's question was easily indentifiable. She reached out in case he needed whatever assistance she could give. No matter how little that might be.

Holding his hand out as he straightened up, the orange haired teen sent her a small reassuring smile as he told her, "Yeah, I'm good. I actually think I understand what you were talking about…it does feel like the sky is weighing down on me.

"Anyway, there's something I just realized I need to do. Don't worry; I'll make sure to bring you flowers tomorrow!" The last part he called out behind him as he jogged off, the girl waving to the retreating form of Ichigo.

Rounding the corner, Ichigo leaned all his weight against the wall and covered the disbelieving smile that was forming on his face.

"I'm back. I'm really back," Ichigo breathlessly said to himself.

"It would appear so," stated Quincy Zangetsu. "We have returned to before you began to awaken your powers."

'…!' A bolt of realization struck Ichigo. 'Then that means…!' He then took off in a dead sprint. 'It has to be there! It's gotta be!' Ichigo frantically pleaded, not believing it to actually be there until he saw it for himself.

=3=

Ichigo stood in front of a marble obelisk that had the name "Kurosaki Masaki" engraved on it, panting heavily. His fifteen year old body, while very fit, did not have the stamina he was formerly used to with his living body, much less his spiritual one, for that matter.

Slumping to his knees as his legs could no longer hold him up; Ichgio began to catch his breath.

"Mom…" Ichigo managed to breath out after a short while, but that was all he managed to say because all the grief of years of fighting… and those of running, came rushing up to the surface. For the first time in decades, since he had last seen a single member of his family alive, he allowed himself to cry.

=3=

It had grown late and the sun had already gone down by the time he arrived at his house to a sight that he had completely forgotten would happen.

"…it won't be permanent," said Rukia from sitting position against the fence, injured and with Sode no Shirayuki weakly raised to the person she was addressing. "But you'll be able to protect your family."

In the background, Fishbone D reappeared through its garganta, charging at the two black haired females.

Without a second of hesitation, Karin grabbed the zanpakto of the petite Shinigami and said, with her hands gripping the blade, "Just do it already, Shinigami. I have an asshole who hurt my sister to kill." A slightly feral grin appeared on her lips and a determined fire burned in her eyes.

"My name…isn't Shinigami…it's Rukia Kuchiki," came Rukia's reply.

"I'm Karin Kurosaki," said the middle child of the Kurosaki household as she let the tip of Rukia's blade pierce her heart, unleashing a torrent of reiatsu.

Ichigo, who had been running towards the pair to do what he could to stop Karin was thrown back from the force of the reiatsu burst. His body had stopped after a few feet, but his soul continued for a longer distance, reiatsu burns lacing the entirety of his form.

Urahara, who had been watching from above, made to go help Ichigo, but stopped when a white gel-like substance began to appear over the burns, bubbling as his regeneration took effect, healing his wounds. After, it broke apart, leaving perfectly healed skin.

'It seems that the sudden outburst of reiatsu was too much for his soul withstand without manifesting his own Shinigami powers, along with releasing the hollow within him,' observed the ex-captain. 'Although…it appears to only ensure that Ichigo remains alive.' He then picked up the unconscious teen and placed him back in his body before turning towards Rukia in her white kimono, who had managed to carry herself over to Karin.

Opening his eyes to see that he was on his back, the night sky his first sight, Ichigo began looking around while asking himself, 'What happened?'

He saw Urahara talking to Rukia, most likely offering her a gigai with the hogyoku hidden within it, when Zangetsu answered him, "Your soul is still damaged from when you attempted to end your life. It will take some time before you're fully healed and a good portion of your current power is being used to speed up the process."

"Ya won't be able to use most of the power available to ya, but you'll have plenty enough to kick the ass of every single idiot we'll face for now."

Letting the connection fade, Ichigo turned his attention to Karin, who had a satisfied grin on her unconscious face. 'At least…Karin will be able…to defend herself a lot…sooner…' thought Ichigo as he let unconsciousness take him once more.

=3=

Waking up to the sound of thumping fee and a boisterous yell of "Goooooooodd mmoooorrrnnniiiiinnnggg Iiiicchhiiiiiiiggggoooooo!" said strawberry leapt out of bed to show his annoyance at the ever infuriating wakeup call that his father would always put him through every single day until he moved out. The same event he hadn't experienced in de…cades…

Instead of hitting of dodging, as he was accustomed to, Ichigo decided to tackle the old goat faced idiot and use the hold as an excuse to embrace his father. 'I missed you dad.'

"You've done well, son," said Isshin. "I have…nothing left…to teach you…but…I need air!"

Releasing the hold and letting his old man gulp lungfuls of air, Ichigo huffs as he leaves the room. "It's your fault, Goat-chin, for attacking me in the morning every day. What kind of normal father does that?" Without waiting for an answer, Ichigo left to the bathroom to wash up.

When he had returned to his room to change into his uniform, thankfully devoid of his father, and had gone downstairs to get breakfast, as well as watch a familiar scene unfold in a slightly different way than the first time around.

Ichigo had acted surprised at seeing the huge hole that Fishbone D had created the night before, despite wanting to laugh. He also had to hold back several bouts of laughter from seeing Karin acting just like he did the first time around.

"When did you get home last night Ichi-nii?" asked Karin as they were patching up the wall as best as they could for the moment.

"I was taking care of a sudden errand that came up, so I was late in getting home. Why do you ask?" responded the time traveler, knowing why she asked.

"No reason. I just…just thought you might've seen who did it," said the elder twin. He could guess that she was trying to make sure her older brother wasn't involved in the chaos of last night. He smiled slightly at the prospect of Karin already wanting to protect, just like himself. That was one of the few things that he was glad about her copying from him.

As Ichigo left for school after eating a late breakfast, and said bye to his sisters, he decided to vaguely caution Karin.

"Make sure you don't cause too much trouble when if you decide to go looking for it Karin, I don't want to have to bail you out of anything you won't be able to handle." Predictably, the black haired Kurosaki gave him an answer laced with annoyance.

=3=

Ichigo sat in the second period of class mulling over his thoughts.

'I don't like it, but at least Karin has a fighting chance now that she's attained her shinigami powers much sooner. She won't be dying any time soon. There's no point in looking a gift horse in the mouth with that one. I just need to start worrying about Hueco Mundo now.'

Originally, Ichigo had his own info network when he had gone on the run from Soul Society. He'd have to build it from the ground up again, but this time he'd be able to heavily improve upon it, what with the knowledge he had. But even if he had a plan, most of it would still be him making it up as he went.

He would need to find Nel and Grimmjow. Even if he knew they'd be on his eventually, or at his side, in regards to Nel, he'd rather prefer to have that much sooner.

Less hassle for him.

But they weren't the only ones he wanted to approach; those two weren't the only arrancars that had helped him. Outside of his info network, there were others that had joined him, and he planned on gathering them all.

'Then we can kill Aizen and destroy Soul Society!' one hollowfied zanpakto raged with glee within Ichigo's mind.

'Not now. We need to get everything in order…gather our allies. We can't get this done on our own. The Visoreds, the Arrancar, we can probably convince Ishida, and maybe the Bounts as well.'

'Like hell we can,' replied Shiro. 'We can march over there right now and kill the old man, as well every last shinigami!'

'I'd rather give them a chance to accept us,' countered Ichigo. 'If they don't…that's another matter, but we do have friends over there.'

'How many times do I need to tell ya? THEY WILL NEVER ACCEPT US! Never have, never will. And those "friends"? They don't even know you! ('Yet.') And another thing…'

Ichigo cut the conversation with Shiro. He definitely knew that had pissed him off further.

After knowing what Shiro really was, the two got along much better, meaning the pale zanpakto gave a lot more advice and Ichigo listened a lot more.

During the war, there had been a running joke amongst the arrancars that Ichigo's second in command was Ichigo himself.

"What's wrong?" a voice the orange head recognized brought him back to reality.

Turning towards said voice, brought Ichigo's attention to his best friend, Chad. He dearly missed the very tall half Mexican, but there was nothing he could've done to prevent his death. He had taken revenge for it, though, so he felt glad to see him alive.

"Nothing, just thinking," Ichigo replied. "Why do you ask?"

Chad seemed to ponder how to answer. When he did a few moments later, he said, "You seem…off today. When I'm close to you, I feel a pressure, like being backed into a corner."

Since arriving into the past with his memories intact, he'd been able to lower his reiatsu to practically nothing, but he need for him and Orihime to awaken their powers, so he was letting it out around them. It seems that he was able to notice instinctually.

Ichigo sighed, not really wanting to deal with their increasing reiatsu just yet. "Sorry, I don't really know."

'A little help here would be nice right now.'

'What do ya want me to do?'

'Would it kill you to make yourself useful?'

Before the mental argument could escalate any further, a commotion amongst the female students crowding around a new student. Ichigo looked on with boredom, but widened his eyes with surprise at seeing Rukia skip over to him. As far as she knew, he was just a normal human, so why was she here?

"Hello, I'm new here and I'm meeting every one," she said, wearing a smile he knew to be fake. "Would you like to be friends?" Her outstretched hand bore no written death threat.

"Sure," said Ichigo, donning a fake smile of his own. "Why not?"

Rukia's response was a smile that held a mischievous undertone that meant that she was planning something.

"Say, you're not Kurosaki Ichigo, are you?" she asked.

'Ah…I see now.' She was going to use him to get close to Karin. "Yeah," he narrowed his eyes slightly. "You got a problem with that?"

=.=

Aaaaaannnnd done!

I finally got it done!

Before anyone says something about it, yes it does use lines from the original. I already told Fic Hunter that I'd be using it and altering it to fit with cannon, so that argument is already a moot point.

Tell me if you liked it, if you decide to review that is.

I won't be trying to post any new stories. I'll be trying to work out FP, SK, but I might just rewrite it from the start, not like there's much to rewrite. *laughs*

I hope you enjoy this and all my other works! Have a great day!