AN: HI GUYS GOOD TO BE BACK SORRY I TOOK SO LONG I FINALLY GOT MOTIVATION TO WRITE AGAIN AND I WASN'T DEAD! ANYWAYS THIS IS A REWRITE OF MY STORY DRAGONIC TRANSCENDENT I HOPE YOU ENJOY AND THIS ONE IS BETTER. PLEASE READ THE AUTHORS NOTE AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER WHEN YOU GET THERE THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Disclaimer: I own neither Bleach who is owned by Tite Kubo or High School DxD owned by Ichiei Ishibumi!
Chapter one: War hero… Again?!
Chaos, complete and utter chaos was the only word to describe the current situation. Craters laid everywhere. Fires burned bright but sporadically. The screams, oh how the screams could push ones sanity to the absolute limit. Blood and smoke covered most of the decimated now laid to waste Seireitei. In the middle of the seireitei were two figures, both male. The figure on the ground with his left arm cut off at the elbow and right leg cut off at the mid-thigh. This person is a tall man with a long face, broad chin, and pronounced cheekbones. He has long black hair, which reaches to his lower back, and reddish-brown eyes with thin eyebrows. His once well-kept mutton chops and connected mustache is singed and messy. His white double-breasted trench coat, which has the Wandenreich symbol on the middle, with large buttoned cuffs and lapels, white trousers, and trench boots were destroyed, consisting of cuts, burns and blood. His red ribbon trench coat was entirely annihilated. This person is Juha Bach otherwise known as Yhwach.
The person standing had one blade in Yhwach's shoulder and the other in his stomach. This man has very distinguishable spiky orange hair that reaches his shoulders. He is a fairly tall, lean-built young man with peach skin and brown eyes. This person's outfit was also in tatters and covered in cuts and blood. Over his cut up standard Shihakushō he has two white shoulder plates crossing his chest in an X shape that hold his Shikai blades in place, with the plate on his left shoulder having three sections adorned with red scales and a white cloak with black markings tied around his waist. This person is known as Ichigo Kurosaki.
The two god like figures breathed heavily as they stared into each other's eyes. One with a look of sadness the other with the look of being content with the outcome of the final battle of the Holy War as the Quincy called it or the Blood War as referred to by the shinigami. After several moments and blood pouring out the millennia older man nodded to his grandson and with his final effort Ichigo withdrew the hollow blade from Yhwach's shoulder and with the last swing that would end the Blood War, Ichigo decapitated the Soul King's son. It was finally over the shinigami had finally won killing the Quincy emperor and Ichigo being dubbed a war hero for the second time in his life at the simple age of seventeen. But unlike the winter war, this conflict did not come without major casualties. Karakura was effectively whipped off the map, but thanks to the efforts of Kisuke Urahara, Yoruichi Shihōin, Tessai Tsukabishi and Isshin Kurosaki formerly Isshin Shiba, they all helped evacuate at least some of the citizens of Karakura. The shinigami suffered major casualties. Their forces were cut down to a fifth of what they once were, Central 46 was destroyed… again and for the chain of command, Captain Commander Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto died making Captain Shunsui Kyoraku the new captain commander. Captains Rōjūrō Ōtoribashi, Retsu Unohana and Kensei Muguruma all fell to the Wandenreich and only Lieutenants Chōjirō Sasakibe and Marechiyo Ōmaeda fell.
Taking a step back and setting the body on fire with kido, Ichigo let out a long and heavy breath as he looked up into the sky, "It's finally over… mom I was finally able to avenge you." With that final statement Ichigo fell backwards and blacked out.
Unbeknownst to him a black cat jumped down and gave him a smile, 'Even after learning of everything about your true heritage you still fought to protect your friends and to finally make peace with what has been haunting you all this time… your mother's death. Your parents would be proud Ichigo, sleep well you've deserved it.' The black cat transformed into her human form and opened up a Senkaimon and walked in carrying the god like being on her back because Kami forbid his wrath if he ever found out she carried him bridal style. His pride would not allow it.
Week and a half later (10 days)
A good week and a half passed before Ichigo started to finally stir awake. Opening and closing his eyes a few times to get rid of the fuzziness Ichigo realized he was in very familiar surroundings. Sighing to himself it seemed no matter where it was located this damn store would never change. Urahara's candy shop, this time located in Nagasaki. The moment Ichigo laid up, Kisuke Urahara opened the door and let a small smile grace his face.
"Ah Kurosaki-san I see your finally awake, when you are up to it can you please meet me in the living room there are some things I'd like to discuss with you."
Seeing Ichigo giving a small nod after releasing an exasperated sigh Kisuke walked out to wait for him. After a good five minutes Ichigo finally got to his feet and made sure he had proper use of his limbs again since he had no idea how long he was out. Making his way towards the living room he saw ever flamboyant Kisuke speaking very heatedly with ex-stealth force commander and local tease Yoruichi Shihōin as they were getting their tea served by Tessai Tsukabishi. Seeing the two time war hero walk in all three gave a smile in acknowledgement.
Kisuke is a tall, lean-built man with light skin and gray eyes. His hair is messy and light-blond, almost pale, with strands framing the sides of the face and hanging between his eyes, and he has chin stubble. He wears a dark coat, which sports a white diamond pattern along its bottom half, with a dark green shirt and pants underneath. He usually wears traditional Japanese wooden sandals and a striped dark green and white bucket hat.
Yoruichi Shihōin is a slender, dark-skinned woman of average height, with golden-colored eyes and long purple hair, which she keeps up in a ponytail. Her standard attire consists of a black, backless, sleeveless undershirt, an orange over-shirt with two white straps on each shoulder, a large beige sash around her waist, and black stretch pants with a pair of lightweight brown shoes.
Tessai Tsukabishi is a tall, muscular, lightly tan-skinned man. His hair is cornrowed and he has a large handlebar mustache, which is connected to his long sideburns. He wears a pair of rectangular-shaped glasses. His attire consists of a white muscle shirt with regular pants and a blue apron.
Sitting down in front of the two and getting his tea he decided to open the conversation, "How long?"
"You've been out for ten days," replied Yoruichi.
"Only ten? Thought I would have been out for at least another week with the magnitude of that fight… I'll just chop it up to lady luck just loving me again."
"Yeah you've left yet another crater in soul society… funny how you do that every time you go there," chuckled Urahara.
"Shut it hat n' clogs," turning serious Ichigo asked the one question he's been dreading, "Karakura… what were the casualties?"
Kisuke looked down his blond locks and bucket hat covered his eyes and his entire demeanor shifted. Gone was the happy go lucky lets fuck with Ichigo attitude it was his serious attitude he held when he was the captain of the twelfth division. "They're not as I hoped, Karakura as you know was wiped off the map and as for casualties… we were only able to save approximately twenty percent of the city of those you cared about Ishida died seeing as you gutted him calling him a traitorous pig and Orihime died, her shield that could reject could not stand up to Bazz-B, she was burned alive helping get the people out of the city."
Ichigo's eyes widened in shock the woman who he saw as an older Yuzu died protecting the people of this city when he told her to stay out of harm's way. She just couldn't listen just this once and now he feels guilty. But before he could sink into his depression where Zangetsu would drag him into his inner world and beat some sense into his self-loathing mind Yoruichi spoke up, "Don't blame yourself Ichigo she did this of her own free will she didn't want to sit by while others risked their selves and she was protected again and did nothing she wanted to contribute and thanks to her we got more people out than expected."
Ichigo numbly nodded before lifting his head up and asking, "So what's the real reason you wanted to talk to me so soon after I regained consciousness?"
"As perceptive as always I see," Kisuke complimented.
"Just get on with it Hat n' Clogs."
"Fine, fine, fine… The other factions of the supernatural are starting to become restless and move more out in the open."
"Other factions? You mean there are more than just the Soul Reapers, Hollows, Arrancars and Vizards?"
"Oh yes there are plenty of others like Greek gods, Shinto gods, Demons, Devils, Angels, Fallen angels, Yokai, dragons you know non-human beings." (AN: I personally believe that demons and devils are different Demons were the original underworld beings until they became extinct and the beings that now rule the underworld are now devils)
"Wow… there's a lot I still don't know about."
Yoruichi snorted and got a scowl in return.
"Well anyways as I said their becoming more restless and open in their movements-"
"And what do you want me to do about it?"
"I was getting to that… I have a good connection with the leader of the Grigori who are the Fallen Angels organization so you will apart of them since their leader is just like me," smiled Kisuke as he waved his fan.
"So a dirty old pervert who likes to research and invent stuff and drive people up walls?"
"Mou~ Kurosaki is so mean," Kisuke childishly pouted. But it honestly crept everyone out seeing a grown man do that.
Yoruichi smacked him upside the head sending his face into the ground, "Well he's not wrong you old bastard."
"But Yoruichi you're just as old as me!"
A deathly aura suddenly surrounded Yoruichi, "what was that you perverted old coot?"
"Eep, nothing absolutely nothing," panicked Kisuke.
"As I thought now back to explaining."
"Yes ma'am… now as I was saying you will be joining the fallen angel faction."
"Out of all the factions as you say, that you listed why the fallen?"
"Because they're part of the three major factions," replied Kisuke as he rolled a blackboard out of nowhere in the middle of the room to prepare to give a small lecture. Yoruichi shook her head and rolled her eyes at the old pervert.
"Three major factions?"
"Ah yes the three factions are all interconnected with each other. They are the Devils, Angels and Fallen Angels. To give you a brief summary on their history, thousands of years ago, there were the Three Factions. Unlike other supernatural groups which were apparently more or less independent of each other, these three were all interconnected like I previously stated. Together, the Three Factions spawned the Judeo-Christian religion, and became part of the Bible. The Angels, Devils, and Fallen Angels warred against one another under the leaderships of the Biblical God, the Seven Great Satans who were all offspring of the Demons known as the seven deadly sins, these demons were the strongest of the Demons being the original children of Satan himself. The names of these Demons which is rare to be known to anyone but the devil government are Lucifer, Beelzebub, Leviathan, Mammon, Belphegor, Asmodeus and Sathanus. According to lore Sathanus went against Satan to become the demon ruler but Sathanus died and Satan took over as his sin… wrath. According to the infighting in the demon part of the underworld the sins died and Satan was last seen about fourteen years ago. (AN: Made a lot of that up off the top of my head please just go with it for now I needed to have Satan in here haha) And the Fallen Angel organization, Grigori, led by Azazel, in a conflict which came to be known as the Great War. After the deaths of the Biblical God and the Seven Great Satans, the Great War finally ended, but it left the Three Factions in a state of conflict. However, due to a state of extreme exhaustion after the Great War and with all three factions losing their main forces, none of the three sides wanted to continue battling. So while there was no peace between the factions, outright battles did not occur either. And small skirmishes do happen when the factions meet."
"Alright thanks for the history lesson…" Ichigo replied while rubbing his temples, "but I'm not joining a faction that is currently in a cold war on two fronts, I will compromise and ally myself but I will not join."
Taking a sigh, "I guess that's all I can ask for at least."
"Yeah, yeah you still haven't explained why I should ally with the fallen all you've given me is the damn history lesson you damn idiot."
Whipping out his fan Kisuke jovially said, "Oh right…"
Ichigo gave Yoruichi a look that said 'please?'
Yoruichi huffed and went behind Kisuke. Just as he was about to speak up again Yoruichi kicked his back launching him at Ichigo and yelled, "STOP BEING SUCH A DUMBASS!"
As Kisuke was launched at Ichigo screaming like a little bitch, Ichigo grabbed his face and slammed him into the ground, "GET ON WITH IT JACKASS!"
As Kisuke was twitching on the ground Yoruichi growled out, "Kisuke if you stay like that I will start to believe your ass hung a vacancy sign on it and guess what… my foots looking for a room."
That quickly put a halt to any more of Kisuke's antics for a bit. Kisuke quickly sat up and answered, "Well your power is too dark for heaven and they're bunch of happy go lucky people, the devils leaders are so carefree id believe it be a good ten minutes before you'd want to stab one of them plus two of them are siscons. The fallen were the best choice due to being in the middle of light and dark powers like you, you have experience dealing with me so Azazel should be no issue for you plus out of the three factions Azazel seems the most for peace."
Ichigo narrowed his eyes at Urahara, "Kisuke…" Ichigo said in a serious voice, "… you know my position on peace… Peace is a lie, there is only pain, through pain I gain strength, through strength I gain power, through power, through power I gain victory, through victory my chains are broken, the cycle of hatred starts anew."
Letting out a dragged sigh, "You still don't believe in peace do you?"
"I've been dragged through two of Soul Society's wars in the past two years and dubbed war hero of both, I'm only seventeen Urahara. If Soul Society has shown me anything there is no peace, there is no hope only a cycle of hatred and never ending pain."
"He's got a point Kisuke, you have to admit he's been through more shit in the past two years than most people have in two lifetimes as long as no one provokes him we should be all set."
Ichigo snorted, "Yeah the day I don't get provoked and trouble isn't trying to crawl up my ass is the day pigs fly and I see Abe Lincoln riding a toy horse that's shitting the rainbow while he's chasing the worlds dumbest music artist, Justin Beiber and he's doing it with a lightsaber might I add you." (AN: Is this relevant… no but it's funny and I saw a picture of it :P)
"Umm… what," asked a confused Yoruichi.
"Murica," exclaimed Ichigo and Kisuke at the same time as they bro fisted.
"I would expect this kind of idiocy from Kisuke-"
"Hey!"
"-but you Ichigo… really?"
"Eh it's a onetime thing I'll be back to through him out the window soon enough."
"I'm right here you know!"
"Good to know one idiot is enough to deal with."
"Oh come on!"
"Count yourself lucky it's only one I got another one back at home and he's got shit for brains compared to loud, obnoxious, flamboyant and pain in my ass here."
Yoruichi giggled a bit, "True story… by the way is it just me or does the room feel a bit depressed?"
Both Yoruichi and Ichigo looked to the corner and see the resident 'humble shop keeper' sulking in the corner mumbling about mean were-cats and evil war heroes. Sighing to himself Ichigo wen and picked Kisuke up by the scruff of his haori and threw him at Yoruichi as she close lined him knocking him out of his stupor. Dusting himself off Kisuke looked at Ichigo and asked, "Now where were we?"
"We agreed on that I'd be allying myself with the fallen, is there anything else I need to know?"
"Ah yes well after the great war the underworld was put under strife and split between two factions the old Satan faction and the new Satan faction. The old Satan faction wanted to continue the war but the new Satan faction was against it. This caused civil war to break out and when all was said and done the new Satan faction was victorious and four individuals took over its governing body as the Four Great Satans."
"Four? I thought there were seven."
"Ah yes, the change in government official numbers. You see the leaders of the old Satan faction were actually descendants of the original seven demons of hell. The governing officials decide to take on their names as head of the government which if I'm correct is clearly disrespectful to the original seven and I'm surprised it didn't spark something."
"Probably due to Satan keeping them in line," noted Yoruichi.
"Ah yes, that could indeed be it. Anyways why there are only four great Satans instead of seven is simply due to Satan himself not procuring a descendant at the time, Belphegor being as lazy as he and his descendant are stayed out of the governing body of the devils and finally Mammon was extremely greedy so he went and started a corrupt business doing who knows what, they're demons after all."
"Alright is there anything else?"
"Ah yes in fact there is one last thing, the evil piece system."
"Evil piece system? Doesn't sound too friendly." (AN: Pun intended)
"Yes well joking aside, after the great war and civil war the devils who originally had seventy-two pillars which is like nobility…"
"So a bunch of stuck up arrogant devils that will piss me off like Byakuya did when we first met," interrupted Ichigo.
"I'm not even going to dispute this knowing your place on nobles even if you are one yourself technically."
"Umm Kisuke have you seen my so called noble family? My dad who likes to keep my skills sharp by ambushing me at the crack of dawn and ends up out a window. Kukaku who is like Yoruichi except less flirt and more sake likes to as I say 'blow shit up'. Then there's Ganju, riding on boars self-proclaiming himself some nonsense picking fights with random people then getting his face kicked in by Kukaku for being an idiot. If we are a family of nobles then I must say we're the fun nobles who party hard."
"He's got you there Kisuke."
"Right anyways after all the conflict the seventy-two pillars dwindled down to thirty-four and were on the verge of being extinct so the evil piece system was created. The evil pieces reincarnate Humans and other races into Devils. The pieces themselves take on the look of chess pieces. The creations of the evil pieces eventually lead to the creation of the Rating Game. The Rating Game is used to measure a Devil's strength which will reflect their social standing in the Underworld."
After letting him absorb the information on everything Kisuke spoke up again, "Now I think that should be everything."
"Kisuke don't you want to give him the gifts?"
"Oh yes you have two gifts, one from Soul Society and one from me personally."
"Gifts?"
"Oh yes fighting wars and what not is very rewarding especially if you're a hero," Kisuke chuckled to himself, handing Ichigo a debit card that was white but had the skull of his shinigami badge in black as a background picture Kisuke explained, "This is from Soul Society after being the hero of both wars and not having any way to compensate you for battles you did not have to join, this debit card has 89,501,250,000 yen on it." ($750,000,000 USD roughly)
If Ichigo was himself before the training in the soul palace he would have dropped his jaw and his eyes gone wide as dinner plates. But that was then. Ichigo merely rolled his eyes and mumbled about old geezers who had too much money and didn't know what to do with it.
"Now for my gift," Kisuke brought out a black briefcase with a white hollow mask on it. (AN: Ichigo's Vasto Lorde mask minus the horns) Looking at the case wearily and back to Kisuke, Urahara explained, "My gift is almost complete I just need you to apply a good amount of your reiatsu to the mask for it to be completed."
Nodding his head in understanding Ichigo placed both hands on the mask and began applying about forty percent of him power into it. Then figuring he be funny and floor Kisuke he smirked. A small one that only Yoruichi noticed and prepared herself for the inevitable. Out of nowhere a crushing force floored Kisuke making him face plant into the floor… hard. Yoruichi being prepared for this raised her reiatsu level to take some of the pressure off but you could tell she was struggling a bit if the small bead of sweat on the side of her face was anything to go by. Seeing Kisuke twitch in pain Ichigo laughed and reeled his reiatsu in seeing as he was done applying it to the mask. The brief case then pooped open and let out a small hiss and smoke filled the room."
"DAMN IT HAT N' CLOGS I CAN'T SEE SHIT," exclaimed an irritated Ichigo.
"Well that's what you get for trying to be funny."
Letting out a small growl Ichigo just waited for the smoke to clear. After a good couple minutes the smoke finally cleared and there in front of him were fifteen chess pieces blowing as dark as black as possible with red energy coming off them. Ichigo looked up at Urahara and that's when he answered the unasked question.
"Yes those are your evils pieces but they're a bit different. Since I was able to snag the original blue prints and plans for them I was able to alter them a bit to make it more to your liking. How I snagged them let's just say that the head of the underworlds R&D and I had a bit of collaboration and came to an agreement. Anyhow since you poured pretty much all the reiatsu you currently had into the mask what you're seeing is a double mutation of every piece."
"Double mutation?"
"Yes what that means is simple, take a pawn for instance in the rating games one pawn has a value of one. Now add a mutation to the pawn its value is doubled and becomes two. Since you have a double mutation its value is four."
"Okay but how did I manage that?"
"Easy I recreated these pieces to react to the power of its king. Since you control the power of a god the pieces saw it fit that strong people should follow you."
"The pieces have a mind of their own to make a decision like that?"
"Yes and no. The mask acted as a container for your reiatsu and when you poured the entire amount you did into it the container released in onto the pieces which absorbed your power like the sekkiseki rock. Once your power was evenly distributed among them the pieces would change their output to benefit you best."
"Alright I think I understand."
"Oh and one more thing, the pawns are actually a different piece called the vanguard piece I was able to up their base value by half a pawn plus including their double mutation they got from you it has a base value of six."
Ichigo was about to ask another question but was yet again interrupted by Kisuke earning him a glare, "Before you ask these are to help you face off against the future troubles that lie ahead of you in this mission, some devil's see these people as servants since that is what their made for but I know you wouldn't take to that well so I put in one last thing for you. Instead of the pieces having a feeling of subjugation I put in a feeling of comradery. People you can fight with side by side. To activate the pieces just hold it in your hand flow some of your reiatsu into it and just say what comes to mind. Try it out using the king piece on yourself."
Nodding his head Ichigo picked up the black king and flowed a small bit of his reiatsu into it making the outside glow red, closing his eyes Ichigo chanted, "I, Ichigo Shiba Kurosaki ask of thee to fight by my side as my comrade and together show the world a new beginning."
The piece the flowed towards his chest and sunk into his body. The only thing different about him was the king piece in his chest and a tattoo of a black skull (AN: Again the skull on the shinigami badge) on his upper forearm.
Kisuke smiled jovially at the war hero, "And with that you should be able to switch between your shinigami form and human form just apply your reiatsu to your new tattoo and should switch back and forth just fine."
Deciding to test it out Ichigo applied his reiatsu to the tattoo and discovered he could switch back and forth at will which would make things easier for him. Looking up at the shopkeeper Kisuke sighed out, "Your father knows all about this and has decided to give you one year off from school to gather the appropriate comrades for your pieces before you have to go back as a third year."
Nodding once more Ichigo asked, "What do you call these pieces and how do you know these people from the three factions?"
Kisuke smiled and replied, "I call them the Shinigami pieces, and I never gave you the true reason why the Great War stopped."
Ichigo looked at him confused and Kisuke continued, "The Great war was killing a lot of innocent bystanders in the human world and it was unbalancing the natural order so Soul Society stepped in sending in five captains that dealt so much damage to the factions that a truce was called and Soul Society was forgotten after a good five decades."
"Who were these captains that stopped three entire armies single handedly?"
Yoruichi answered this one, "They were Captain Commander Yamamoto, Captain of the eleventh division Kenpachi, Captain of the second division myself Yoruichi Shihōin, Captain of the tenth division your old man Isshin Shiba and Captain of the twelfth division Kisuke Urahara, and only Kisuke was able to make friends out the leaders."
Ichigo's eyes widened at this revelation.
To Be Continued
Thanks for reading the start of the edited version of this story. To my old readers I hope this start is a bit better as you can see I'm taking a few suggestions and using them. To any new readers I hope you'll enjoy this. Some of you might point out the flaw near ending about Kisuke, Yoruichi and Isshin being captains five decades ago. Its fiction just go along with it please. I tried to cover all my bases and not leave any holes. If I did I'm sorry and I'll try to cover them next time. For those wondering the evil pieces were a gift I was planning on giving Ichigo after he beat Riser in the original story. It feels great to write again and I apologize for my disappearance. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter so please Read, Review, Favorite and Follow. All flames will be used to melt the three and a half feet of snow outside my house.
AN: One more thing… I own no references I made haha
OH AND QUESTION FOR YOU ALL WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO MAKE THE NEXT CHAPTER ON HOW ICHIGO GETS MEMBERS FOR HIS PERRAGE OR NO? LET ME KNOW THROUGH REVIEW AND/OR PM ILL DECIDE WHEN I GET MY VOTES FROM YOU ALL!
I HAVE ALREADY DECIDED ON CHARACTERS FOR ICHIGO'S PEERAGE. BUT IF YOU WANT TO PUT IN YOUR TWO CENTS PLEASE DO. IF I LIKE WHO YOU HAVE MORE THAN WHO I HAVE LISTED THEN I WILL PUT YOURS IN AND GIVE YOU CREDIT. JUST SO YOU KNOW THIS IS A STONG PEERAGE AND THERE WILL BE CHARACTERS FROM OTHER SERIES IN IT.