A/N: Hey all, hell here! If any of you are also my MGLN readers, then I'm sorry for my absence. Life has been kinda interesting lately and I really haven't felt like writing at all. But I'll just be brief. Here's a stupid story for Bleach. I say stupid because I started this like 3 chapters before the manga ended (which should tell you something about how bad I am at this) and there's only a very small amount of plot. It's all non-canon, not even really speculative at the time, just things that I wanted to see. Like more Aizen. Hail Aizen-sama. This piece just exists for me to play with an OC. Really just to create the powers I'd like to have in the Bleach universe. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach and I'm still not really sure how I feel about its ending. Chad was freaking awesome though. So handsome.

Oh Captain, My Captain

"Captain!" The 13th division's 8th seat threw back the door and spotted the Captain stretched out on a mat on the floor. "Captain Kurosaki! Captain-Commander Kyouraku has called you to Sokyoku Hill. He says that the matter is of utmost importance! ...Captain Kurosaki...?"

A loud snore came from the figure on the office floor.

"Let me handle this." Another voice added, putting a hand on the 8th seat's shoulder.

"Ah, Vice-captain! I-I'll leave this to you then. Please excuse me." With a bow and a shunpo, the man was gone.

"Like father like son it seems... ICHIGO, WAKE UP RIGHT NOW!"

The vice-captain stomped full-force on the captain's stomach, who immediately sat bolt-upright, spewing blood.

"RUKIA, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME!?"

"LIKE YOU'D REALLY DIE FROM SOMETHING LIKE THAT, IDIOT! What are you doing lying around anyway!?" She tapped her foot in annoyance.

The orange-headed man flopped back to the floor, clutching at his stomach. Grimacing, he thrust a finger at the stack of papers on the desk above him. "I'm done, that's what! I finished everything so I took a break! You'd think that was a crime or something..."

"You... you finished? Well then... Maybe you're not so like your father after all. Actually, even Captain Kyouraku could learn something from that kind of diligence..."

"Rukia, did you come here just to attempt to assassinate me and then ramble on about work ethics?"

"Of course not. If you'd been awake, you would have heard."

Ichigo seized the edge of Rukia's shihakusho and pulled her down to the floor of the barracks where she fell unceremoniously. She sat up with a fierce glow in her eyes before catching his calm demeanor and returning to a dignified sitting position by his side. He was still stretched out, arms behind his head and eyes once again closed.

"I'm sorry. I know you've actually adjusted quite well to your duties as a captain despite the short amount of time. You've grown quite a lot Ichigo. That's why the Captain-Commander has requested your presence on Sokyoku Hill." Ichigo cracked an eye at hearing this. "There's a new captain candidate to be tested."

00000

The pair from the 13th division arrived at Sokyoku Hill to find Captain-Commander Kyouraku clad in his usual gaudy kimono and waving them over to where he stood towards the hill's edge. Beside him was another Captain whose back was to them, the symbol of division 4 clearly visible on their haori.

"Yo, Ichigo-kun! You made good time; over here!"

"Good morning, Commander." "Mornin, Kyouraku." Rukia and Ichigo greeted on their way over, he without her accompanying bow.

"Come on, Ichigo-kun. Would it kill ya to act like I'm in charge?" The Captain-Commander brushed at his hair like he didn't know what else he could do. He wasn't wearing his hat that morning.

"Sorry. Force of habit, I guess. What's-?"

"Ah!" The other captain exclaimed suddenly, as if they'd been engrossed with something off in the distance and hadn't heard the exchange till now. "Good morning, Captain Kurosaki." He turned calmly to face them. "Vice-captain Kuchiki."

There before them was a man with short brown hair and side-swept bangs that fell over his square-rimmed glasses. He gave them a bright smile and a wave like the Commander had.

Ichigo's skin crawled. He clenched his fist and caused a burst of reiatsu that made his haori rush out around him. With a glare, he bolted towards the man with enough pressure to crack the ground.

"Aiiiiizeeeeeeen!"

"C-Captain Kurosaki, what's the meaning of this?! Wait!"

Ichigo wasn't deterred when Aizen made to cover his face with his arms. He followed through with his swing until his fist collided with a barrier just inches from his target.

"Tch..." Aizen's shocked expression warped into a sneer. "Too rash."

His arms dropped to his sides and the barrier of reiatsu tripled in strength. Reiatsu and hot air rushed from the point of their collision, sending dust and debris flying out across the hill and shaking a large portion of Seireitei with the pressure. Ever so slowly, despite the increase of force from both sides, Ichigo's fist inched closer to his opponent.

"Rrrraaaaaaagggggggghhhhhhhhh!"

With a final push, Ichigo forced his way through Aizen's barrier and pressed his fist lightly into Aizen's chest where he held it as he met the other Captain's cold eyes, a victorious fire burning in his own.

"Nope! I can still touch you... Aizen!"

The intense pressure dissipated instantly and Aizen stared, intrigued, at the hand against his chest.

"Enjoy that smug look while you still can, Kurosaki Ichigo. I will out-match you before long. And when I do, your arm will be eradicated rather than stopped."

"Lookin forward to it."

"Idiot!" Rukia yelled as she and Captain Kyouraku returned from retreating away from the epicenter of the explosion of reiatsu. "I understand wanting to punch him, but you two can't do that at the risk of collapsing Seireitei every time!"

"Err well... we haven't yet. So we probably won't, right?"

"At least we held back," Aizen added with a tone that broke the facade of his pleasant demeanor.

Shunsui and Rukia both looked at them in exasperation. They shared a thought along the lines of, 'That's almost worse than Zaraki.'

Ichigo shrugged. "Anyway, Aizen! Lose the glasses. I can't stand you trying to look innocent! I think I hate it more than your arrogant look..."

"It's not innocence," he calmly crushed his glasses and swept back his hair, "It's merely for the sake of all the lesser shinigami who are actually foolish enough to feel safe when I don my old persona."

Rukia scoffed, "What? So you do it for their sake!?"

"Kuchiki... As the Captain of squad 4, it's my duty to care for the health of every member of the Gotei 13. Both physical and mental. Surely you understand that. You were one of my brightest pupils after all." He smiled again, a motion that looked even more terrifying once he'd exposed his true nature.

"You're still terrifying," she shuddered.

"Heh, I'm simply-"

"Hiding in plain sight?" Ichigo stretched out, growing tired of standing around without knowing what for. "Isn't that about right?"

"What a marvelously relevant turn of phrase. Perfectly in line with our new captain candidate. Captain-Commander?"

Shunsui cleared his throat before addressing Ichigo and Rukia. "He's not wrong. The candidate that we have today is... well unique is a bit of an understatement. He's a member of squad one. I met him when we all went out for drinks a couple days ago. I thought it was about time I got to personally know my new squad, you know? Nothing more than that! Ahaha!"

He tried to brush it off, but they all knew he was happy to have an excuse to drown himself in sake.

"And this man?" Rukia prompted.

"Yes yes! Well, after a few drinks I started talking about how we're in need of so many new captains. With Aizen back and Kurosaki, we're still down by three. That's when the guy beside me says-"

"What a coincidence! It just so happens that I've mastered bankai recently." All heads turn to the source of the new voice, a man of average height with mid-length silver hair in a ponytail and a loose strand in front of each ear. "Or something to that effect, wasn't it?"

Ichigo and Rukia looked at him intently before drawing two matching, blank expressions.

"Uh... who is he?"

Rukia squinted a little more. "He doesn't look at all familiar..."

"Right?!" Shunsui's monetary outburst quickly changed back to composure and he cleared his throat again. "I wasn't familiar with him either. In fact, most of the squad couldn't tell me much about him. He says he mastered bankai from going away to train for weeks on end."

Aizen scrutinized the silver-haired man further, "Did you confirm that?"

"Ah ha ha, weeell... He's such a low seat that nobody really notices when he disappears it seems..."

"I see..." The other three said.

"H-hey now!" The silver-haired man slumped forward with a sweatdrop, "It sounds really bad when you say it like that..."

"So then you gathered these two here," she indicated Aizen and Ichigo, "to officiate witnessing his bankai?"

"Yes and no," Kyouraku addressed the others, "Ordinarily that would be enough but no-one really knows who he is or what he's capable of so we're going to be doing something a little untraditional. Ichigo-kun! You'll be fighting him."

"'Me? How come?"

"Naturally I asked all the captains about this matter, but aside from yourself and Aizen, everyone was too busy... or refused."

He didn't even have to say that Byakuya and Kenpachi had been the ones to refuse.

"Ah so you're Captains Aizen and Kurosaki. That explosion earlier was from you two, wasn't it? That's pretty scary." The candidate spoke up.

"But why am I doing it?" Ichigo still wanted to know.

"Oh, right! Well let's just say that of the three of us your bankai is the... safest?"

Ichigo immediately understood. "Say no more. I'd be happy to face, uhh..."

"Ishimaru Masaki. Pleased to meet you."

"Masaki? My... mother's name was Masaki."

"I imagine she was a fine woman then."

"Ah! Sorry, I didn't mean to say that your name's-!"

"No no, it's quite alright! I know you meant no harm. So, shall we begin... Captain Kurosaki?"

00000

"I do hope this will be thoroughly interesting." Aizen said once he, Rukia and Kyouraku were all off to the side, the other two having take their positions.

"I think it'll be quite a show." The Captain-Commander's expression turned serious.

"Well, Ishimaru!" Ichigo stretched his arms before drawing his swords. "This may be a fight, but it's also an exercise. I'll let you go first."

"Why thank you, Captain Kurosaki." He drew his Zanpaku-to and tested his one-handed swing once, twice. "I hope you don't mind if I start with a warm-up. Hyyyaaaaaaat!"

Ishimaru sprung into battle with a high strike that Ichigo was ready for. His two swords closed over his head to block the strike and he attempted to kick the other man away only to have him vault off his extended leg and front-flip over him. Ichigo spun quickly around, swinging with both swords, but Ishimaru was just as fast with his block. Even with his one hand, he was able to press against the captain's two-fold strike. He flung his left hand outwards with a clenched fist. Expecting some sort of kido attack, Ichigo instinctively distanced himself with shunpo. From afar, he could see his opponent's hand pass harmlessly through the air.

Ichigo wondered at the strange smile on Ishimaru's lips. 'A feint...?'

"What was that?" Rukia's question wasn't really aimed at either of the two with her.

Kyouraku scratched at his chin, "Interesting..."

The two fighters continued their exchange of blows with intense focus. Ichigo was trying to get a read on Ishimaru's strange movements. He learned quickly that he was plenty strong, but even more agile. There were times when Ichigo lost track of his acrobatics, only able to stop some incoming attacks thanks to having a sword in each hand. Whenever he set himself to being on the offensive, it felt like Ishimaru would struggle to keep up. His off hand was held strangely up at his side like it didn't know what to do and anytime he was forced to block with two hands, their clash felt awkward and off-center, almost like both of his hands wanted to take control. One time Ishimaru pulled back from such a block with his sword in the wrong hand, tossing it back to his right with another odd smile. The onlookers had no doubt their candidate could hold his own, but his style seemed too sloppy to allow him to outpace Ichigo.

Rukia sighed, "Is it me or does he seem... rather bad?"

"He's terrible." Aizen's gaze was completely fixed on the battle. "Terrible at hiding."

"You saw it too." Kyouraku nodded. "Though he did say he likes to warm up. If he should drop this act..."

"Things will get much more interesting."

"Hey." Ichigo called to his opponent who'd just leapt back from a swing. "You feeling alright? Call me blunt, but you're not doing so well. I'm pretty good about feeling people's attitudes when I fight them. What I'm getting from you is a sort of confusion."

Ishimaru cocked his head to the side.

"I may not have gotten serious yet, but," He held up his pair of swords, "this is still a shikai. You won't last long without releasing your sword if I really go at it."

Ishimaru tipped back his head and laughed brightly. "Oh dear! Looks like I've been found out. I'm the one who said we'd do a warm up, yet I'm falling behind. I thought I could do better than this. To be honest, it's my first time fighting an opponent with two swords..." As he spoke, he sheathed his zanpaku-to and began slowly walking forward.

'Here it comes...' Ichigo thought.

"Sora to jōzan (empty and multiply), Nitoshiteichi."

Ishimaru drew his sword as he charged anew. Just like at the start of their fight, he went for an overhead slash that Ichigo caught with both blades.

"...while only using one of my own."

Ichigo looked down just in time to see Ishimaru's left hand close over the handle of another sword that had appeared in his scabbard. The captain barely had enough time to reach across with his shorter blade and stop the slash that was aimed at his waist. They sprung apart in a burst of reiatsu and began a flurry of attacks that wrung out with a clang of clashing metal at a frequency that can only be achieved by two dual-sworders locked in combat. Shallow cuts began to appear on each of their bodies as they worked to learn their opponent; Ishimaru the different lengths of Zangetsu's two blades and Ichigo the peculiar angles at which Ishimaru would swing his swords. After a few minutes of this close combat, they each jumped back a ways. They'd started to sweat from the effort, but their breathing was still even.

"Not bad."

"You're too kind, Captain Kurosaki."

"I don't get it though. Your power, your speed, they haven't really changed since you released your sword. Don't tell me all it does is make a second one."

"You wanna know? Here, take a look!"

Ishimaru flung his sword towards the orange-haired man who prepared instinctively to block it, but it sailed off to the right and landed a few feet in front of him. He looked it up and down. It looked like every average zanpaku-to before its release. The only special feature was that the guard was a figure-eight.

"Still can't tell? Maybe you need a closer look..."

This time he hurled his sword straight at Ichigo's face.

Rukia made like she was going to call out to him, but Aizen put his hand on her shoulder.

Ichigo smirked and moved with his famous speed, plunging his long sword into the dirt and catching the thrown sword with his bare hand. "Don't tell me that's all you... got?"

Blood dripped from the gash on Ichigo's cheek. As he'd lowered the sword that Ishimaru had thrown, there'd been another coming straight behind it. He'd only had enough time to turn his head to avoid being run through.

"Now now, this may be an exercise but it's also a fight," Aizen said. "We need to see the combat applications of his zanpaku-to. Subterfuge and all."

Ichigo looked between the zanpaku-to in the ground behind him and the one in his hand, taking note that the one to his side had disappeared. The sword in his hand was held upright and the guard didn't look so much like an eight anymore. Both blades vanished from existence as Ishimaru drew two more from his scabbard.

"Very good, Captain Kurosaki. People don't usually dodge the second one."

"So that's what it does."

"That's right. This is my zanpaku-to, Nitoshiteichi. That roughly means, two as one. It refers to the fact that my scabbard is just as important as my actual sword. Like you may have guessed, I can draw forth an infinite number of copies. But I'm limited to two at a time, as you just saw."

"I see..." Ichigo donned an excited grin and let his reiatsu roll off him in waves. "I hate to sound like Zaraki, but this is getting pretty exciting. Still... you probably shouldn't have told me your limits!"

Ishimaru smiled as well and hurled another sword at his opponent. Ichigo stopped it with a Getsuga Tenshō and their rapid exchange began anew. Their battle now consisted of a much greater use of shunpo as Ishimaru flung swords and drew new ones at unexpected times, and Ichigo fired Getsugas as his own range game. They were becoming more evenly matched, but the 13th Division captain was still winning when it came to power.

"Your zanpaku-to's trick allows you to move in unreadable ways, I'll give you that. The fact that you can choose when you erase your old sword and make another means that your opponent has to track your hand movements to anticipate your attacks, and you're pretty fast."

"You're too kind with your praise again, Captain."

"But it doesn't do anything for your power." Ichigo pointed his longer sword straight at the silver-haired man. "You're not gonna be able to beat me at that level."

"Power? In that case..." Ishimaru sheathed his second sword and swung the remaining one down to his side. "Ōku no kiki tan'itsu no burēdo (many handed single blade)."

Ichigo made a small cut in the air with his short blade, "Getsuga Tenshō."

The horizontal beam raced towards Ishimaru who gazed at it unfazed. He raised his sword and slashed the Getsuga in half with ease, shattering his blade in the process. Ichigo only showed his surprise for a moment. It was his weaker Getsuga after all. If that's all it took to break Ishimaru's sword, the fight wouldn't last much longer. This time he launched a Getsuga with his larger sword and again his opponent cut through it, shattering his blade. Ishimaru appeared behind him and swung, but Ichigo dodged. To his surprise, Ishimaru let go of his sword at the end of its arc and it shattered, his left hand already drawing forth a new blade.

"Is this better? By limiting myself to one blade, I explosively increase its power. In exchange, however, each one is limited to only one swing."

One would expect that such a tradeoff was impractical, but Ishimaru began driving his opponent back from the sheer force of each individual swing and the speed with which he drew his blades. That, combined with his unorthodox style of drawing his swords whichever way his hands found easiest at the time, causing him to alternate between a standard grip and backhanding, meant that it was all Ichigo could do to keep up.

He managed to make an opening just long enough to create a crossed Getsuga which Ishimaru found he couldn't wholly disband. He dodged it, but not without sustaining heavy damage on his right arm.

"You seem to be deserving of this... Bankai! Tensa Zangetsu!" A massive cloud of black reiatsu wavered and burst forth, revealing the 13th Division captain holding a large, white greatsword with a black center. A matching black chain looped from the front guard to a half-foot below the blade tip on the back. "Power is important, but it isn't everything." He began performing his bankai-enhanced shunpo in a circle around Ishimaru, leaving afterimages that seemed to all be talking at once. "Let's see you keep up with this. You might wanna unleash your bankai before I run you through!"

"Oh my. Ichigo-kun is really getting into this... I hope he doesn't kill our candidate."

"That idiot," Rukia shook her head.

Aizen continued with his calculating stare. "He doesn't seem very concerned. Fascinating."

Ishimaru tracked the many Ichigos rushing around him. "Speed is it? Very well then. Ōku no burēdo-tsuki katate (many bladed single hand)."

Immediately, Ishimaru began hurtling swords at Ichigo's afterimages, always drawing them out with his right hand. None of them found their marks, though Ishimaru gave no indication of caring, and they stuck in the ground at odd angles.

'What's he...?! They're not disappearing!'

"Correct." Ishimaru answered his thought, reading the misstep in his rapid circling. "In this form I can draw forth an infinite number of swords, but only with my right hand." He continued launching swords as he spoke until Sokyoku Hill had a division's worth of blades driven into it.

"How does that make you faster?"

"How, you ask?"

Ishimaru crouched forward, clutching at the dirt with his left hand and suddenly catapulting himself forward with it. He began zipping around the hill, slashing at Ichigo as he picked up the swords he'd spread around. They fought at high speed, Ichigo through the use of his bankai and Ishimaru by launching himself around with his off hand. He hurtled, spun, and vaulted off the ground by pulling himself with one hand and grabbing lain swords to strike with with the other. His attacks did indeed slow when Ichigo could drive him to an open spot where he was forced to pull a new sword from his scabbard, but that only caused him to start laying out new ones as he danced around the battlefield. At one point he even managed to grab Ichigo's shoulder as a vault point and launch a sword into his transformed shihakusho, not stopping him, but causing the garment to tear as he pulled away.

Ishimaru landed several feet away and reached to pull forth another sword only to find that his scabbard was missing. He turned quickly to see that Ichigo was holding it out in front of him.

"Impressive. By moving all your excess power into your left arm, you're able to propel yourself off surfaces and even your enemies to drastically increase your speed. But you slow down just before you launch again. Using my shoulder was careless."

"I see that."

"I've been thinking this whole time that your zanpaku-to's ability has a serious hole in it. If your opponent gets ahold of your scabbard, you're done for." He tossed it into the air and launched a full-power Getsuga Tenshō, turning it into dust. "Huh. I expected it to be more durable. Then again, I also expected it to be harder to take from you."

Ishimaru quietly walked over to one of his remaining swords and picked it up.

"Don't bother. If you hadn't noticed, I already tested breaking those," he gestured to several split blades behind him. "It's only a matter of time before I break what's left. A zanpaku-to in shikai may be able to be fixed, but having yours broken in battle means you've lost. It's too bad. I was pretty interested in that bankai of yours."

In the meantime, Ishimaru was holding his zanpaku-to in his left hand just like he would have if it were sheathed. "You're pretty slow, Captain Kurosaki. Calling me careless when you're the one who left me a sword..."

"Eh? What's that supposed to mean?"

"But you're not the first to make this mistake." His left hand clenched tightly on the naked blade. Suddenly he snapped his wrist back and shattered it. "Bankai... Nitoshiteichi Honpō burēdo (uninhibited blade)."

When his reiatsu cleared away, Ishimaru was no longer holding a standard katana. Nitoshiteichi had transformed into an ultra greatsword that he'd stuck into the ground, folding his hands over the pommel. It resembled a zweihander in its simple nature, but the blade was thicker than average. The infinity-shaped tsuba was replaced by a cross-guard composed of an infinity protruding on either side of the handle, all a pitch black. A third and much larger one composed the bottom section of the blade, leaving two openings in the thick sheet of metal and creating an unconventional pocket to which the sword's brilliant silver light seemed to be drawn.

"Interesting." The other two stirred at Aizen's sudden speech.

"You're actually interested?" Kyouraku's surprise was evident.

"This is the first of his techniques to be revealing in nature. That probably means he's hiding all the more."

"Hmmm..."

"So you're gonna start making those things now?!" Ichigo was already coming around Ishimaru's side with a Getsuga wrapped on his blade.

"I wonder about that..."

He met the strike with his transformed Nitoshiteichi and managed to somehow dissipate the energy, sending it shooting off in lances away from their collision. They got into an exchange of strikes that were much heavier and more powerful than their earlier flurries. The feeling that Ichigo got through his opponent's zanpaku-to was now one of calm certainty as they each swung with a two-handed style. Clearly this was the sort of style that Ishimaru was more accustomed to. They began to shunpo around rapidly again, even to the point that their onlookers had to work to track them. Ishimaru's bankai seemed to hold the same sort of speed he'd earlier been achieving with acrobatics, but Ichigo felt like his power was only marginally better than in shikai.

As they clashed and shouted he began looking for openings to launch Getsugas, but they didn't seem to be finding their marks. Enough debris and reiatsu was being kicked up from their scuffle that distant sight was nearly impossible and he could only tell that something was dissipating his waves. With a feint, he goaded Ishimaru into attacking and locked his sword firmly against Nitoshiteichi's cross-guard, preventing it from being swung. To his surprise, Ishimaru put his offhand through one of the blade's open loops as an additional handhold and slammed Ichigo away with all his might. The orange-haired captain was sent reeling backwards across the hill till he dug his short sword into the dirt to stop his skid. No sooner had he pulled it free and made a scratch in the air than Ishimaru had leapt high above him, sword drawn way back over his shoulder.

"Not this time... GETSUGA TENSHŌ!"

A crossed Getsuga sailed towards the captain candidate who swung his own sword in return. Making a giant arc, he allowed the sword's weight to cause him to spin around and swing again, horizontally, vertically, diagonally he swung in rapid succession and every arc he made released a burst of swords, all resembling his shikai, that shot out at matching trajectory with incredible speed. A plethora of them clashed with Ichigo's Getsuga and tore apart the once-unified energy, causing it to harmlessly dissipate.

Ishimaru immediately followed up with a thrust that sent a multitude of swords all flying in a row towards his downed opponent, but Ichigo revealed he wasn't out of tricks either. Using his bankai's unnatural speed, he seized the chain of his greatsword and began twirling it around himself with alternating hands, effectively making a cutting barrier that all the swords bounced wildly off of. He kept up this blade dance as he leapt forward again, forcing Ishimaru to retreat or be sliced to pieces. Tensa Zangetsu was leaving afterimages just as Ichigo had before, making it impossible to get projectiles through or read its movements.

While the flanked man did his best to avoid serious injury, Ichigo plotted his final strike. He created a Getsuga on the
whirling blade and, though he didn't release it, bits of its energy were sent off in small arcs just from the spinning force. Ishimaru had to shunpo around erratically to avoid all the unexpected attacks, and that's when the captain made his move. Finally allowing the energy to burst forth in a large bubble, Ichigo used the moment of the explosion to hide his disappearance. He appeared directly behind Ishimaru, attempting to run him through.

By what may have been only pure instinct, Ishimaru spun around to block the incoming attack. When the smoke cleared, they were locked together, the tip of Tensa Zangetsu stopped only by one of the loops of the infinity in Nitoshiteichi's blade.

Ichigo smirked. He pulled with all his might against the outside of the blade and shouted, "Getsuga Tenshō!"

The black energy arc tore its way out of his opponent's blade, splintering off a good section of it. One half of the blade's infinity symbol was completely blown away by the blast. Ichigo calmly stepped back from the exchange, but kept his guard up. The sword held together, but the structural integrity of it was definitely ruined. Still, that wouldn't stop him from making another, Ichigo thought.

A still moment passed as Ishimaru looked at the shattered blade, prompting the 13th division captain to speak up. "Well? Aren't you gonna make another of those?"

Ishimaru smiled, placing his zanpaku-to on the ground. "Oh, I can't." He didn't seem terribly off-put.

"You can't?! You mean to say I broke your bankai?"

"Looks that way, doesn't it?"

Ichigo stared at the silver-haired man intently. "I don't get you."

"Eh?"

"You've got plenty of skill and quite a few tricks up your sleeve. Your bankai just broke and you don't seem to care at all. What are you hiding?"

Ishimaru cracked his neck to either side and looked at his sword again. "I suppose now's as good a time as any to tell you, isn't it? A little bit about my sword. What is its ability, do you think?"

Ichigo pondered this a moment. "Replication? It also seems to increase your speed and your strength a little. And in bankai that replication stems from a larger sword rather than your scabbard."

"Ah, that's pretty good! Only partly true, however. Honestly, my scabbard is an essential part of my power. You put me at quite a disadvantage by destroying it."

"So you're saying you need it repaired to use your full power?" Ichigo cocked his head.

"Right again, but not completely. I need it, yes, but I don't need it repaired. Well, it's easier just to show you." With that, he held out his left hand, placing his right upon the wrist. "Mugen no kūkan o umidashimasu (bring forth the infinite void)."

As easily as that, his scabbard appeared in his outstretched hand. Ishimaru enjoyed the shocked expression Ichigo had on.

"You can-!?"

"That's not even the interesting part. Bankai... Nitoshiteichi Honpō saya (uninhibited scabbard)."

The three onlookers shared Ichigo's surprise, though Aizen didn't show it.

"Truly fascinating. He uses bankai on both the sword and the scabbard? How unusual."

"Two bankais!?" Rukia looked to the Captain-Commander for answers. "Is that even possible?!"

"No, I don't think it's really two. He's still lying... about his zanpaku-to. I wonder if Ichigo has noticed."

The orange-haired captain stared intently at his opponent. Once again, Ishimaru had thrown away all his weapons in order to switch to another trick. Hopefully, Ichigo thought, this would be the one where he put all his cards on the table.

"So what does this form do?" He was getting a little annoyed by being lead around.

Ishimaru outstretched his arms, one crossing over the other. Quickly he drew them back in a cross-slash, pulling forth two swords from thin air as he did so.

"In this form I can draw blades from thin air. No matter what you do, I can continue to produce new swords until I'm dead. There's no limit to their quantity or the number I can make at one time. My bankai is completely indestructible in that sense."

"I see. So what you're saying is... that's it. That's all you've got."

"...eh?"

"Let's take a minute, shall we?"

Ichigo stabbed his sword into the ground and leaned on it, partly for balance. They'd been going at it for awhile and were each bleeding from a plethora of different cuts. Ishimaru in particular had a large gash on his right arm that he decided to take the time to tie up with the torn sleeve of his shihakusho.

"Tell me something, Ishimaru... Where were you during the Quincy invasion?"

The Captain candidate had taken to sitting down cross-legged, lodging a sword into the ground on either side of him. "Where was I?"

"You may be flying under the radar, but someone as strong as you surely wouldn't have stayed out of that battle. Am I wrong?"

Ishimaru nodded thoughtfully, flattered by the captain's subtle compliment. "You're not wrong. Let's just say, there were a few of the Sternritter you never had to deal with."

Shaking his head in disbelief, Ichigo let out a loud chuckle. "I thought you'd say something like that. In that case... I have a request. Stop lying to me."

"Oh?"

"I've been getting all sorts of different feelings from your sword during this fight. At first your conviction felt lackluster, but you started getting more confident when you took out that greatsword. Yet something's been bothering me this whole time. No matter how serious you get, there's always this feeling of holding back. Like your zanpaku-to isn't in tune with you."

Ishimaru smiled brightly, looking up at his opponent. "You'd know all about that wouldn't you, Captain?"

Ichigo began knocking on the blade of his planted sword. As he did so, it started emitting a beautiful white reiatsu that began to shroud and mingle with his black shihakusho. A swirling reiatsu of ebony and ivory surrounded Ichigo, hiding him from the onlookers before it burst out over the battlefield and dispersed. When all was said and done, the Thirteenth Division captain stood before his opponent in a shihakusho now laced with flows of white. His left eye now had a pitch black iris and like-colored markings ran down from his forehead to form a dark circle on his chest. A pointed, ivory hollow horn protruded from the left side of his head above his ear.

"Yeah. I've got some idea about it." Ichigo stretched his neck like the transformation took some getting used to. "You say you beat the Sternritter. Like hell you did. The Quincy's upper echelon wouldn't have been taken down by someone at your current level. So either stop hiding and get serious...," he swung his sword down to his side and cleaved into the hilltop with a paper-thin Getsuga without even calling its name, "or you're gonna die right here."

Ishimaru was still sitting between his swords. "Ara ara! He's gotten quite scary, Nijuichi-chan (he calls her this because her name contains the numbers 2 and 1)."

"What do you expect when you insulted him?" His zanpaku-to answered, drawing him to the world within himself.

"Oh, come on. It wasn't as bad as that. I didn't-"

"You didn't consider his power properly! You insulted him by fighting him when you had no chance of winning. He's stronger than you, Ishimaru."

The word 'sigh' floated out from between the amalgamation of words that formed Masaki's lips.

The silver-haired man had quite an unconventional space to call his inner world. It consisted of nothing but a large open field, or at least that's what he knew it to be. Rather than a landscape, there was only black space around. The entirety of the world didn't so much exist as it was defined. The ground was composed of the word 'earth' hundreds of millions of times, and out from it sprang blades of the word 'grass.' Everything was merely a word-art version of an image, no color beyond the white letters that composed it all. He and the woman in front of him were similarly composed, both of words for what they were and what defined them. His body, for example, was made up of items like 'shihakushou,' 'chest,' and 'torso;' but also 'shinigami,' 'soul,' and 'reiatsu.' The woman standing before him was the same, but her prominent terms were 'zanpaku-to,' 'partner,' and 'friend.' Her hair was a long chain of 'pink' that reached down to the small of her back. She walked toward the spot where he had appeared until she was gazing straight down into his eyes, usually so full of 'strength' but now reading 'uncertainty;' her own were colored with 'worry.'

"Using my last name, eh? You must be serious then."

"You're being too hard on yourself, Ishi-kun." She tried to lighten her scolding just a little. "He's a Captain. You can't expect to beat him like this."

He bowed his head and sat silently at her feet for a pause. "But I gave it everything I had... There's nothing more I can do no matter how hard I try. Is this..." he stared at his hand where 'limit' acted as the structure for his palm and each of his fingers, "really all I'm capable of...?"

Nitoshiteichi knelt down on the 'grass' and took his hand in her own. The top of it read 'comfort.' "Maybe it is. But so what? It isn't our limit Masaki. We're still capable of much more."

"Nijuichi-chan..."

'Shhh,' her finger over his lips read. "You've more than proven yourself. You've earned the power I can give to you. So use it. You did promise me, after all. Do you plan on breaking that promise?"

His eyes shifted to 'defiance' and 'conviction.' "Not a chance. If we're gonna become a captain, let's show them what we're capable of."

"Then you know what to say, don't you?"

"...I grew up in East Rukongai," he said, though it wasn't Nitoshiteichi he was talking to. Once more he was on the battlefield, facing Ichigo. He stood as he spoke. "71st district. Not the worst of them, but far from the best."

"It must have been rough." Ichigo wasn't fazed by his sudden exposition.

Masaki nodded. "I was nothing. I had no-one. There were a few months where I questioned if I'd even survive. So I trained as hard as I could to get stronger. Every day I pushed myself to my limit. I didn't want glory, or power, didn't want to crush everyone in my path. I just wanted the strength to survive. And because of that strength, I got recruited by the Gotei 13. Before I knew it, I'd been given a zanpaku-to and I just felt liked I'd... cheated."

He raised an orange eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"My power was suddenly increased without any work on my part. I was given a means to greater power that I didn't feel I'd earned or deserved. A sword that would attune itself to me and amplify my abilities through itself? It seemed like a way out of personal training."

"But it's your power!" Ichigo interjected. "You and your zanpaku-to are one, you share your power. It's born through the process of working together."

"Yes... and no. It's true that your zanpaku-to's power comes from within you and is part and parcel with your soul, but saying that you're one being isn't quite right. They're very much their own entity with their own thoughts and goals. You and your zanpaku-to are bound to differ in motive at some point. That's the way it is between two people."

Ichigo had to nod gravely, visions of an underwater battle with Tensa Zangetsu flashing through his mind. "Yeah... I know exactly what you mean."

"And it's with that in mind that I approached becoming a Shinigami. I didn't want power to simply be handed to me. I wanted to rely on my own strength as much as possible. Luckily, Nitoshiteichi listened to my request. I wished for her only to give me the tools to succeed and swore I'd do the rest. So she bestowed upon me a scabbard and as many swords as I could possibly want. I promised that's all I would need. The rest is all my own strength."

"All your own...? You mean to say that rather than your bankai making you stronger and faster...?"

"It doesn't do anything of the sort. What changed was that I stopped holding back."

Ichigo stared at the curious man through his mismatched eyes, trying to glean just what exactly there was behind his power. "That's pretty impressive. To think that you could keep up with the speed of my bankai just from your own ability. So the truth of your zanpaku-to is its multitude and indestructibility? Because I'm guessing that you still have some way of making another of those greatswords. Basically you'll always have a weapon to wield as long as you draw breath. And that's it."

"Your assessment is correct up till the end. I will always have a weapon, but that's not it as you say."

The three on-lookers all leaned in a little closer to the action, admittedly anxious to hear the secret of Masaki's power.

"In exchange for fulfilling my wish, I had to make another promise. One to Nitoshiteichi herself. I promised that if I was ever unable to win with just my own strength and the tools she provided me, then I'd have to let her help me."

"Eh? Help you?"

"That's right. Because I have indeed been lying this whole time. 'Nitoshiteichi...' that name does not refer to my sword and scabbard. It refers to me and her. My true power only comes from giving myself to Nijuichi-chan."

He reached for the sword at his side, but instead of a handle, his fingers closed around the hand of a woman with a cascade of pink hair who was kneeling at his side. Everyone knew who she must be, but they couldn't understand how she'd appeared there so easily and so suddenly.

Masaki read their minds. "She's always been here."

He helped her to her feet and they took each other in their arms like lovers. She gazed into his soul as she spoke, "What would you have of me?"

He leaned towards her ear, but his whisper carried throughout the battlefield. "Ban...kai. Nitoshiteichi Mugen no Tsukaite (Two as One Wielder of the Infinite).

Reiatsu burst forth from their embrace. It consumed them entirely and fluxed outwards across the battlefield. It was nothing like Ichigo's, dark and consuming in nature. It filled the space around them without overcoming it and rather than dark it was silvery with a subtle pink undertone. It calmed down suddenly and drifted lazily to the ground like a fog clearing away.

Masaki Ishimaru was standing on the hill when the clouds of reiatsu dissipated. There was no giant entity standing with him, but he had clearly changed. His shihakusho looked the same as ever, but the hair flowing down the back had gotten longer. Now the pitch black of the robe framed Nitoshiteichi's beautiful pink which still held a silvery tint from Ishimaru. The locks fell to the small of his back and were bound just above the bottom. And his eyes. One of his brilliant, emerald orbs had been replaced by one of her cool sapphires, each emitting a fierce glow. Thrusting out his hands, palms raised to the sky, Ishimaru wrenched them upwards and summoned an array of his shikai sword, not from the ground but up out of thin air. They came up to his chest level and began orbiting around him in a circle, perfectly spaced.

Ichigo took one look at his transformed opponent and let out a low whistle. "Now that's putting all your cards on the table. So, are you finally ready to...? Eh!?" From out of nowhere, an array of swords appeared in formation and attempted to impale him from behind. Ichigo sensed it at the last second and was able to disband them with a Getsuga, but they stilled sailed past him in all directions, flying back towards Masaki, but halting in the air before they could reach him. "Where did that come from?!"

"Ara ara... Buredo Kabe (Blade Wall)? Sorry, Captain Kurosaki. Looks like she doesn't want to wait any longer. I'll have to get serious too..."

Masaki stretched out his hand and the dozens of blades that hung in the air all snapped to attention and aimed there points back at their opponent. Masaki flicked his wrist to send them all hurtling towards Ichigo who immediately prepared to cut them all out of the air. His fused form gave him terrifying power, allowing him to swing his giant Tensa Zangetsu around as easily and nimbly as he once did with his old Bankai. He met every one of Masaki's launched swords blade for blade and sent them rocketing towards Sokyoku Hill where he knew they wouldn't stick for long. He had to make it over to Masaki and fight him on his own terms, not with a whirlwind of swords flying out of thin air. That was much easier said than done though. It wasn't a simple whirlwind like Senbonzakura Kageyoshi, it was an orchestrated array of blades. They swung and moved about in packs or in walls that made them act like one enormous blade and made navigating them incredibly dangerous. The air was a maze of zanpaku-to, a literal box of Masaki's swords that reformed just as quickly as it was cut away.

"Buredo Kabe Ori (Blade Wall Weave)," Ichigo could hear from somewhere off to his side.

He was getting fed up with this run-around. He sent out Getsuga crosses effortlessly, wildly launching enough to break up the bladed prison long enough to spot his opponent and charge over to him. His heated swing was met by a pack of swords that were orbiting around Masaki, holding him off with a saw-like motion. His pink-haired opponent took hold of one of the blades from the orbit and used it to stave off Ichigo's push. All the other blades that had been circling him proceeded to pour into the one he held in his hands, melding back into his elegant greatsword, this time with a pink flush of energy in the pockets of the infinity. Ichigo let out a shrill hollow scream. He may have largely had control over the being inside him, but he couldn't entirely hold him back during the excitement of a battle. He howled and stretched his neck to the sky as he pushed ever harder against his opponent's defense and flung his left hand out to the side. A Cero formed at his curled fingertips and he thrust it past Masaki's blade and against his stomach. Rather than attempting to stop the attack, Masaki watched it happen, meanwhile pressing is own off-hand against the pockets on his blade. As the Cero burst forth, two swords shot out of the holes of his greatsword. The opponents were hurled apart at break-neck speed, Masaki rag-dolling out over the hilltop and Ichigo being pinned down to it by two blades, one through his chest and one his stomach.

He howled again, cracking the swords with his bare hands and rising to his feet, blood seeping down his back from the wounds. He picked up Tensa Zangestu just in time to bat away another volley, this time of the greatsword Nitoshiteichi. Masaki hadn't even stirred from where he landed, but still Ichigo had to blaze a path to his downed body. "Incredible! To think you can put up this kind of a fight even while you bleed out on the ground!"

A sword clipped him on the shoulder as he charged. "Who said I was bleeding out?" But the voice came from behind him.

Ichigo spun around to see his opponent's sword coming, instinctively grabbing it with his open hand. His hollow-powered half had no trouble stopping the blade, but he didn't understand where the man had come from. He cast a quick glance over his shoulder. The body was indeed gone. "When did you-?!"

"When? You seem awfully caught up on when I do things. Have you not noticed all the swords surrounding you? And surely you've noticed they move without my say-so. Why, there's another coming for your sword-hand right now..."

Like lightning, Ichigo moved, planting Tensa Zangetsu into the earth and seizing his opponent by the wrist. Through superior strength and surprise, he forced his arm into the path of the oncoming sword, but was shocked by the results. The blade passed harmlessly, ghost-like even, through Masaki's arm and kept sailing.

"You thought I might cut myself? You still misunderstand, Captain. Allow me to say this as clearly as possible."

"I am not Masaki Ishimaru." The voice came from behind and he could feel cold steel against his neck. "Not currently."

Ichigo knew his eyes weren't fooling him. The man he'd been fighting this whole time was still directly in front of him. But somehow there were two. He didn't move. He didn't fear the blade, but he wanted answers. "Then who are you?"

"Masaki and his zanpaku-to together are without equal in number, together... Mugen no Kukan o Umidashimasu (Bring Forth the Infinite Void)." All around Ichigo, the scattered swords became copies of Masaki and each one summoned two greatwords. They spoke as one, the sound enough to shake the hilltop, "I am Nitoshiteichi."

Ichigo was silent. His shorter hair didn't allow him to hide his eyes behind his hairline anymore, but they were closed and pensive. "Heh... heh heh heh... AHAHAHAHAHA! Maybe I really don't have complete control over this form yet! Coz something inside me... JUST GOT REALLY EXCITED!"

All over Sokyoku Hill went up pillars where Reiatsu was amassing, pink-silver beams of light all surrounding one black and white (though more black at the moment) pillar that surged up into the sky.

"Captain-Commander!" Rukia looked on at the scene in bewilderment. "If this keeps up, they're liable to destroy all of Seireitei!"

Kyouraku watched as Ichigo prepared a Gran Rey Cero on his horn and nodded thoughtfully. "They do seem to have cut a little too loose. Aizen?"

"What? Stop them from destroying it? If I must..." He took out his zanpaku-to and held it downwards in his grip. Upon dropping it to the ground, it stuck there. "Bankai. Genjitsu no sai teigi (Reality redefining) Kyoka Suigetsu."

The ground beneath the blade turned black and began to spread outwards to consume the entirety of the hilltop. It stretched outwards in a flat line and then up into the sky until all that existed was an enormous black box that stretched a few miles or so across.

"This isn't exactly what I had in mind. It also makes it really hard to see." Kyouraku squinted into the blackness.

Aizen could be heard letting out a bored sigh. The entire box turned white. They took note of the fact that Ichigo and the army of Masaki's hadn't stopped fighting for a moment during the changes.

"Why didn't you just stop them from fighting?" Rukia chided. "A giant box seems rather unimpressive from a man who claims to be a god."

"The only request was that I keep them from destroying Seireitei. Don't try to tell me you don't want to see how this plays out. Furthermore, this isn't a box. We aren't in Seireitei anymore. What you see before you is the full extent of a dimension I set up just for their battle. Where we are now didn't even exist until mere moments ago." He sighed in exasperation, "But if you insist on insulting me..." The space flashed black for a split second before settling into a gigantic, open field with impressively lush greenery.

"There. That should be a sufficient battlefield."

Aizen returned his attention to the fight as if he hadn't just warped all of reality while Kyouraku and Rukia exchanged a look that said, "At least he couldn't do that when we fought him."

Back on the battlefield, things has reached a peak amount of chaos. Greatswords and Getsugas and copies of Masaki were flying in every direction. Ichigo's hollowfied regeneration was working overtime as he was cut and impaled from all sides, but he was far from being backed into a corner. He slashed through copy after copy of his opponent, some taking more hits than others. At first a full powered swing hadn't been quite enough to eliminate one but the skirmish had dragged on to the point that they would dissipate just from a good punch. While one copy of Masaki was going around with his orbiting blades directing the others, always switching to a different copy if he got destroyed, Ichigo was a whirlwind of destruction, grabbing clones by their limbs and hurling them into each other to destroy them. He launched Ceros in every direction from his horn, picking off all the Masaki copies with animalistic abandon.

Finally Masaki had stopped making copies and they fought one on one again. Ichigo had stolen one of Masaki's greatswords and the other man was either incapable of voiding it or content to let him keep it. Whichever the case, they beat upon each other's steel, dual greatswords ringing out over the field like a thunderstorm, until they were both panting heavily from the exertion. Four swords were locked in a push between the two warriors with neither side giving ground until the candidate spoke at last.

"You... win... Captain..."

They each sprung back a foot from their collision and fell to one knee, swords planted for balance.

"What... already?" Ichigo laughed between panting. "It was just getting fun!"

"Speak for yourself, Captain! You're running me ragged! Hahaha!"

Ichigo sat down with a heavy flop and looked at his opponent's sword in his hand. "You put up one hell of a fight. So why do I win? Switching through copies means you never accrue any damage..." He walloped Nitoshiteichi with his hollowfied arm and it held fast, ringing out a bright tone, "and you've still got swords. What am I missing?"

"Would you release your bankai?"

"Ehhhh?!"

"Oh please, Captain Kurosaki. This isn't a battle so I'm not out to kill you!" He chuckled. "I couldn't if I wanted to. That's what I want you to see."

"Hmmm... Alright, you have a point."

With a deep breath, Ichigo let all his power flow out of him, his hollow, his bankai, and when he finished, he was sitting on the ground with his two Zangetsus in front of him.

"Now what?"

"Now take the small one and cut me." Masaki was standing with his arms outstretched, waiting for the blow.

"Just like that...?" The orange-haired Captain was skeptical as he stood.

"Just like that. Smallest cut you can."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow but gave a light swipe across the man's chest. Immediately the copy shattered and Masaki formed a new one from the remaining swords.

"You see? There's nothing wrong with my sword, and I can still make more...," he did so to prove his point, "but they're frail as glass. I can go on like this for a week if I had to, but I'd never be able to best you. Our power has been stretched too thin."

Ichigo nodded, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "What's to stop me from just getting rid of all of you first?"

In response, Masaki pointed way out in the distance where it could just be made out that one of his swords was sticking into the dirt over a mile away.

"Isn't that kind of like cheating?" Ichigo smirked.

The other man only shrugged. "I like to think of it as a survival tactic. And if it makes you feel better, you're the first one that's ever driven me to this level of caution. In fact, I even had to watch us from the over there in order to stay ahead of your movements."

He gestured to the sidelines where there were four people watching them, one of which was a copy of Masaki who waved at them both with a smile. Then he vanished, and Ichigo looked back at his opponent, mid-length silver hair and green eyes back in place. At his side was a scabbard with a blade like they'd never been shattered several times each.

The world flashed white and suddenly they were all back on Sokyoku hill. Rukia, Kyouraku, and Aizen (sheathing his sword) all began to approach as Ichigo clapped his hand on the candidate's shoulder and gave him a hearty grin. He'd already read the Captain-Commander's expression.

"C-Captain Kurosaki?"

"Captain Ishimaru," Masaki's eyes lit up. "Thank you for the battle." Ichigo bowed to his opponent. "Let's get you a squad."

Masaki returned his bow earnestly. "Yes, sir!"

A/N: And that's that. I don't plan for anything else to come out of this, so that's where it ends. Yeah, I gave Aizen a bankai. Sue me! I wanted something so powerful he'd never even use it in combat. I like to think he would find it boring to just, say, remove someone's heart with the wave of his hand. So instead, I have him as the head of the healers division. What better way to heal than just rewriting reality? Orihime does it all the time. Now, is this at all realistic? Of course not! But I love Aizen so I wanted to have some fun. Anyway, let's see if I can get back into this writing thing. After all, this wasn't my longest absence by a long shot. Till next time.