Completely and utterly. At the hands of Yhwach, Ichigo Kurosaki had been crushed. His will broken. His sword shattered. And his spiritual energy absorbed. He had nothing left, and the familiar crushing feeling of despair washed over him. He felt empty; blank. Ichigo's body lay there, listless and without the will to budge.
It was raining.
He knew that now.
Yhwach's laughter thundered throughout the Wahrwelt, and a black shadow gushed from his being. It flew upwards with abandon, spreading throughout the dimension that once housed the Soul Palace. This was not only a display of power, it was an Auswählen of titanic proportions. Down below, the Quincy were rapidly losing their power and dying — holy beams of judgement striking the remaining Sternritter — returning what had been given to them by Yhwach to Yhwach.
"All eventually returns to me," Yhwach said smoothly. "This is farewell then, Ichigo. As of now, I no longer have a need for you, or any of my other children, the Sternritter. Now, you need only sit back and watch. I will bring ruin to everything; the Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, the World of the Living; even Hell is under my thumb." Yhwach's voice was laced with triumph, and his thoughts turned to his victory. All six realms belong to me, now.
A swirling portal had opened behind the progenitor of the Quincy, opening into a vast nothingness. It was this nothingness that would lead him to his victory. As he turned towards the portal, the clatter of steps on tile alerted him to new presences. With the resignation of a king made to converse with the common riffraff, Yhwach turned to face them and saw the faces of Renji Abarai and Rukia Kuchiki, two of Ichigo's closest comrades. He sighed.
"This must be some kind of insult," he said, "for common bugs like this to persist in following me. But perhaps I should commend you instead? Pursuing me, even when your bodies are in such states of disrepair; the Shinigami certainly don't send cowards." Smiling, he placed a hand into the portal. "Can you take another step, Rukia Kuchiki? Renji Abarai? If you can, by all means, come and take my head. I am nothing if not magnanimous. This gate, I leave open for the lot of you. Pursue me at your leisure, and I'll reward you with the kind of death only I can provide.
I shall find the future — that single, irrevocable moment in time — when you are at your greatest amount of joy, and I shall methodically slaughter each and every one of you. Please, indulge in your happiness, but mark my words. And in that moment, you will remember my shadow, with its looming presence, for the rest of eternity." Yhwach stepped forward on this ominous note into the portal, those behind him forgotten.
"Don't you even try it, bastard!" As the Quincy Emperor's form began to fade away, Renji pulled what remained of his strength, and thrust Zabimaru forward. The sword elongated, stretching forward with the attempt to rend Yhwach asunder.
Ichigo heard Renji's battle cry, but it felt like it was worlds away. His thoughts bubbled up to the surface, and they were full of nothing but despair. Renji...don't...don't bother...it's pointless now...
An explosion followed, as Zabimaru collided with Yhwach, it was split in half. The explosion was followed by a shrill screeching, with metal shattering and screaming. Zabimaru himself was screaming in pain, and Renji could feel it. The pieces of his Shikai lay scattered on the ground, Renji's eyes opened wide. Yhwach's hand followed the rest of his body into the portal, and he completely vanished from view, leaving Ichigo's party alone.
Ichigo wounded, his will broken.
Orihime beaten and battered on the ground, her powers unable to restore the destroyed Tensa Zangetsu. She gazed morosely at the broken Zanpakutō, unable to form the words of apology she wanted to express to Ichigo. I can't restore Tensa Zangetsu... she thought, her body weakly responding. Forgive me...Kurosaki-kun...because of me...you can't fight anymore...
The Substitute Shinigami had not budged since Yhwach had thrown him unceremoniously to the ground. He wouldn't speak, and he felt no urge to even stand. The rain was a deluge now, but stopping it was pointless. Yhwach had won. His powers were gone, and it was hard to determine which was more shattered, his Zanpakutō, or his will. In the midst of his depression, he felt something grab his arm. It was a thin hand, but he barely registered it, and it threw him against a pillar.
Ichigo let his body move, but he himself put up no resistance. His eyes moved tiredly up to see just who had flung him; without any registered surprise, he saw that it was Rukia. "Rukia...I..." he said weakly, but she cut him off.
There was the sound of metal cutting air, and Rukia raised the broken Tensa Zangetsu towards Ichigo. Her hand on the hilt trembled, and her eyes swam with a mixture of emotion and grief. "Who...who the hell are you?!" Her voice produced a kind of emotion Ichigo didn't think possible, and that, before anything else, jolted him back into reality, his eyes wide. "I don't know who you are, but you aren't Ichigo Kurosaki! That man warred against all of Soul Society to save me! He invaded Hueco Mundo for the sake of his friend! To protect us all, he sacrificed his strength! And he promised he would help us! That man, that Ichigo Kurosaki is nothing like the miserable coward I see right now!"
Ichigo felt his body tense. Rukia's words were driving into his skull, bringing him back to awareness syllable by syllable.
"Will you let something as useless as fear defeat you, Ichigo?! The Ichigo I know would cast off the chains of despair and force himself to fight back! He wouldn't falter here! Ichigo swore to protect everything that was important to him — is this how you'll do it?! Lying there motionless like a scared child?!"
Coward. Scared child. Is that...really me? Is this really all the resolve I have?
Rukia's expression softened, if only a little, as she saw her words begin to take effect. Firmly gripping Zangetsu, she spoke again, determined to get the message through to him. "There is only one enemy and one of you — so what's there to be afraid of?!"
Ichigo jolted. These words were...identical to words said to him long ago. Words spoken by the spirit who had claimed to be Zangetsu, who Ichigo recognized as Zangetsu now. As Rukia spoke, he could practically hear the old man's voice, and see his form shrouding Rukia herself.
"Abandon your fear! Look ahead! Move forward! Stand up! Show me who you are! Ichigo!"
On instinct, Ichigo's hands moved forward. They gripped Rukia's, and the hilt of his sword, as they had done years ago, when she'd given him her Shinigami powers. She relinquished the blade into his hands, and Ichigo crouched, placing a hand on the shattered fragment. He knew who he was now. He had faltered, and given in to despair, but Rukia had pulled him out once again. Who he was — he motioned for the other half of Zangetsu to come to him, affixing the two broken halves together — was clear now.
"I am Zangetsu!" With a cry, Ichigo slid his hand along the flat edge of his blade. Black and gold energy warped around the sword, and erupted in a violent torrent. Everyone present was forced backwards, but Ichigo didn't budge as he felt power flood his body. Had despair blinded him to its presence before? Yhwach hadn't taken it all — he couldn't take all of Zangetsu, because Zangetsu and Ichigo were one and the same.
The energy died down, and Ichigo was kneeling on the ground, his sword piercing the ground. Tensa Zangetsu itself was barely different, merely the colours swapped. The blade was a shimmering black, and the interior of the sword was white. The chain was reattached, and there was no hint it had ever been shattered. Within the deepest recesses of his heart, Ichigo felt joy. And twice over.
The clouds had cleared.
Rukia looked on with a smile. There he is. That's the man I know. The Ichigo Kurosaki who can surpass anything!
Ichigo Kurosaki stood on his own two feet, and felt a shift in his spiritual pressure. Before he made it fully to his feet however, he felt a blade slash at his back. With a gasp, Ichigo turned to see Kūgo Ginjō and Shūkurō Tsukishima standing behind him, Ginjō's blade freshly swung.
"Ginjō...!" Ichigo snarled. "What the hell do you think you're doing, you bastard?"
"Oh be quiet," replied Ginjō shortly. "I'm doing you a favor. What I just did...was impart some of my Fullbring spiritual energy into your body. Look at your sword. That should be enough to get a response out of him."
He looked at his sword, as saw that white was encroaching upon the black once more. Oh, I see how it is...you're awake already? He grinned, and let the additional power flood his body. Black and golden spiritual energy flooded the Wahrwelt. It applied pressure to the Wahrwelt, but not enough to break it. As it dissipated, Ichigo's form came back into full-view, and it was only the slightest shock to Rukia and Renji.
"Ichigo...what...is that?" Renji gasped.
His Hollowfication...it's evolved! Rukia noted, eyes wide.
"With that...consider our debt repaid," Ginjō said, smirking.
Standing before them was Ichigo, but Ichigo as neither of them had ever seen him before. The left side of his face and neck had changed; jutting out from the side of his head from a long, forward-facing horn, with with black strips extending from its tip toward the centre. Ichigo's left eye inverts in color with a black sclera and yellow pupil, he has dark marks running down his face and along his neck, towards his chest, where a Hollow's hole had opened up.
"This is the result of disrupting the careful balance of my power set," Ichigo replied to Renji. "I can't normally use this at will...but Zangetsu is already awake right now." Walking towards Orihime, Ichigo knelt down, lending her a hand. "Inoue...can you heal us?"
"Kurosaki-kun...?"
"It won't do any good to go in half-cocked...even a little bit, please..."
Uryū Ishida, Sternritter "A", was running pell-mell up the steps to the Wahrwelt. He'd just come from the conclusion of his battle with Jugram Haschwalth, the Sternritter Grandmaster, and his former superior. The latter had fallen due to what Uryū dryly would have considered divine intervention, had it not come directly from Yhwach himself. Regardless, the Auswählen had done its job, and Jugram had been stripped of power.
And yet, he, Uryu Ishida, was once again untouched. Just as he had been when Yhwach performed the Auswählen and stole his mother's Quincy powers. To this day, he had no idea what made him immune to the Auswählen, and he wasn't sure if even Yhwach knew. The latter had thrown such caution to the wind, and even granted him the letter "A".
His spiritual awareness kicked in, and he felt two powerful spiritual energies approaching him. Reacting on instinct, Uryū Ishida turned, and backstepped. An arrow split the air, descending upon him and striking the ground.
"Take that with you!"
Uryū's head snapped upward, and he saw the forms of two people he recognized quite clearly; Ryūken Ishida and Isshin Kurosaki. The two were standing on a pillar above Uryū, Ryūken holding the proverbial smoking gun in his hand, making it clear who had discharged that Heilig Pfeil. "Ryūken...and Kurosaki's father?! But...why are you here?!"
"I don't have a special reason," replied the elder Ishida. "I'm merely here to deliver that arrowhead to you."
At the mention of an arrowhead, Uryū looked down and saw a glint of metal at the tip of a now fading stream of spiritual energy. Upon closer inspection, it was gleaming silver.
"When the Auswählen is used upon a Quincy, and their powers are stolen, there is a chance that a blood clot of pure silver will form in their bloodstreams. This inevitably results in their death." His expression darkened as he continued, and Uryū knew that Ryūken was thinking of his mother; Uryū's thoughts drifted there as well. "I...collected...that Silver and forged this arrowhead."
Collecting the silver...so that's what Ryūken was doing back then... Uryu looked meaningfully at the silver arrowhead in the ground. The very silver from his mother's body would now be a weapon.
"Sōken once told me that the silver formed by the Auswählen is of a special make, and is referred to as 'Still Silver'," Ryūken elaborated. "It is never meant to be returned to Yhwach, but if the Still Sliver enters his bloodstream, it can, for only an instant, shut down his powers completely. You, son, are the one who should fire this arrow!"
Uryu knelt down and picked up the arrowhead.
This is our endgame.
Soul Society, In Ruins
Yhwach's portal slipped open, spreading into a wide circle. The man stepped into the ruins, breathing in the air of the Soul Society that had been lain to waste by him. It was time to start here, with this dimension.
"Well, if this isn't a sight," said a voice which attracted Yhwach's attention — the former having thought everyone was dead. Yhwach turned to see a figure sitting, bound to a chair. Clad in black, with tousled brown tresses and a gentle complexion, was the man hated almost as much as he by all of Soul Society. "I suppose now is as fitting a time as any. I didn't expect guests, and yet here we are. Welcome, Yhwach — to my Soul Society."
Words couldn't possibly describe the elation Yhwach felt at this moment. After all the spent fighting Ichigo in the Wahrwelt, he was confronted by an opponent with some real backbone, and the thought of it made an immense grin spread from ear-to-ear over his shadowed face. The Emperor's first instinct was one of violence, and he let loose a torrent of spiritual energy that erupted into a wide arc.
In the ensuing explosion, Sōsuke Aizen stepped out of the blast, now completely rid of that blasted chair which had confined him for so many years. "I must admit, seeing you here is interesting," said Aizen, speaking as if enduring such an attack was as easy as the morning tea. "When I had last checked, you were high above us all, battling up in the Wahrwelt. Was Ichigo Kurosaki stronger than you anticipated?"
"Such an interesting statement from someone like you," replied Yhwach, still visibly amused. "Was it not you who was soundly defeated by Ichigo Kurosaki?"
Aizen's eyes visibly narrowed. There was an opening, right now, that Yhwach had missed, but he had not. "Regardless, I am grateful to you. You see, that haphazard attack of your's managed to destroy that blasted chair." Spreading his arms wide, his spiritual pressure filled the area. "Freed from those shackles, I am now perfectly capable of stopping you."
"Isn't that rich?!" Yhwach's laughter boomed. "You, the traitor, would stand in my way for the sake of the Soul Society? That's hardly characteristic of you, Sōsuke Aizen! Attempting to halt my revolution certainly could not be beneficial to one such as you!"
"Hardly," replied Aizen easily. "I'd say it's quite beneficial to me. From the very beginning, my only goal has been to rend asunder those who would try to control me."
Yhwach's expression said more than words, yet before he could speak, there was a notable disturbance from the rear. Metal sliced air, and Yhwach adjusted his stance on instinct. The blade failed to hit home, and two figures landed deftly onto the ground. Ichigo Kurosaki and Renji Abarai stood opposing him, Ichigo gripping his white blade easily. His face was without adjustments, exactly as Yhwach remembered him when he left the boy abandoned him at the Wahrwelt.
"Ichigo," Yhwach sneered. "You arrived more quickly than I anticipated. But this is meaningless; I foresaw these events already. That you and Renji Abarai would come to oppose me, with your Bankai soundly restored — and that it would be shattered to pieces within your feeble grip!"
A deafening CRACK! was heard, and cracks erupted on Tensa Zangetsu's blade. In a panic, Ichigo looked down at his sword, and saw that the damage had been done. Yhwach was left displeased, exasperation crossing his countenance. "My intention was to obliterate that very sword completely, and yet it remains virtually intact. If nothing else, your luck has improved since our last battle, Ichigo!"
Swinging his arm down, a wave of pure black swept over the area. It immersed the ground in waves, engulfing Ichigo and Renji in their entirety. The damage was immense, and Ichigo himself was left breathing ragged after enduring such an attack.
"Look at you, Ichigo," said Yhwach. "You're already at death's door, and yet still you persist. This has gone beyond bravery; in fact, it is sheer foolishness. And you refused to let Orihime heal your wounds? Were so you terrified of not being able to make it in time that you rushed in to fight me without assessing your own situation?" His spiritual energy was spreading further along the ground, beginning to ingrain itself into the very essence of the Soul Society. "Our previous engagement should have made one thing very clear, Ichigo — there is nothing you can do that will change the fate I see before you!"
The strike of metal on the ground alerted him to another presence, and Yhwach inclined his head to see Renji leaping into the air. "Yet another fool who doesn't know his place. Though birds of a feather do flock together."
"Bankai! Sōō Zabimaru!" With the rush of spiritual energy, Renji's whip-like blade warped and adjusted into it's true form. On his right wrist, Renji gained a gauntlet resembling the top portion of a snake's skull, with a cowl of red fur surrounding its base. A long, bony tail composed of vertebra-like structures protruded from the back of the skull, trailing behind the Shinigami, hanging around his waist like a loose sash. Renji also gained a large cowl of light fur, hanging down from his left shoulder, and a pair of pauldrons that formed an armored collar, as well as additional vertebral cords that hanged down from the waist.
Renji swung his arm forward, the cowl rushing ahead to attack Yhwach. This was an effort in vain, and with a disturbing squelching noise that curdled the blood, Renji's arm was wrenched off by apparently nothing. Blood gushed from the wound, and Renji gasped in pain.
"This ceases to be amusing. I've made the point time and time again, and yet there are those who simply cannot process it," said Yhwach. "Before me, Renji, a Bankai is futile! Through the future, every Bankai has been broken! But if you would still stand and fight, then I'll crush you with my own hands, Renji!" Yhwach spun on his heel, turning his palm towards Renji in an attempt to eradicate the Vice-Captain.
His sight was warped, however, as Sōsuke Aizen rushed into his view, wearing the kind of nonchalant smile that only Aizen could wear. He swept is blade, and the two parted as Yhwach stepped back. Yhwach shook with mirth. "Aizen! You acting as Renji's shield? The utter irony is a cause for amusement! I judged you in error! The fact that you would unify with the common riffraff like this shows that you are no better than them!"
Aizen swept his hand into the air, without dignifying Yhwach's response with his own. "Hadō 99!" He called out. "Goryūtenmetsu!" Spiritual energy welled up from the ground, slipping through cracks like fresh flowing water. Buildings crumbled, plants were uprooted, and casual bodies that had been scattered across Soul Society were flung away. Rushing upwards, the energy draped the battlefield, and coalesced into the forms of five gargantuan dragons. The beasts loomed over the battlefield, yet Yhwach was not perturbed.
"For all your machinations, Sōsuke Aizen, one crucial detail has escaped your notice!" crowed Yhwach. "Your Kyōka Suigetsu has already been broken through the future!"
Aizen's eye rushed towards his blade, which was indeed cracked the way Ichigo's own Bankai was. With a simple palm blow, Yhwach crushed Aizen and flung him away. Without missing a beat, he turned and swung his arm behind him. There was a violent crushing noise, and he shattered the blade of Tensa Zangetsu without even putting in the effort, his hand grabbing Ichigo Kurosaki by the face.
"Are you devoid of ears, Ichigo?!" he cried, slamming the Shinigami hybrid into the destroyed ground wit as much effort as batting a fly. "I can see the allure in allying yourself with Sōsuke Aizen, but you error in judgement was fighting me in to begin with! Opposing me will be your last pointless act! Renji Abarai has fallen! Sōsuke Aizen is dead! Rest in pieces, Ichigo!"
With the simple application of spiritual energy, a black bullet was launched through Ichigo's stomach. It bore into his body, rushing out of it and into the ground. Ichigo spewed out a fountain of blood, ichor dripping from the side of his face.
"Ichigo, this is the end," Yhwach said, removing his hand from Ichigo's face. The blood dripped from his palms, but he flung it to the side. "You provided me with some entertainment, so it wasn't a complete waste of my time. But this is farewell, my son. As a parting gift from parent to child, I will erase you — along with this 'Afterlife'."
"Now...that is interesting," muttered a voice that did not belong to his felled quarry. Where Ichigo had been, Aizen lay, sustained of the same injuries. "So you think you're looking at Ichigo Kurosaki...? That is interesting..."
Before Yhwach could react, a white blade rushed through his body. Stunned, the Quincy Emperor turned to see Ichigo, clad in his Hollow form, wounds mended but not entirely removed, staring daggers at him. The mismatched eyes created a stunning visual — complete determination and zero hesitation. They burned vibrant gold, and the words that had become his signature escaped his throat.
"GETSUGA TENSHŌ!"
Plumes of black and gold spiritual energy erupted from the blade, tearing Yhwach apart from the middle. Ichigo wrenched the entirety of his Bankai through Yhwach. His top halves and bottom halves flung apart. Yhwach himself maintained physical form for but a moment, and then collapsed into a shadowy mass across the ground.
"You scraped by with a passing grade," said Aizen. "Kyōka Suigetsu isn't a Zanpakutō that just anyone work in tandem with, but your work was splendid."
"When I made my way here, I felt a strange, but familiar sensation," replied Ichigo. "The same one I felt back when you placed everyone else under the Kyōka Suigetsu back then."
"Indeed," was Aizen's simple reply. "I released Kyōka Suigetsu before you all arrived here. Yhwach, in his arrogance, paid no heed, and I confirmed that his visual Almighty was indeed his downfall. But the final variable...was you, Ichigo Kurosaki. Not even I could have predicated that not showing you the Kyōka Suigetsu's Shikai back then would have been the pivotal factor?"
Ichigo was about to reply, but what would he say? What does one say to a former enemy who helped them rid the world of a bigger threat? Ichigo had put aside several differences in just the past minute to work alongside and it had been flawless. The Hollowfied Substitute Shinigami moved to say something, but Aizen was engulfed in a black energy.
"AIZEN!"
The quivering black mass completely engulfed his body, formless taking on form, and multiple eyes appearing, blinking, observing. Yhwach.
"Ichigo...! Did you truly believe that an attack of that caliber would be able to kill me? Have you misjudged my strength to that degree?" The shape, a combination of Yhwach, Sōsuke Aizen, and the Mimihagi that Ichigo had never expected to see, spoke."I can change the future! Even futures where I am dead can be rewritten! You've made your final miscalculation, Ichigo!"
Ichigo smiled. "No. This time, the miscalculation was your's, Yhwach. Remember what you said — you can change all of fate that you see with those eyes, right? But what happens when you're blind? Ishida!"
Yhwach's entire body shuddered, and the black mass that was his form dispersed, revealing the true form of Yhwach as Ichigo has first encountered him. Aizen had been separated from him, forcibly.
Uryū Ishida...! Yhwach's thoughts turned to the newest of the Sternritter, his so-called 'successor', and he realised what was happening only too late. His one singular blind spot had finally come back to bite him. The one person the Almighty could not perceive; the one person immune to his Auswählen. Was I...too careless?!
Before him, Ichigo gripped the hilt of Tensa Zangetsu. This was his cue. He saw the form of Uryū standing a distance away, kneeling down. With the last of his strength, he was watching Ichigo land the final blow.
It was quick.
It was unceremonious.
The blade swung down, and Yhwach the Quincy Emperor was sliced in half.
Time seemed to freeze for all of a moment, and then black spiritual energy gushed from Yhwach's form like blood. He was well and truly dying, and his body seemed to be unable to sustain its form. With the last of his energy, Yhwach, the progenitor of the Quincy, the Emperor, gripped Ichigo's shoulder. "I see...So this...is the path you've chosen..." His voice was strained, and came out warped; he was forcing himself to speak. "The world I was going to create...the true world...you have truly destroyed all chances of it coming to fruition...Ichigo. The worlds of the dead...the world of the living...the six realms destined to become one." Ragged breath hit Ichigo in the face, but he listened to Yhwach's final words. "Because of you...this world will continue to exist in fear...and all those who lead their meager existences will do so with the everpresent shadow of Death hovering over them...this for all eternity...is the reward for your efforts...Ichigo..."
Yhwach's body finally gave it, collapsing and dissolving into a mass of black that faded away. Ichigo cast what remained of the Emperor an aside glance, and sighed. To this point, Yhwach had been a mystery to him. Even when they crossed blades in the Wahrwelt, Ichigo hadn't been able to read what had been in Yhwach's heart. Were his final words the beginning of something more? Or the ramblings of a man who had long since lost?
Ichigo didn't know. He looked over at Uryū, who had collapsed. It had been quite a gamble on his part; he had implanted something called the "Still Silver" into his body before they arrived, and used his power, the "Antithesis", to reverse his condition with the Yhwach. Uryū had met Ichigo on the way to the battle, and formatted this plan on the fly; it was a risky gamble, but it paid off in the end.
It's all over now, he thought. I think...I think I'll go have a talk with Rukia.
A/N: So this was a completely random one-shot written due to a fancomic I saw online. I think we all remember the Thousand Year Blood War — or, as it would known in its later years, the story of Ichigo Kurosaki the Spineless — but I didn't care for the ending. I didn't care for Ichigo's bitchy behaviour, I didn't care for for how it was resolved, or rather, wasn't. I don't care for Ichigo and Orihime as a pairing, as they have absolutely no chemistry with each other whatsoever. I didn't care for the entire second half of the arc, but I resolved it as best I could. To anyone wondering, the Six Realms are part of the cycle of Saṃsāra, which BLEACH loosely follows. The Deva Realm, the Asura Realm, the Preta Realm, the Animal Realm, the Human Realm, and the Naraka Realm. Soul Society is more than likely the Asura Realm, the Soul Palace the Deva Realm, the Animal Realm is wherever the fuck Komomura's family is from, the Preta Realm is Hueco Mundo, the Human Realm is the World of the Living, and the Naraka Realm is Hell. I hope you all like it!