The Nightmare

"Where am I... what is this place?" whispered the teenager with orange hair. Laying face down staring at the dark red sky, wearing his shinigami uniform.

"How did I get here? I was asleep" Ichigo stands and looks around, noticing the surface is completely dark, nothing but blackness. He stares in astonishment breathing heavily, confused and completely unaware of what was happening.

"Welcome Ichigo" a dark figure emerges from the shadows, his red eyes illuminating in the darkness. He walks closer and closer, he too is wearing a shinigami uniform. Soon his appearance emerges as his hollow mask is seen clearly through the darkness.

"I am glad you could come, Ichigo. I have wanted to meet you for years" speaks the mysterious shinigami in his cold and heartless voice.

"Who are you, where am I?" Ichigo draws his zanpakuto and gets into a stance, preparing to strike.

"Very good Ichigo, never be too careful around strangers. It could be the biggest mistake you ever make." replies the mysterious shinigami. He glares into Ichigo's eyes with his red eyes.

Ichigo clenches his zanpakuto tightly, he was afraid. There was something unusual about this shinigami, as if he had the ability to manipulate the fear of his foes. He tried to resist, he tries to make eye contact, and slowly he speaks again, "Answer my question!".

The mysterious shinigami gives Ichigo a glare, he does not move for a moment and then suddenly he reaches for his own zanpakuto. He does doesn't draw the zanpakuto but looks at Ichigo and replies, "Don't ask any questions Ichigo, just survive."

In a blink of an eye he reaches Ichigo in an instant, holding his zanpakuto up high, he strikes. But Ichigo strikes back, both zanpakutos colliding, neither of them moving an inch. The shinigami speaks as if he was not straining himself at all "What's the matter, Ichigo? Surely you could do better then that, after all it was you who defeated Aizen. Or was that just some sheer dumb luck?"

Ichigo clutches his teeth tightly, trying to push the shinigami's zanpakuto back. "SHUT UP!" Ichigo jumps backwards to keep his distance. He tries not to lower his guard for he knew the shinigami standing before him had some incredible speed. But then before he knew it, the shinigami was right behind him, with his back around, holding the zanpakuto in his hand.

"Keeping your distance is useless in this fight, Ichigo. From the moment you distanced yourself from me, you were vulnerable for a killing strike." Speaks the shinigami in a low voice.

Ichigo turns around in shock, and with all his strength and speed he attempted to cut down the shinigami before he made another attack, but it was too late the shinigami appeared behind Ichigo once again. Ichigo speaks "That was a sonido!".

He turns to face the shinigami once more, who is standing still and hasn't made an attempt to strike. "Just who are you?" he asks.

The shinigami stares at Ichigo and then replies "You're not in any position to be asking questions, Ichigo." He appears closer to Ichigo at an even faster speed, but this time it wasn't from behind, but a straight forward strike, he swings his zanpakuto once again. Ichigo deflects with his zanpakuto and jumps into the air and shouts "Getsuga Tensho!" a white blast of energy approaches the shinigami, but the shinigami does not move, in fact he repels the blast with his hand, without moving an inch.

"H-he stopped it!" Ichigo speaks in a disbelieving tone.

"Now, Ichigo... let me demonstrate the true power of my zanpakuto" His zanpakuto glows blue, as it absorbs Ichigo's Getsuga Tensho, the reiatsu shrouds the mysterious shinigami's zanpakuto.

"It absorbed the Getsuga Tensho to enhance it's power?" Ichigo looks down, shocked and feeling completely overpowered.

"Wrong... the power does not enhance. All it does is absorb the blast of your zanpakuto and converts it into reiatsu." The shinigami charges at Ichigo, his fast speed reaches him within a second, Ichigo swing his zanpakuto hoping to cut him down but both blades collide, this time the zanpakuto in the shinigami's hand was able to overpower Zangetsu and sending Ichigo flying into the dark floor. He slowly gets up, Zangetsu still in his hand.

"Your zanpakuto is stronger now... so I was actually right, by absorbing my blast it was able to increase its power" he says in a calm voice.

"Wrong. The reason my zanpakuto is stronger, is not because it absorbed your Getsuga Tensho. My zanpakuto has the power to absorb blasts and by doing that it enhances the reiatsu, but there is more to it then that. From the moment this zanpakuto absorbs your attack, it immediately recognized that zanpakuto's weak points. Zangetsu is a zanpakuto that has the most incredible offence capabilities. So my Zanpakuto activated a special defence mechanism that was able to overpower your Zanpakuto. It's as simple as that... but the zanpakuto that I'm wielding is quite special. It's too bad you will never find out why." He charges at Ichigo, he swings his blade to cut down Ichigo, but just before he does.

"RING!"

Ichigo awakes in his room, noticing that his alarm has just went off and that everything that happened was just a nightmare. Ichigo wipes the sweat from his forehead from the edge of his hand and takes a sigh.

"It was just a nightmare... but it felt so real."