Taking a stand.
A/N: Decided to make "Implication of the Moment" into "Implication of the Moments". Oneshot/drabble collections, who doesn't like them? Hehe. This one has MAJOR MAJOR SPOILER for chapter 417/418 so if you haven't read those, you better read them because, you'll understand this better. This, er, drabbleish oneshot? is my interpretation of what's happening behind Ichigo's mysterious three months power up training. With a touch of Ichigo x Rukia of course. (P.S: DID ANY OF YOU SEE THAT SPOILER FOR CHAPTER 420? Oh my God. Just. Oh my God). I might get some of the facts wrong, so if I did, please forgive me.
.
Because every one of us had to face our own demon in our lifetime.
.
"And I just can't keep living this way, so starting today I'm breaking out of this cage
I'm standing up, Imma face my demon
I'm manning up, Imma hold my ground
I've had enough, now I'm so fed up, time to put my life back together right now" –Eminem, Not Afraid
Black.
Ichigo mused to himself as he stared at his sword, pitch black from the hilt to the tip. He donned black robe. Everything is black. Black, the colour of darkness and death.
The man his sword is pointing at worn robes of the opposite colour spectrum to his. White, the colour which represents purity and innocence.
How the world had flipped. He fights to find the light whereas the psychotic ex-fifth division captain tyrant in front of him vowed to bring the world to its doom. Clothes really does not reflect ones personality, to hell with what those fashionistas say.
However the contrast of their aim and what they fight for is highlighted with the purposely unfitting colour of their robes. You can always find a white spot in black and vice versa.
So maybe there's something to this theory of colour and personality after all, Ichigo noted.
He dropped the large figure he'd been carrying in his left arm gently on the ground next to him. "Thanks old man..." he muttered, looking at the unconscious and exhausted figure of Isshin. No doubt, exerting his reiatsu for a prolonged period of time took a lot out of him and that's saying something for the likes of the normally jumpy dad who is ready to attack him anytime. Ichigo looked around, instantly spotted the familiar clinic that is his house and closed his eyes. He breathed a sigh of relief, sensing that his sisters are untouched and safe. That's one thing off his mind.
He then looked around and saw four of his friends; Tatsuki, Keigo,Chizuru and Mizuiro, staring at him with all equally shocked expressions. His heart throbbed. He never wanted his friends to see him this way, partly defeated and worn out. He never wanted his friends to be involved in the life he had to experience either.
Not so far from them, a shinigami with a towering afro hairstyle looked at him expectingly, hoping to be acknowledged. Ichigo stared at him blankly, too worn out to show that he's stupified by the idiotic expression the random shinigami throws him. "Imamoya-san.." Ichigo muttered out the first name he could remember from looking at the shinigami's face to which the supposed 'Imamoya' responded badly. Figures, Imamoya is probably one of those eccentric afro bikers in one of his manga collections.
"Are you really Kurosaki Ichigo?" Aizen finally spoke up, looking at him calculatingly, as if pondering before trampling a spider whether it is poisonous or not. Ichigo calmly retaliate that he is. Aizen's lips curled up slightly. "I see you have failed at evolution. Kurosaki Ichigo, I cannot detect a single reiatsu from you."
Despite the burning desire to instantly finish the man in front of him, Ichigo said nothing to his comment. Instead, he stood still, keeping a defensive stance and calmly preparing himself for the next unpredictable moves the other man can make or that he could create onto the ex-captain.
He has an aim now. A single aim that requires him to fully concentrate and focus. An aim so strong he's willing to sacrifice himself to make it happen.
.
Ichigo panted heavily. He's sprawled on top a of a building on all fours, a pool of blood, his blood underneath him. The number of cuts, gashes and bruises on his body is countless that he felt numb to pain at the rate he was. All he noticed was that with each increasing cut, his body felt heavier, the weight of his blade multiplied and his eyelids are starting to quiver more and more. Isshin told him he had three months. He had lost track of time the moment he was sent to his inner world. All he know is that he went through an endless battle with his zanpakutou who had fused with his hollow with only a few seconds to minutes to catch a breath until another attack was made on him. Before Zangetsu sent him to the position he was in, he briefly mentioned that he was running out of time. That caught him by surprise, and to Zangetsu's advantage a loophole was created to create a deep cut across Ichigo's shoulder. Ichigo let himself fell flat on the ground, exhausted. Tensa Zangetsu laying next to him bathed in blood.
A few feet across him, the fusion of his hollow and Zangetsu stood still looking down at him. There were only a few visible cuts on his body, of those only three could be considered as deep. It's clear who the victor of this battle is.
"Ichigo, if you want to learn my true power you have to get up. Time is running out," Zangetsu spoke up, his voice noticably lighter with the reversion of his age.
"Cheh, old man, let me handle things with the King," the sickening cocky voice of his hollow spoke from the same body that is Zangetsu's. Ichigo didn't bother to react.
"Look King, if you don't get your sorry ass back up soon, someone will be the new King of this sad place of yours and I hate to tell you this, but this time I ain't gonna be so glad taking over with the whole crazy captain shit," the hollow sneered.
"Shut...u..up," Ichigo retorted weakly, trying to prop himself up with both his hands only to fall flat on his chest once more. The hollow frowned at him.
"Cheh, I'll give you one minute to get yourself up," the hollow pointed the blade in his hand at the fallen Ichigo, "if you're not up by then, you're finished. I ain't coming here to watch you take a nap. King, I've done that enough."
Ichigo growled in response, clenching his fists. Defeat began to crawl over him, thoughts that he never had before began forming in his mind. Will he make it? Why was he fighting again? Why is it always him at the end?
The shinigami turned to his blade, Zangetsu, his sword that he had been fighting with and against. A blade that gave him power and the ability to protect many. Images of people began to flash in his mind.
He had his friends. Inoue who had to go through her teenage years without a family. Ishida and Chad, the first became a good friend of his the latter who was always his best friend, had shared the same fate as a warrior as him. Tatsuki, his childhood friend. Renji, Keigo, Mizuiro and many more.
He had his family. His dad who had been there in his life and shows his affection in a unique way. Yuzu who was always gentle and maternal, the complete opposite of Karin, a tough nonchalant tomboy. But she was similar to him and he knows that that tough exterior is only hiding the fact that she cared a great deal of people a bit too much. His mother, who had been the base of the vow that instead of being protected, he WILL protect people.
Lastly a pair of violet eyes appeared in his mind. Those eyes that he knew too well and knew him too well. Her voice began to rang heavily in his head.
What's the matter?
Is it defeat?
Is it about being helpless to aid your friends?
Or is it that hollow within you?
Ichigo closed his eyes. The moment he did so, an image of a petite raven haired shinigami standing at the school window sill smiling cockily at him began to form so vividly that it almost scared him.
If it's defeat you only need to become stronger...
If it's about your friends, renew your vow to protect them once you become stronger...
If it's about your that hollow inside you, become a stronger man so you can overcome and shatter it...
Rukia.
Even if you're the only one you can rely on, take pride and shout out!
That idiot.
That's the 'you' I keep in my heart, Ichigo!
"King, one minute is almost up," his hollow spoke up, breaking his trail of thoughts. He glazed his finger over the whole length of the blade in his and Zangetsu's hand. "Any last words?"
Ichigo let out a small smile. "Yeah," he replied, reaching out for the black blade next to him, gripping the hilt tightly with a new surge of power he never knew he had. "Stupid midget."
That earned a questioning look from both occupants of his inner world.
"Old man..." Ichigo looked up, the hint of fire back in his eyes, "I am so done with you."
.
Ichigo glazed his sight to Rangiku who was bent over a wounded – no, dying Gin, tears in her eyes. The sight was filled with melancholy but there had been too many deaths to oversympathize one too much. After all, Ichigo had regarded Gin as his enemy for as long as he could remember. Whatever he did, it must be against Aizen's favour. He didn't really want to know the reason why. He looked at the dying captain, noticing that his eyes hadn't completely shut yet and he's looking at him through the tiny slit of his eyelids.
"Aizen, let's fight somewhere else. I don't want to fight here." Ichigo demanded, although it came out as more of a request due to the calm demeanour he spoke in. Aizen scoffed at his suggestion, relentlessly saying how it was a useless offer from someone who probably can't even harm him. Without a word, Ichigo grabbed the Hogyokou bearer by the face and shunpo-ed away as fast and high as possible, throwing the ex-captain recklessly to the ground, more than ten feet below, once he's satisfied with the location.
This is it. The big goal. All that he had worked for will be tested by the match which, hopefully, will turn the fate of the world. Ichigo calmly landed a few feet from where Aizen had fallen. He had to be tactful, he had to be focused. Most of all he had to make sure nothing around him will prove to be a distraction. His biggest demon is not his Hollow. It was his lack of long term experience and fear. But somehow he managed to maintain connections to those who knows very well on how to guide him and overcome his fear, making him almost as experienced as any other shinigami. He was never a believer of fate, but Ichigo had a passing thought that perhaps this was all set up for him. Not by Aizen, no. But of a higher power. Someone who hadn't thought of Arrancars and destroying the world as a brilliant plan. Just, maybe.
"Let's begin, Aizen," Ichigo announced, putting up a battle stance, "I'll end this in a single instant."
