The Last One Left

Summary: After defeating Aizen for the final time, Ichigo is left as the last person in two worlds. The world, everything and everyone that he has come to know is long gone, leaving him to succumb to his loneliness. His desire to go back is left unheard until Aizens defeat, when he wakes up in an unusual body. Time-travel AU.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach

Chapter 2

Ichigo leans forward, pieces of tree bark cover the back of his clothes and all over his orange hair. He stands up, one hand on the tree for support, the other hand brushing off the pieces of tree bark. He stretches out his stiff limbs and climbs up the tree, the leaves brushing against his face as he climbs higher. He scrambles up from branch to branch, having to jump to grab onto some of the higher branches. He reaches the top and looks over the tree line. The tree line continues in all directions except one, off in the distance he can see a small town with unusually small houses. Even from where he is, Ichigo can tell how poor the town is. Ichigo jumps down to the ground and starts walking towards the town.

The short grass prickles his bare feet as he walks closer to the town. Every now and then he can see shadows moving behind trees, poised to attack. He can hear the sound of swords being unsheathed all around him, he stops and stares at one of the shadows. A sword clatters to the ground, the shadow stands there paralyzed. The shadows rush at him, Ichigo ducks underneath the sword slashes and sidesteps lunges. Five of them in total, not including the one that Ichigo paralyzed. Each of them with menacing eyes, and odd scrappy clothes, they grin at Ichigo but he retains his normal blank expression. Acting as a unit they strike, the attack is nothing but the sounds of blades hitting one another. Experimenting with his new size, Ichigo jumps up, grabbing onto a tree branch. He drops down. Landing on one of his attackers. The other four swing at him, narrowly missing the top of his head. Ichigo jumps down from his attacker and pushes him towards the others. A sword plunges through the man. Blood pools around him.

"Brothers, why?" he coughs, grasping his wound.

"You were in the way little brother," they largest sneers at him.

Ichigo looks down at the ground. The largest laughs and rushes at Ichigo. Ichigo looks up, his gaze fierce with anger. He grabs the man's arm. He kicks the sword out of his hands. The man grabs Ichigo by the neck with his other hand. The other men watch as Ichigo's grip tightens. Ichigo reaches out to the sword, cursing his short arms. The man's grip around Ichigo's neck tightens. Ichigo wheezes, struggling to breathe. He flicks the sword up with his foot. He grabs the hilt. Surprised by the weight, he slashes. A thin line appears on the man's face. He drops Ichigo to the ground, pressing his hand to his face. Ichigo gasps, reacquainting oxygen to his lungs. The man glares at the orange haired boy. Ichigo slashes across the man's chest. The man screams, blood drips down his chest from the thin wound. The others take a step back as Ichigo's gaze switches from the man to them.

"You should be glad that I didn't kill you," Ichigo glares, "You are despicable, sacrificing a brother in order to kill someone. Older brothers are born first to protect their little siblings, if you can't do that then you shouldn't be considered siblings!"

The other men watch as Ichigo drops the sword and disappears into the trees. Ichigo runs at full speed, internally laughing sadly at how hypocritical what he said was. As an older brother, he had failed, he failed to protect them from Aizen. He couldn't protect Yuzu and Karin from what Aizen did to them, and what they in turn did to each other. He can no longer be considered a part of the Kurosaki family, he couldn't protect any of them, not even his dad.

Ichigo returns his focus to running, not even noticing that he used shunpo. As soon as he realises, he slams into a tree. Ichigo quickly gets back up, wincing as he touches his nose, broken, like he's done before, he quickly realigns it. He sways as he stands slightly lightheaded as he continues running. Ichigo can hear the Hogyoku tisking him, complaining that he ruined his nice nose. He ignores the girl and continues running, this time paying attention to his surroundings. The town still isn't in sight and trees still seem to surround him. It's still the same, the same pattern of trees, the same size trees but the markings on the trees always differ. Ichigo rushes past, in between and around trees, careful not to run into one again.

Ichigo is at a standstill staring around at his surroundings, the atmosphere in this section of the forest seems somehow much tighter. It's completely silent here, not even the wind dares to come near this area. Splattered flecks of dried blood cover the area, it's dark red, obviously old. Strangely Ichigo immediately thinks of the captain of the eleventh division, Kenpachi Zaraki.

He rushes forward, his pace unchanging despite the dull burning of the soles of his feet. The corner of one of the town buildings peers out through the trees in the distance, the dark wood blending into the trees. The towns sounds echo through the forest, laughter and shouting, crashes and bang, Ichigo can hear it all. As the town steadily approaches, the volume increase allowing Ichigo to hear the ends of conversations. It is a surprisingly loud town.

He walks through the gap between houses and looks around. Down the street Ichigo can see a large crowd of people, some shouting, others gasping and many shifting around nervously. The sound of swords clashing rings out, Ichigo shudders and the crowd roars. He walks closer, his curiosity getting the better of him. Using his small size to his advantage he crawls through crowd, finding a good place to watch. Two fighters circle each other, swords held tightly in their hands, both trying to intimidate the other. The taller one rushes. Yelling erupts from some of the crowd. A sword clatters to the ground. The taller falls to his knees, a sword to his throat. The crowd goes silent, unsure of what had just happened. The shorter walks off, pushing the crowd out of the way and into one of the buildings that line the street. The other man clutches the side of his arm where the short man had somehow cut him. He gets up and quickly walks away, towards the forest. Ichigo can hear the some of the crowd muttering curses, and handing others money. The crowd soon disperses.

Ichigo wanders through the small town, bars basically encompass the streets. He walks down the dirt streets, bottles are lined up by the sides of buildings. There are wooden tables scattered around the street, all with jugs of water lined up one next to the other. Vendors watching protectively for thieves, some going as far as having dud jugs and the real jugs hidden behind her. People are wandering around the town, some drunk, some fighters and some elderly people. Ichigo walks around the small town that consists of only two streets. Almost deserted compared to what he was told by others about the rukongai.

He slips back between two houses and into the forest. Ichigo wanders around for hours consumed by his thoughts, barely noticing where he's going. During this time he has nearly walked into three trees. The newest question in his mind is whether he can use his shinigami powers, he did shunpo earlier, albiet accidentally. That could mean that Shiro and the old man are back. He could have lost his powers but kept his immense reiryoku which could explain-his thoughts are interrupted by shouting.

Ichigo walks towards the voices, as he walks the incoherent shouting turns into comprehensible shouts.

"Give me money or I'll kill your little friend!" A person with a deep voice shouts.

"Let go of Honoka!" a higher voiced person shouts back.

"Do you want the girl to die?" They shout again, "Give me the money already!"

"We don't have any money! Give Honoka back!" Two voices shout at once.

Ichigo's pace quickens, running in between trees and jumping from strangely protruding rock to another in a similar fashion to a mountain goat*. As figures come into view, Ichigo slinks from tree to tree, watching as the five people come into view. A boy with black hair holds a large jug and a little brown haired boy hides behind a silver haired girl. A tall man stands across from them, a small blonde haired girl hanging from his left hand, he holds a sword up to the girls throat in the other hand. The oldest boy glares at the man, shouting various tame curses at him, the man presses the sword to her neck. She whimpers, tears roll down her cheeks. Ichigo sneaks around the tree line so that he's hiding behind a tree facing the man's back. He swiftly moves through the grass. The black haired boy watching his every move like a hawk. Ichigo nods at him, then pulls the man's right hand away from the girl, the man drops the girl and lunges forward, trying to catch her before she runs. He narrowly misses her foot, she squeaks and runs towards her friends. The man runs at them, this time aiming for the jug rather than the girl.

"Katsurou!" The silver haired girl shouts.

Katsurou stumbles backwards, falling to the ground, certain that this is the end. The man grins, his sword in hand, Ichigo rushes forward. Disappearing for a split second, Ichigo kicks. His foot slams into the man's knee with surprising force for his small body. A cracking sound resounds through the trees, the man yelps, Ichigo looks over to the others. Katsurou regains his footing and walks towards the tree line with the others, occasionally looking back at Ichigo and their attacker. Whom is lying on the ground grasping the knee that Ichigo kicked.

Katsurou looks back at Ichigo, "You coming or what?"

Ichigo nods and follows behind them, glancing behind him occasionally. He watches as the smaller two run around the others, laughing, they seem so happy, despite what just happened. Katsurou watches Ichigo in the corner of his eye, untrusting of his actions. He frowns as the boy smiles slightly, almost half-hearted but not quite. He can't get a good understanding of Ichigo. The silver haired girl sighs and looks between Katsurou and the boy, she slows her pace so that she's walking beside him.

"Hi," She smiles, "thanks for helping us, my names Manami"

"Ichigo Kur-" He stops mid sentence and glances down at the ground, "my name's Ichigo"

Manami looks over to the others, seeing the glimpse of pain and sadness flash through his blank eyes. She indicates for the others to come over, which luckily for them Ichigo didn't see. The smallest latches onto Manami's hand, he smiles widely at Ichigo, who can't help but falter slightly. Katsurou watches Ichigo carefully, half expecting him to turn on them at any second. The smallest girl walks beside Katsurou.

Manami smiles and points to the smallest, "This is Gorou-kun," as soon as he hears his name he jumps up and down, smiling.

"This is Katsurou-kun, don't worry about him, behind this untrusting face is essentially a coward, and the girl next to him is Honoka-chan who despite their different looks is the younger sister of Katsurou-kun and she's the one that you saved." Manami introduces, indicating to each person as she speaks.

"Manami-san, do you what district this is?" Ichigo asks.

Manami frowns, racking her mind to remember, "Oh, I think it's the 80th North"

Katsurou walks in front of the others, Honoka following close behind her brother. Manami talks to Ichigo about the soul society, and how it works, a topic which Ichigo finds that she's very interested in. Gorou would interrupt with silly and genuine questions every now and then, followed by a childish joke. Gorou walks between Manami and Ichigo, looking around with curious eyes, not noticing Ichigo's protective gaze. Katsurou glances back and frowns, he can't help but be suspicious of him, the weirdly strong orange haired boy. Honoka noticing his glances and subsequent frowning holds his hand and smiles up at him. Katsurou smiles back at her, his mistrust of Ichigo growing, his need to protect his family from a possible murderer increasing. Katsurou leads them between the trees, still carrying the jug of water, he weaves in and out of the trees. Gorou chatters away to Manami and Ichigo. Ichigo taking in all of his surroundings, the prominent marks distinguishing different parts of the forest indented in his mind. Katsurou leads them through a clearing, allowing the Honoka and Gorou to rest for a little bit before heading back to the hideout. Honoka and Gorou run around, pulling Katsurou, Manami and Ichigo into their game. Katsurou trying to get Ichigo out with every turn with him avoiding the majority of his attempts.

Manami sniggers looking at Katsurou, the imprint of an acorn evident on his forehead. Honoka rubs the back of her neck with one hand, the other behind her back filled with acorns and acorn caps. Katsurou chases after Manami and Honoka, who are both throwing acorns rapid fire. Meanwhile, Gorou hides behind a tree, his hands over his mouth trying to suppress his laughter as Ichigo 'unknowingly' walks towards his trap. Gorou jumps out, prepared to run after Ichigo, he's not there, Gorou looks around, searching for him. Ichigo jumps down from a tree fairly close to his opponent, Gorou shoots off, his target in his sights. Ichigo sneaks behind trees, the smallest loosing sight of him every time he takes his eyes off Ichigo. He starts running slower, allowing Gorou to catch up.

After a while they start walking again, Gorou talking to Ichigo about everything that he sees. Manami and Katsurou talking while Honoka watches Ichigo carefully. Just because he helped to save her doesn't mean that she immediately trusts him.

The sky blazes, the sun disappearing over the horizon, and Gorou stops talking, he looks around wide eyed, afraid. Gorou grabs Ichigo's hand, making him flinch slightly, while Gorou didn't notice it, Honoka did. Ichigo takes a deep breath. Gorou looks around skittishly, the long shadows and eerie sounds echoing through the trees. Manami walks towards Gorou, smiling at him she holds his other hand and talked to him. Katsurou leads the way between trees, looking back at Ichigo he notices the black tattoo-like bands that twists around his neck. He frowns staring that the strange marking, then at the even more unusual creatures on each shoulder partly hidden by the darkness. Katsurou cautiously observes Ichigo, his uneasiness around him gradually increasing. Katsurou weaves in between trees, the others following behind him. They eventually make it back to the tent with Honoka on Katsurou's back and Gorou on Ichigo's back.

Ichigo lies on the spare mat, staring up at the low ceiling, the others, softly snoring beside him. He half heartedly smiles, remembering his sisters and the slight similarities between Katsurou, Honoka and Karin, and Gorou, Manami and Yuzu. While the similarities are slight, they're still there, Katsurou isn't very trusting, he's blunt but he cares for the others. Manami is very caring, she is supportive and kind. They aren't the same but they remind Ichigo of the life he used to live. This time he'll protect them, his new family, they aren't going to die. He slowly drifts to sleep.

Ichigo jolts up, instantly covering his mouth trying not the wake the others and runs outside. Manami and Katsurou share a look as they sit up having already been awoken by Ichigo's frantic movements.

"He's bad news Manami," Katsurou quietly states, "did you even see that thing on his shoulder and those weird bands around his neck, he's just going to cause trouble for us."

"Then why did you offer to bring him here?" She replies in a hushed tone.

Hello again, so another week has passed and well again I didn't quite get this chapter out on time.

I'm not to pleased with this chapter, it's mediocre at best so there's a good chance that this will be changed at some point.

Also, I won't be posting a new chapter next week, I'm still trying to fix together what's happening with this story so I want to make sure that I know where I'm going with this so I don't completely screw up.

Another thing is I've been wondering whether this should eventually, definitely eventually, have a pairing, this pairing won't start for a while but any ideas as to what the pairing should be would be good. So I might put up a poll or something for that. So the two questions I ask you are; should this eventually have a pairing, and if it does have a pairing what should this pairing be?

Thank you for the reviews, favourites and follows

Bye