Ok! This is my story, based kind of like Shrek, go on an adventure, save a princess, annoying best friend etc. But! I will take any ideas for what to happen next because I haven't written it yet. So what do YOU think should happen?

Chapter 3: Epic Journey


Ichigo and Renji walked through the last field to get to Aizen's castle. Ichigo looked up at the tall, white castle with a picture of Gin's face on the side. He couldn't tell from the marble if that was the same man that was friends with the monster that killed his mother. Ichigo shook his head and put his hands on his hips.

"So this is Gin's castle?"Renji nodded. "Yup this is the place." Renji grinned, wow he really did know how to get here.

Ichigo chuckled. "Think he idolizes himself enough?"

Renji frowned and looked at the wall. "I don't know why. He's creepy looking."

Ichigo rolled his eyes and kept walking.

"Ichigo! Wait up!" Renji called, tripping in his effort to follow Ichigo. Ichigo saw a guard outside of the gate.

"Hey you!" Ichigo called. The guard immediately lifted his sword. Ichigo and Renji froze.

"Whoa man. I just wanted to ask what was going on here today." Ichigo said cautiously approaching the man.

"Stay back!" The young man freaked, pointing the sword higher. "You guys are wanted felons!"

Ichigo kept walking closer, soothing the young boy, while Renji watched. Ichigo finally got close enough to the young boy and kicked him in the face, knocking him out. Ichigo smiled and then went through the gates.

"So this is Rukongai." Ichigo said, taking a moment to look around the, quite empty streets. "Where is everybody?" Ichigo and Renji were standing in the middle of a market with many carts with produce and toys on them, all empty of people. Ichigo used his hearing and heard that everyone was in the stadium.

"Hellooooo?" Renji called. "Anyone here?" Ichigo rolled his eyes and picked up the nearest thing to him, which happened to be a doll of Lord Aizen and hit Renji with it.

"Will you shut the hell up?" Ichigo growled.

"Fine!"

Ichigo and Renji kept walking through the town, towards the stadium gates. When they got to the big, wooden doors, Renji tried to open them, failing. He couldn't even budge the doors. Ichigo groaned and pushed the doors open. He was met with a collective gasp from the people in the audience. He chuckled nervously and looked around at the thousands of people. Not including Gin, Aizen and his guards. Ichigo was in the middle of the stadium. Except instead of the normal fences and horses used for jousting, there was a wrestling ring, and a keg of beer. Ichigo looked around and waited for someone to talk. Renji stood next to him, whistling.

Aizen recognized Ichigo immediately. He smiled and announced to his guards. "Okay, as of today I have been declared Lord of Rukongai!"

The crowd gasped and then cheered. Ichigo growled and Renji shrugged.

"Now, I need a princess to be a king, so today we will have a tournament to see which one of these fine men will go and fetch her for me."

The men in front of Ichigo wolf-whistled and cheered.

"Your task is to kill that werewolf!" He commanded.

Ichigo was shocked. "Eh? What did I do?" Renji and him backed up. Ichigo rolled his eyes and grabbed a beer cup. "Can't we just sit down and talk about this?" The guards kept approaching, and Ichigo sweat dropped. "I guess not." Ichigo drank his beer and sighed. "All right then, lets go." Ichigo threw the cup and it smashed into the face of the nearest guard. Then Ichigo laughed and sped through all of them. They all turned to look at Renji, who laughed nervously, then ran.

Ichigo was sitting on top of a wrestling pole when about five guards came towards him. He sighed and then did a flying jump and landed on one of them. He never even turned his head as he used his back legs to catapult another guard across the stadium. He turned and did a leg swipe to the other three. Ichigo was having fun. He waited for one to get up and then gave him a round house kick to the face, knocking him down. When the other two tried to get up, Ichigo knocked their heads together and ran off.

Renji wasn't doing so well. He was pinned against a wall with three guards holding him.

"Haha, look at his funny ears boys." Renji turned red and then yelled. He pushed off the wall and knocked all three off of him. Then tripped. When he was met with three spears, he froze. Then out of nowhere, Ichigo flew down and broke one spear, and stood on the other two. He stuck his tongue out at Renji then punched two of the guards in the face. He dropped to the ground and pointed to a spot on the third one's chest plate.

"Hey, you got something right there." The man looked down and was met with Ichigo's uppercut.

Another jumped at him, and Ichigo ducked and the guard ran into Renji, knocking him down. Ichigo laughed and grabbed the guard up and bent him over in front of him. Then kicked him in the ass, sending him flat on his face. He helped Renji up and grinned. Renji glared and punched him. Ichigo glared back and was about to retaliate when he was grabbed from behind. Ichigo backwards head butted the guy. Renji was shocked, the last one had on a helmet and Ichigo didn't even looked fazed. He was staring up at Aizen.

Ichigo looked up at Aizen and everything was quiet. Suddenly, the entire crowd busted into a cheer. Ichigo blushed and grinned, waving his hand. Aizen silenced the crowd just by raising his hand. "Very well you hideous thing."

Ichigo growled. "I came to get my land back, Lord Aizen." He spat the name out.

"Your land?"

"Yes, my land! You remember? The one you dumped all those warlocks on? The place you banished me to?"

"Oh yes, that place." Aizen muttered with disdain. "All right, doggy. I'll get them out of there on one condition."

"Oh yea, what's that?"

"You go on a escort for me."

"I'm not a messenger boy!"

"No you're a delivery dog." Aizen lifted his arm and the guards pointed their bows at him. Ichigo froze. All the remaining guards lifted their bows. "You don't have a choice this time."

Ichigo growled and looked around. Renji was standing next to him, shaking. Finally, Ichigo nodded at Aizen. Aizen motioned for him to follow and Ichigo and Renji followed Lord Aizen into a meeting hall.


The meeting hall was a large, burgundy room with painting of Gin everywhere. There was a large, oak table in the middle of it with many chairs around it. There was also a fireplace with a picture of a small girl on it. Aizen motioned and Ichigo and Renji took a seat.

"I need you to escort my future bride, dog."

"Why me?" Ichigo asked, ignoring his comments. "Why not one of your guards?"

"Because you fool, you have something to gain, so you won't fail. Also, should you fail, whenever you return…I shall have killed your entire family." Ichigo eyes got wide. How did Aizen know who his family was? He growled and clenched his fists. Aizen wouldn't touch his family.

"Yes, I know you dog boy. You're Ichigo Kurosaki, the outcast of the Kurosaki name. You are a half-werewolf cursed by a very attractive warlock. You also were responsible for your mother's death." Ichigo's head hung down at that. Renji looked at him and put a comforting hand on his back, glaring at Aizen. "Now, you will bring her to me, or you know the consequences. As for why not one of my slaves? Well, the path to the Kukichi's is a long journey through mountains and fields. You also have to get past groups of rogue warlocks in hiding. Pesky things really. Lastly, you have to be able to stand the strong spiritual power of Byakuya Kukichi when he approaches. Since you had no problem when I raised mine, but your friend here was shaking. You should be fine."

"Who is this girl?" Covering Renji's mouth to keep him from speaking, Ichigo asked.

"Rukia Kukichi. I was going to just kidnap her, but I found more… governmental reasons for Byakuya to simply force her into marriage." Aizen gave off a cold grin. "You will bring her to me. You have one month. Two weeks to get there, two weeks to get back. Do not delay anytime Mr. Kurosaki. Or your family might pay." With that, Aizen glided out of the room, leaving Ichigo and Renji to be escorted out by guards.


Far away in a tea room, in the middle of the Kukichi castle.

"Rukia." A small girl with raven hair and violet eyes turned around to see her brother Byakuya Kukichi. A tall, always serious man with long black hair held out of his face by clips and gray eyes.

"Yes Nii-sama?" Rukia asked, bowing.

"You are to be wed to Lord Aizen of Rukongai in a month. That is all." Then Byakuya turned around and floated out of the room. Rukia sat there gaping, did she not even get a choice? What about her boyfriend Kaien? What about her best friend/maid Hinamori? Rukia cried silent tears and nodded. Then she whispered. "Hai, Nii-sama."


Back in Aizen's castle.

Ichigo and Renji had just received some money and a letter to deliever to Byakuya Kukichi. Also, Aizen had given them some money for food. As in about 5 shillings which would feed them both for maybe a day. Luckily, Ichigo can go hunt every night and Renji doesn't need to eat that much. When they pick up the princess though, it will be a challenge to find food for the human. They were now being taken to the stables to pick out three horses, one for Rukia, one for Renji and one for Ichigo. As soon as Ichigo walked into the barn, all the horses freaked out. Ichigo just sighed and walked out, leaving a very confused Renji. Renji picked a tall, red horse named Diablo. Then he picked out a smaller, white horse for Rukia named, oddly enough Pyon. Then Renji walked outside.

"I guess I'll just have to run." Ichigo gave a small smirk.

Renji laughed. "Animals hate you Ichigo?"

Ichigo glared and ran ahead. Renji quickly jumped on his horse and tied the reigns to Rukia's around his saddle. Then he followed Ichigo with both horses staying far away from him. They both grinned at each other and headed on their way. They were about thirty miles away, when the horses finally got used to Ichigo so that Renji and Ichigo could talk.

"So, we have to go on this long adventure to bring back Aizen's bride so that you can get back your home that was only taken from you in the first place because Aizen dropped all of us off at your house?" Then Renji took a breath of air.

"Pretty much." Ichigo kept walking with his hands in his pockets.

"Well that's dumb, why didn't you just pull some of that werewolf stuff and scare him out of your deed?"

Ichigo sighed. "It's a long story, and it's complicated."

"I don't get it."

"You don't have to! Did you not see all of those guards with their bows? I'm not Superman, you know." Ichigo scowled and saw the sun getting ready to go down. "Let's make camp"

So, Ichigo went and got firewood and Renji built the fire and created a tent. Then Ichigo managed to tie the horses to a tree before returning to the fire with Renji. They sat and waited for the sun to set. Just when it was about to, Ichigo ran into the tent so he wouldn't scare the horses. Then Ichigo snuck out the back and ran into the woods to hunt.

The next morning, Ichigo had bacon and eggs ready for Renji. He made them using three sticks and a rock. Then he scooped the eggs and bacon onto a smooth rock and gave it to Renji.

"Morning, sunshine." Ichigo grinned as Renji glared at him.

"Shut up!" Renji then huffed and ate his breakfast. When they were done, Ichigo fed the horses some grain and found a river for them to drink. After they drank, Ichigo stripped down to his boxers and jumped in the river.

"What the hell are you doing?" Renji yelled at him. Ichigo began washing himself and ignored Renji. Seconds later, a huge splash was behind Ichigo. He turned around and Renji was also taking a bath. They cleaned off and then went back to the horses. Pyon let Ichigo ride her and they traveled all day and made up a lot of time.

Ichigo and Renji had traveled for 13 days. They could see the Kukichi palace in the horizon. They had to stop because there was supposed to be a full moon sometime this week. Ichigo hated full moons. They were the only time of the month that he had no powers at all. He was a normal human. He was completely vulnerable and there were robbers everywhere in the woods. Ichigo smiled as the moon came up, tonight wasn't the night. There was about an hour left of daylight, so Ichigo and Renji sat down to talk.

"Tell me about you Ichigo. I don't really know anything about you except you're a werewolf that gets to look human during the day."

Ichigo groaned and swallowed his apple they stole. "Ok, it's a long story though. When I was a little boy, I was walking with my mom. I fell off a sidewall onto a guy in a hood. He said he knew a magic trick and my mom tried to get me to leave and he took out his wand and she-" Ichigo's voice was stuck. "She was killed." He whispered. "Then he cursed me as a werewolf. I only turn this way at night."

"Oh, so you're only half-werewolf. So, you're a half-breed?" Renji fell over laughing. Ichigo growled and kicked him in the face.

Renji rubbed his face. "So what kind of powers you have?"

"Super speed, strength and senses, and some healing." Ichigo said cockily.

"Wow!" Renji said sarcastically. Ichigo was going to retort, but the sun went down. Ichigo transformed then grinned at Renji. Renji laughed and laid down. "Goodnight puppy." Renji chuckled as Ichigo playfully swiped at him than ran off.

The next morning, they finished their journey. They were now standing in front of the Kukichi gates. The castle was about 40 stories high and there was sakura trees all around the garden. Ichigo and Renji looked up as the gates began to open. They looked at each other and smirked.

"Ready for this?" Renji asked.

"Always." Ichigo added then they both walked through the gates, not expecting what happened next. And they thought this was going to be a simple job.