Do I still have readers? Hell, I'm so sorry for the delay, this chapter basically had to be ripped from my imagination's entrails. It took a lot. It's a little short, yeah. But Ichigo finally gets some much needed de-stress… in a way.

Anyway, enjoy!

Croix de l'Chrysalis

by

Raining Sky Guy


Ichigo was staring blankly at the sky, dangling belly-up, in his usual black robes, on a branch of a tree, far away from anything. He had already watched the sun come up and down more times than he cared to count but still he couldn't seem to be able to make any decisions.

His face ached.

While useful for his planned excursion into Seireitei, the information supplied by the students hadn't been much more clarifying.

He knew that Matsumoto had just been appointed third-seat by Shiba-taicho. And wasn't that odd all by itself? Shiba-taicho…Isshin-taicho…

But that meant that Toushiro had probably not even been born yet in the Human World. Hikufune-taicho was just mentioned in passing about what a nice figure she had but they hadn't seen her lieutenant.

And horror of horrors,

Urahara Kisuke was not a name they recognized. That wasn't to say that he did not exist yet or that he had not entered the academy yet —maybe he had already finished but he was doing something shady before entering the Gotei 13 ranks, which would be just like him. But even as the thought occurred, Ichigo was already dashing his own hopes. He doubted Urahara was much older than Aizen.

What was he going to do?

What irritated him the most was the fact that he had had some stupid hope that hat-and-clogs would have been able to help him even with these odd circumstances they would meet in. He had been hoping for someone to-

Ichigo shook his head, clearing his thoughts. Whatever, this barely changed things. This only meant that even if Ichigo beheaded the kid, he wouldn't be able to return to his time for a long while.

But that wasn't the current plan. No. He had decided to change the future. And for that he'd take care of Baby-Aizen and make sure he became a decent being or kill him if it seemed like he wasn't.

But how long? How long before he could say his job was done? How long would he have to stay with Diapers to make sure the future was safe?

'Well, at the very least you have to wait for Shady-Eyes to appear, a little intelligent so maybe we'd have to wait until he's cap or something… Worry about this sometime later, now you know roughly what period in time we're at, so you gotta go back to the kid.'

"What am I going to do, guys? I mean-!"

'Ya wanna go back now?'

"No-I mean not immediately, not before completing my mission…"

'Then stop fretting over it until you have to deal wi' the problem. Ichigo! This is how we've always dealt with things! Don't ponder on the inevitable or the unchangeable and focus on today!'

'Shiro is right, Ichigo.' His other self agreed, amiably.

'Oi, who ya calling Shiro, name's Zangetsu ye fucking Quincy.' The white Zangetsu quipped but was ignored by the other two.

'We aren't a soul that worries of the future ahead. We take things in stride, as they come, and always, without fail overcome every obstacle. And that's exactly what we're going to do. So, it would be to our best interest if you returned to, ah, Diapers.'

Ichigo stopped moving and thinking for barely a beat. Then he jumped down and dashed towards the clearing in which he had left Ai- Diapers.

He thought he could see her smiling at him, but that would make no sense.


"Shinigami-san!" A cry of excitement greeted him, his senses and attention fully focused on the child that dashed to meet him. Why was he running? Why did he seem to enthusiastic?

"Here." He said, tossing him the first pair of glasses to the kid, who barely had time to stop in his tracks for the object not to fly over his head.

"Huh? …Glasses? You went back for this?" The kid asked, his eyeglasses-less face showcasing his surprise. It lasted for a bit before a grin split his face in two. "Thank you very much, Shinigami-san!"

He proceeded to put them on and immediately squinted. A spark of worry lit up inside Ichigo.

"Not those ones then, try these ones."

Aizen squinted harder.

Ichigo smiled as the fretting child grabbed yet another pair. He was biting down on his lips and he hunched in on himself more and more as none of the pairs seemed to work. He started avoiding Ichigo's stare.

At the end, Ichigo produced a last pair and handed them in silence. A no longer smiling Aizen took hold of them and hesitated before putting them on. To his obvious surprise he could see with them, he looked at his surroundings, mouth opening and Aizen turned to tell Shinigami that he could see clearly with those-

Pain met his body.

Aizen could not understand what was going on, why was he laying on his back and why was Shinigami pointing his sword at him and, "-nigami-san… it hurts…why-?"

Blazing amber eyes stared back at him over a sea of scars. There was a weird pressure over them, and Aizen had trouble breathing and he could swear Ichigo's voice was double-toned but he had no idea why.

"You're going to have one shot to answer this, Aizen. Why do you wear glasses?"

The kid squirmed in place and avoided his gaze yet again yet whimpered when the pain on his neck augmented with a small pop that meant that skin had broken. Tears started accumulating in his eyes, and the kid started trembling. He did not say anything.

"I am waiting, Aizen. Your move. What are you going to do?"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I made you go so far to get them, but I don't have bad eyesight!" Aizen finally whimpered out, eyes closed shut as the gibberish continued to pour out. "I just thought that with glasses I would look less intimidating! Be-cause everytime the other kids run away because they say I'm scary!"

"Too bad that's actually a good excuse."

"Eh-?"

For a moment, the kid saw death in the face.

But then all he could see was the blue of the sky.

The child continued to cry.


That was probably the original reason he had done so. Aizen had nailed the goody-two-shoes captain look. And he had had it all figure it out since a toddler. Figures.

Out of a sudden he saw the hunched backs of Stark and Lilinette with his mind's eye, alone in a world that hated them, struggling to fit in, and going as far as living boring, senseless lives just to suppress the raw power that could annihilate everyone around them. Except Ichigo of course.

Angry at this reminder, Ichigo slammed Zangetsu in the ground.

Lonely.

Ichigo screamed, alone in the forest.

It resonated in his mind, as well as a distant memory, an echo, a plea for help.

Lonely.

He had no right!

Lonely.

Lonely.


"I hate liars." Were the words that passed Ichigo's lips, reigning in his anger just right to further scare the kid, but not more. His ever simmering emotions had been finally tucked away and Ichigo had returned to a silent and sad kid.

That said, the tired Shinigami turned around, bent on disappearing for the evening. He was stopped by the softest of ruffles.

"I'm sorry…Please don't leave… I won't do that again."

Was the kid actually asking this of him? He almost got murdered by ichigo and…

"You're nuts."

That made two of them.


It was a bizarre evening for Ichigo. While it wasn't unusual for him to be all friendly with guys he had eviscerated (or viceversa), it was usually a process that took a couple months at the least. And it was generally because they had to band together to defeat a bigger evil.

The World Savior stared at the rambling kid over the fire he had built.

Why was the kid so eager to keep Ichigo company?

Was he so desperate for…?

"Don't you have any friends"? Blunt as always, Icihgo interrupted as he watched the kid cringe, fingers messing around with his torn clothes.

"No… not really. That's why I'm so glad to have you here, Shinigami-san."

"I'm not your friend." Was the knee jerk reaction, making the kid wave his hands around frantically.

"A-ah, I meant…Just keeping me company." Diapers mumbled shyly and grossly. A smile pulled at his lips when Ichigo didn't snap anything back. But as usual, the reaper was having darker thoughts.

'More like keeping an eye on you and –if—it were necessary, keeping you from seeing another sunrise.'

His blade glistened as the bloodlust appeared, but Ichigo was undeterred. His mind couldn't help but wander over to a certain shopkeeper. What would he say to him? Any sort of pointers or advice or anything to understand and take control of the situation, he'd like to think. It was not like he was stupid himself, but he had left subtlety behind for war and he'd never been big on mental manipulation.

His eyes darkened and his chest pulsed with pain as he recalled his last moments. His last words.

"Hey, Shinigami-san, are you hungry? I caught a big fish, it's over by the river, come on!"

Ah well, this was his mission now.

He might as well obey his elders for once.


The days continued to pass. The pulse of Aizen in Ichigo's mind finally became a background noise as he grew used to it, as well as the presence of the kid. Diapers had decided to forgo his glasses for the moment, which for some reason irritated Ichigo to no end. But since it had been his fault, he did not bring it up.

The child was now in charge of getting enough food for both of them, while Ichigo sat on his butt and watched over him. Even though he was starting to get tired of eating fish every day, he didn't pay it much mind. For one, he had long since stopped being picky about food, neither the state it was in, the repetitiveness or the meager quantity available; for another, he didn't think he was mentally prepared to see Aizen gutting a rabbit or something similar.

This lack of action, made Ichigo restless. Tense and unhappy, he started scowling for no good reason until his sword berated him, called him a 'fucking wuss', and repeated that he should 'bloody smile'. But Aizen seemed undeterred. Either he didn't notice or he didn't care, as he continued coming back to Ichigo with a smile on his face. Like a child. Who didn't know better, who couldn't know better. Who took whatever life threw at him with open arms, whatever it was. Something Ichigo had stopped doing even before being submerged in Shinigami problems, even before coming of age. That fateful day when Grand Fisher had appeared in the rain.

The rain had not stopped until someone came into his life. Someone who refused to leave, refused to leave him alone, refused to let him blame himself and made the rain finally stop. She- So Diapers was probably crazy but he could work with crazy. God knew all his friends were just different levels of insane.

But still… His joints creaked in protest, his reiatsu trying to whip out around him. He needed to do something, this inactivity was too much. He stood up, turned to the kid and stated. "I'm leaving." Before the child had time to do more than widen his eyes in something like fear, choking on his food he added, "I'll be back, I need to exercise."

"Sh-ack-wha-?" Diapers continued coughing trying to get his words out, but calmed down somewhat by Ichigo's later words. He lifted teary eyes. "You'll be back?"

"Yeah." Ichigo said succinctly, but then he felt a little awkward. "Don't worry. I'm… Anyway, don't die on me while I'm gone." Somehow he managed to switch the 'please' with 'don't' before the words came out. That was a good thing. Probably.


He went to Hueco Mundo. Even though Hollows still entered Soul Society, he needed to feel the raw ambient, know he could let loose without repercussion. He just avoided strong reiatsus. He didn't want to accidentally kill some of his future-friends. Ichigo paused, his sword slicing limply the undifferentiated menos in front of him.

Come to think of it, if he ever found them, he would see them in their pre-baby form. The ridiculous idea that he could take pictures of them to blackmail Grimmjow in the future surfaced and almost made him smile. Instead, he cleared his mind and lungs with the vibrant air of Hueco Mundo as he spread terror and destruction to the creatures borne out of despair and hopelessness itself.

Ichigo wasn't sure. But he vaguely remembered crying. He knew why. And like this he had no way of proving her wrong. But there was no way around this. There wasn't. Really.

He knew she was right. He had come out to release his pent up frustration and ended up creating a veritable mountain of corpses.

Alone in the endless lightless desert, the World Savior, drenched in blood that wasn't his own, buried his face in his hands, allowing this gesture only because he was surrounded by dissolving carcasses.


Ichigo wanted to go find Kisuke. Even as young as he probably was now, he was pretty sure he deserved a good ass-kicking. The young man grumbled under his breath as he undressed in front of the minuscule trickle of water coming out of a protuberance in the rocks. He had already prepared a makeshift tub, filled with water to dump his soiled clothes in and he stepped into the tiny stream to wash himself off. It barely got to his ankles, but a second tub had been set aside for him to pour it over himself. Tired, and eerily reminded of his baths in this same place but under different circumstances and a different time period, the tired teen washed off the remaining grim clinging to his skin. At the end, he paused, cupped hands holding water to his face. It was vague, but Ichigo could still see himself reflected.

It was always weird seeing his scarred face. Especially when in conjunction with his unmarred neck. Medical officers had always been running low —Orihime was only called upon an emergency as to not deplete her reiatsu (it had been nigh difficult to make her agree though), so Ichigo had patched himself up to the best of his abilities most of the times. He was carried over to Unohana herself the two times his face greeted a blade (the second time with the blade still lodged inside him) while Orihime had been reattaching Grimmjow's leg or otherwise engaged. He had been saved, but kidou did not set time back. So he had been carrying those awkward scars on his face ever since.

The Santen Kesshun user had been horrified and had immediately tried to heal those wounds but he had ushered her away. He wouldn't die of a scar and she'd better save up her energy to save someone else. And anyway, the shinigami would be highly offended if the human-hybrid got better treatment than they did.

What explained his neck was that reattaching his head back to his shoulders did, in fact, warrant Orihime's attention.

He traced the fissures on his face, hand traveling down his smooth neck and landing on the uneven terrain of his battle-weary body. It had been a while since he last looked into a mirror but it wasn't like he was missing on much.

'Oi, little princess.' His ever present sword decided to interrupt his musings with his typical snark – which Ichigo rarely appreciated. 'Either finish washing your clothes or dry them already if ye don't wanna stink like a … like a-'

'Drowned skunk.' His Quincy decided to follow along, with his impassive, tranquil voice. Ichigo just wanted to know why Zangetsu seemed hell-bent on acting up against him for the most ridiculous things. His two personas even got along!

'Ooh, Kuro what a dirty mind-'

'I'd like to know who this 'Kuro' you're referring to.'The Quincy blade asked suddenly frigid. Ichigo could feel an incoming headache at that.

'If ye lot can call me Shiro, I'm sure as hell calling you Kuro, old man!'

"For the love of… I already said I was sorry, but the nickname stuck! And anyways both of you are named Zangetsu and your blade has a white edge last time I checked!" Ichigo exclaimed loudly, fingers pointing accusingly at nothing as he focused more on his inner discussion. At this, his lousy blade decided it was a good moment to materialize which had Ichigo hurrying to cover his decency. It did not help when the Quincy blade decided to materialize as well beside Shiro.

"What the fuck you think yer doing!?" Ichigo demanded, more surprised than anything else. Still, he kicked Shiro when he pointedly looked between his legs and muttered something like, 'not like you have much ta show ta be honest.'

'I just want to point out that Kuro is not a suitable name for myself.'

"Is this really the moment?" Ichigo asked the glasses-wearing man, spreading a hand to encompass their surroundings. "I'm butt-naked in enemy land, with no dry clothes to wear!"

'Well why aren't you drying them then?' His both swords asked simultaneously in such a manner that had Ichigo clawing at his scalp in frustration.

"I would. If ye' dumbasses weren't butting in like this, goddamit!"

'See? He's even talkin' like me. Admit it, Old Man, I'm the favorite.'

"I do not want to talk like you, idiot! You sound like some cheap thug! I never spoke like that, why are you like this!?" Seeing Shiro opening his mouth in a perfect semblance of insulted, Ichigo kicked at him again. "No, shut up! Either let me put on my clothes or fuck off!"

'Let's see you trying to dry 'em, Orangey!'

"I swear to god-! Sokat-!"

'Incantation first, Ichigo. You do not own another uniform.'

'Yah, and we all know ya' suck at Kidou.'

Ichigo groaned. "Shut. Up. Ye lord, mask of blood and flesh, flutter of… of –"

'Wings, Ichigo. Again.'

Ichigo grumbled. He repeated the incantation, feeling his reiatsu surging from his center and pointed his open palm to a couple meters away from his soaked clothes. "Sokatsui." He finally managed to declare and a strong torrent of flames exploded from his hands, undirected and uncontrolled. Ichigo just made sure it did not touch his clothes and he cut the flow of reiatsu once his was sure his clothes were somewhat dry.

He grabbed at the black robes and smiled proudly to feel them steamy and dry for once.

'Y'know, I said it once, I'll say it again, man you really suck at Kidou!'

"You say that every single time. It's not even funny." He ignored his petty replies as he got dressed and opened a garganta. He had nothing else to do here. He jumped into the void and started on shunpo, the gaping hole closing up behind him.

.

In the river stream he had left, a four-legged creature appeared and started sniffing at the area sensing the reiatsu left behind and howled a call.


AN. Does the thing at the end hold some sort of relevance to the story? Maybe c:

Come on, take a guess.

So, what did you think of it? I think I'm gonna speed things up a little, else this will take forever to finish. Also had been thinking on redoing the beginning. There's something I'm not entirely satisfied with. If you're interested in discussing it, do mention it in the review or send me a PM.