Hey, just so you know time moves differently between the two dimensions. What's a week in soul society is a year in the world of the living.
Ichigo stretched and sat up; he prepared to dodge the normal morning kick from his dad before he remembered where he was. After showering and getting dressed, he walked out of the room he had been using in Erzas' house. It had been a week since the appearance of Kon who was still getting used to being a real lion; he had tried using his combat pass to talk to home as he recently remembered the real purpose for it, there had been no response, so he assumed that it didn't work in this dimension.
He walked to the guild deciding that today he would go on his first quest to get money so he could find a place of his own. When he got to the guild, he made his way to the quest board, looking for the highest paying job. He found it. 300 000 jewel to wipe out a dark guild that was terrorizing a town somewhere in the south.
"Hey Mira, I'd like to go on this one." He told the bar tender, she nodded and filled it out in her book and without another word he left for the train station.
He got off at the station of Osibana where he then got a lift to Mt. Hakobe, where the dark guilds, Tartaros, resided. Tartaros was the third guild in the Balam alliance, Oración Seis and Grimoire Heart had already been wiped out. Making his way to the top of the mountain using shunpo, he could still feel his hollow growing stronger as he grew weaker. He reached the top and saw the guild; it was a big four story building, completely black with the red emblem of their guild etched on the front.
Ichigo was in a bad mood and decided to have fun with this so he made sure his guild mark was covered and walked up to the front door he knocked on it.
"What do you want?" A gruff voice said opening the door. He had short dirty blonde hair, crooked teeth and an ugly scar running down the side of his face.
"I want to join." He stated simply, making the man at the door surprised.
"Come in then, and tell us why." Ichigo walked in, smiling cockily when the man turned his back.
"I used to be a member of Fairy Tail until I was kicked out for joining in on an attack on the Magic Council headquarters; I killed three of the wizard saints before escaping. When I returned to the guild, I was expelled." He had the whole attention of the room.
"I heard something about that a few years back"…"Never knew which guild"… "He's scary crazy"… "Should we let him join?"… Ichigo heard the whispers and had to be careful not to smirk again. He had read about the story and how the person responsible had never been caught. He also knew that all dark guilds hated the Magic Council.
"So… You claim to be the man that did this, but you're not the first and none of them could prove that it was true. So why should we believe you?" said the man who had opened the door Ichigo half expected this and so was prepared.
"Because I can beat who ever your strongest mage is using the same darkness magic that was used then." Everyone knew that it was dark magic that was used to defeat the three wizard saints, but nobody its abilities exactly.
"Ok I, the guild master of Tartaros accept your challenge young man, what is your name?" The voice came from someone from the shadows, who stepped forward.
"Ichigo Kurosaki" He replied while pulling Zangetsu from his back.
"You claim to use darkness magic while pulling out a sword." The man smirked; Ichigo just smiled a confident smile.
"You'll just have to wait and see; perhaps we should take this outside? Don't want to destroy my future home."
Walking outside with the whole guild following behind, Ichigo prepared to start his first job.
"Okay, BEGIN!" Someone shouted. Ichigo raised his sword and changed into bankai immediately, swinging his sword down he shouted, "GETSUGA TENSHO!" sending the wave of darkness towards the guild master, ending the fight in one shot by sending the Guild Master flying backwards, unconscious.
Leaving the crowd speechless, he returned his zanpaktou to its shikai form before putting it back on his back. Walking over to the fallen master he said simply "Believe me now?" Everyone nodded, terrified of the man they saw in front of them.
He was granted permission to join almost instantly afterwards, but instead of accepting straight out he said. "I only want to join the toughest guild, show me what you would normally do."
It was as he expected when they led him down the mountain to the village that sent the request, all the members ventured down except the master who was still unconscious. He watched for a few minutes while they terrorized the poor people, but before they could do any serious harm, he released his massive spiritual pressure all at once, knocking out all the wizards out while leaving the towns people untouched.
Once this was done he walked over to the mayor of the town, he showed the request and the mayor nodded his thanks before handing over the money while the army came and took the dark guild away.
He couldn't be bothered waiting for the train so he just shunpoed all the way home and when he walked in the door he had to dodge a flying naked Grey. Damn it's always noisy in here, he thought. Walking to the request board, he chose another A rank mission and gave it to Mira who again wrote it down. He left without saying a word to anyone.
He spent the next week completing quest upon quest, no one saw him except for when he came to get the next one. He went through about 3 A-rank quests a day.
Natsu watched as Ichigo came in and left without a word. He wanted to fight him but he had a feeling the man was going through all of these quests to distract him from his homesickness and the growing power of his inner hollow. Venturing outside, he ran to the den that Igneel was living in for now. He was so happy that Igneel was back but he was still worried about what his foster parent had told him.
*Flash Back*
"Natsu, the reason I left, why all of the dragons left was because we were ordered to by the Dragon King to do so. It was forbidden to come back and see our wards. The dragon of prophecy saw the future, all dragons were wiped out and the world was destroyed by a dragon slayer. Therefore it was forbidden for any dragons to have any contact with humans, the penalty would've been death."
*End Flash Back*
Natsu was worried about what would happen if Igneel was found out by the other dragons but he refused to leave, saying he had missed Natsu too much. Natsu, over the past two weeks, had been training and now was stronger than he had ever been. He was preparing to challenge Erza to a fight and then, Ichigo.
In the three weeks since the first meeting, the Woman's Soul Reaper Association had had held multiple other meeting dedicated to bringing Ichigo back, but now everyone who knew Ichigo was sitting in the hidden room in the Kuchiki mansion.
"I found out that he's in another dimension and I have also worked out how to open a portal and get him back." Ikkaku yelled above the noise, silencing everyone instantly.
"We need something of Ichigo's that he held dear, someone who has fought him and won and, last of all, we need someone with the same hollow powers as him, a vizard."
Shinji looked around the room at all his friends, wondering how exactly he was supposed to break this news to them. In the few weeks that they had trained Ichigo, everyone had gotten attached to him and after he had lost his powers they had all helped him regain them by charging the sword with their spiritual pressure. Sighing he looked at the letter he had gotten and read it out loud.
"Dear Shinji
I have some regrettable news. Ichigo, it seems, has been sucked into an alternative dimension.
We have worked out a way to open a portal that will allow him to return to the world of the living but there are a few things we need: Something he holds dear, someone who beat him in a fight and a vizard.
It would be helpful if one of you would meet me in his house at 11:00pm tonight.
Regards, Urahara Kisuke."
Shinji saw the startled expressions of everyone in the room.
"I will go and meet him, although I don't know who has beaten him before so that'll be interesting," Shinji said, not waiting for anyone else to reply.
He flash stepped to the meeting place and was met by a group of people, but the one that surprised him most was Grimmjow, he then he remember how he had beaten Ichigo when they first met, but how on earth did Kisuke convince him to help?
*Flashback*
Grimmjow looked up from the roof of Las Noches, he couldn't believe everyone but Neliel and he were gone. He was glad he never wanted what Aizen had wanted; he went along with his crazy plan out of fear. More than anything, he wanted to fight Ichigo again. He heard someone approaching; he saw that it was a soul reaper dressed in green.
He listened as the man spoke and agreed to help save Ichigo as long as he would get a rematch when he got back. Kisuke agreed readily despite thinking that he was going to regret this.
*End Flashback*
Shinji saw that Ichigo's 'something precious' was actually his father, Isshin. Kisuke told everyone what they had to do, Isshin frowned, Grimmjow smiled like an idiot and Shinji just looked nervous. He had the most important job of all apparently.
Kisuke began chanting the words that were needed and soon a dark hole appeared, they could sense Ichigos' spiritual pressure through it. But something was wrong, it was darker than normal and it fluctuated like he was in terrible danger.
Ichigo had requested to go on an S-Class mission and after a lot of hounding, Makarov consented. So here he was, flash-stepping towards a cave where there was an evil monster hiding that needed to be destroyed, Erza had come with him but she had to travel on the train, Ichigo couldn't wait for her so he had sped off ahead.
Ichigo looked into the cave and was surprised when he instantly saw a dragon! Only this one was black as night, not red like Igneel.
Seeing him, the dragon growled, "What do you want, fly?"
"I was told to destroy the monster of this cave," he replied, "but I didn't think that dragons were monsters, my name is Ichigo, what's yours?" The dragon peered at him with large gold eyes before replying.
"Acnologia." Ichigos' eyes widened in surprise, this was the dragon of darkness!
He sat down and told the dragon about his situation and asked Acnologia if he would teach him dragon slayer magic. The dragon was shocked but after a few minutes agreed he remembered how powerful he was when they first met, and secretly he always wanted someone to train but no one was ever strong enough before now. Ichigo told him he had to tell someone that he had done and then he would be right back.
When he met up with Erza he decided to lie and say he already took care of it and just had to get the reward, he also told her that he wanted to look around a bit before returning to the guild. Erza looked at him accusingly before nodding and heading back to the guild on her own.
Ichigo sat on the cave floor, following the instructions of the dragon. He found he could do it easily and, as was usual for Ichigo, he learned everything within a week; the dragon was impressed to say, the least. On a whim, Ichigo decided to stay with the dragon for a couple of months, he learned a lot in his time with the dragon, he also changed physically, his hair had grown alarmingly fast and was now flowing down to his back, his hair had turned black and so had his clothes. Shadows continually flowed around him.
During his training with the dragon he had also been training with Zangetsu. He found that he could now use the final getsuga tensho without losing his powers, which was unheard of before now. His sword was also permanently in banki as it was now too powerful to be able to seal to shikai. Another side effect of his training was he now had those blue bandages wrapped around his body and half his face. He looked scary even too himself. After a few months he finally decided it was finally time to go home. He said good bye to his new friend, the dragon, saying that he would visit as soon as he could.
Arriving at the guild after so long, he wondered if they would recognise him, he did after all look like a completely different person. Opening the doors and taking a deep breath he walked in. All eyes turned to him in confusion others suspicion.
"Hey guys I'm back." He said nervously. They recognised his voice. "ICHIGO?!" they all called out at once. He just nodded.
Makarov appeared and looked at him in concern.
"Where have you been? Are you ok?" Running a hand through his long black hair he replied.
"I've been training, I've mastered my strongest technique, hence the change in my looks. I also learnt magic." This surprised everyone.
"What kind?" Lucy asked.
"Dragon slayer magic," he stated simply, "from Acnologia."
He had prepared for many reactions but he was not prepared for what actually happened. Natsu remembered what Igneel had told him about the end of the world, Erza and most of the guild members were in shock at how crazy powerful he would be now.
"Welcome back anyhow, now there's something I need to discuss with you." Makarov said. Ichigo followed him upstairs, not asking any questions.
"Look there's this mission that only you could do, it is a 100 year quest but it needs to be done NOW!" He roared the last word making everyone downstairs jump. He showed Ichigo the flier.
It seemed to be relatively easy, rid a town of some monsters, but since no one had done it in over a hundred years it must be harder than it looks. He accepted and agreed to do it. Walking down the stairs he showed the flyer he had been given to Mira who wrote it down in the book and he left straight away in order to avoid the questions. He used shadow step, a form of teleportation, to appear instantly at the town.
It was a dump, buildings lay crumbled and rubbish littered the streets, everywhere was deadly quiet. He made his way to the centre of the town to the hall that was located there. Walking in he found all the town members, some injured, others looking pissed off. They all stared at him as he walked in.
He walked up to the mayor and handed the flyer to him. "Thank god you're here, it's been getting worse and worse, they come and attack every night now." Ichigo saw the sun was setting, so he worked out that he had maybe 3 hours tops.
He walked around and got as much information from the towns' people as he could, but it wasn't much, all they could tell him was that the monsters had to be destroyed. They were all a terrified of him, he noticed. At about midnight the monsters came suddenly, without any noise. The first one smashed the door of the town hall in and half the wall; it was the size of a menos but had the spiritual pressure of an Espada. There were five more behind the first, no wonder none could kill them in a hundred years, Ichigo thought.
"Chaos dragon roar." He breathed black fire, turning the first one to dust. Before he had a chance to celebrate he had to duck a swipe of claws from another and avoid a tail lashed at him. Ducking down behind a wall, he paused to gather his strength before releasing 'that' attack. He stood up pointing his zanpakuto at the creatures, muttering 'Mangetsu' his most powerful attack.
The power that was enough to defeat Aizen rushed forward, cutting through two monsters more before disappearing, leaving three to go.
"Chaos dragon secret technique: Death Fury!" Releasing the energy, it spread slowly over everything, disintegrating anything it touched… except for the monsters. They all looked pissed and moved in to surround him. They started to work as a team, one swiping at Ichigo's head, another at his legs and the third, his chest. He used flash step to appear behind one of them and tried to chop his head off. Before he could do this, he felt a stabbing sensation in his chest and looked down to see sharp claws embedded into his flesh.
"HAHA," one of the monsters laughed, "even if the wound doesn't kill you the poison will. It is very fast acting and painful." Ichigo could feel it spreading already, it was burning him. He released a getsuga tensho and obliterated the monster that had stabbed him easily, releasing another two in quick concession, he destroyed the remaining monsters but it was too late, the poison had already taken effect.
He dropped to one knee in pain, feeling dizzy. He saw the villages rush over to him but he fell back, collapsing; just as his eyes closed, a new rift opened up behind him.
