Ichigo was currently laying on his bed with his copy of Macbeth opened. His eyes were gazing at the pages but he actually wasn't reading it, his mind was elsewhere. In the weeks that passed since his encounter with Diarmuid, they became great friends. Ichigo would often go to the older man's house so they could drink something or just chat about anything. Diarmuid told him about his time as a knight of Fianna and also told stories about his adventures and how his beauty spot would actually draw women's attention to him. Having a power like this would be considered a blessing by the majority of the male population but, it was more of a curse to the Irish man.

When he mentioned his forbidden love with Grainne, Ichigo couldn't help but think of how Shakesperian their love story was, sad but yet held a beauty to it, still, he felt bad for the fate that his new friend encountered. Overall, Ichigo was actually enjoying more his stay in the Throne of Heroes, but there was one thing that was bugging him...

''What the hell is wrong with her lately?''

He couldn't help but ask this mentally. Scathach has been acting strange towards him, no, not strange,how should he put it? maybe colder? Yes, that's more accurrate. This is something that has been going on since he started to talk with Diarmuid.

''I can't comprehend her...''

-''Seriously King? You really can't tell what the problem is?'', The hollowfied zanpakutõ's voice rang on his head.

''What do you mean Zangetsu?'', The teen asked in confusion, said zanpakutõ spirit just sighed in exasperation.

-''Okay, I'll give a hint to you. Ichigo, what have you been doing in the last 3 weeks?''

''Reading some books and talking to Diarmuid.''

-''See? there you go.''

Ichigo gave a puzzled look at his zanpakutõ spirit before his eyes widened in understanding.

''You're actually telling me that the reason that Scathach is pissed is because I'm not training with her anymore?'', Zangetsu stared at his wilder blankly before shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.

-''Sure, let's go with that for now, afterall, this is something that you need to figure by yourself.''

''What do you think I should do Zangetsu?''

-''Apologize to her.''

''I undersand that she misses or trainings but, I really need to apology for a reason like this?''

-''King, something that you'll learn soon is that even when a woman is wrong, she is right.''

''...Did you just cited a line from everybody hates Chris?''

-''Yup, and you can't blame me, that show is awesome.''

Ichigo just shook his head in amusement.

''Thanks for the tips Zangetsu, I'm glad to know that you're not a complete asshole and that I can count on you with my problems too.''

-''Heh, don't get all sap on me Ichigo, if you keep this up I might try to be king again.''

His wielder smirked at him.

''I'd like to see you try.''

And with these last words, Ichigo broke the conection. Zangetsu passed a hand through his white locks and smiled tiredly.

-''Who knew that you would manage this situation so well? I'm proud of you.'', A voice spoke from behind. Turning to the person that was standing behind him, Zangetsu scowled.

-''Next time you take care of it old man, I'm not good with that romance bullshit.'', Those being his final words, Zangetsu shunpo'ed away to one of the buildings inside Ichigo's inner world. Now standing completely alone, old man Zangetsu chuckled. It was indeed possible to have some amusement from time to time.

xxxx

''Okay Ichigo, You can do this. The only thing you need to do is bow your head and say 'I'm sorry for ignoring you Scathach,I want to return to our old routine so please don't stay mad at me anymore'. Yeah, that sounds good.''

Lifting his right hand, Ichigo knocked on the door, but before it could even be open, a strong light blinded him, making the teen cover his eyes with one hand. When the light finally died out, Ichigo's eyes widened.

-''What...the...hell.'', He muttered as he gazed at the arid ground around him. This certainly wasn't Scathach's castle.

''Where the fuck am I?"

-''You're actually in Iran in the year of 2040 Ichigo.'', A sweet voice resonated inside his head.

''Alaya?''

-''Yes! It's me my darling, how are you doing?'', The goddess asked cheerfully.

''Uhmm I'm doing fine, but that's not the time to those type of questions, can you tell me why I'm in Iran please?''

-''Oh hehe, Sorry, I teleported you without explaining anything to you.'', Alaya laughed nervously,''Ichi, this is actually your first mission as a Counter Guardian, there is a terrorist group that is acting on this area, they'll be responsible for the third world war and the result would be the anihilation of the human race.I want you to destroy that group and prevent it.''

Ichigo's expression became serious, so it finally came huh? the time for his first mission as one of the beasts of Alaya.

-''Their base is two hundred meters away from you, just go in a straight line and you will arrive there.''

The teen nodded at her instructions.

-''Well, there are other matters that I need to attend. Don't worry, I'll know when your job is finished. Good luck Ichi-kun, if you do a good job I'll reward you tonight...'',She purred, making the teen blush slightly.

Ignoring her insinuations, Ichigo ended their conversation and focused on the task at hands. Using shunpo, he arrived at the location in a matter of seconds.

''Well, that is seriously a big ass base.'', Big would be an underestimate, the base looked more like a fortress than anything. It's color was a morbid grey and guards were watching over the big ass doors. With another quick shunpo, Ichigo appeared behing three guards and choped then in the neck with his left hand, the movement so fast that it would be impossible to see with the naked eye. The guards fell limply on the ground. Going through the door, Ichigo went inside.

The teen started to walk by the long hallways while watching out for any enemy or strange soundss. The place looked like a maze and someone could easily get lost around it.

''Damn, where is the leader of this terrorist group so I can finish this shit and go back to the castle? I still need to talk with Scathach."

The teen kept going through the maze-like hallways, till a noise caught his attention. It was faint, but with each step,Ichigo could hear it better.

''Someone is crying?''

Walking further, Ichigo turned to his right and came to a halt. There was a black door that was half opened. He could clearly see stairs that went down to another floor. Taking a small breath, the shinigami begun to walk downstairs. the air seemed to become heavy and when Ichigo arrived at the last step, his eyes widened.

I front of him, was a room containing a big amount of cells. Inside the cells was a great quantity of children, from boys to girls. The younger ones looked like 5 years old while the older ones couldn't be more than 14.

Quickly going to the closest cell, Ichigo tried to speak with them.

-''Hey are you guys alright? What happened here?'', No response, all the children inside the cell had a blank face, their eyes empty,''Hey! Please answer me!''

-''Ichigo, stop.''

''Old man...''

-''The majority of those children are already dead, and the ones that are actually alive are already broken, both in body and mind.''

''You can't possibly mean-''

-''Yes Ichigo, they were not only tortured, but raped as well.'', Old man Zangetsu said in a somber tone.

Ichigo's body begun to tremble due to the enormous amount of rage that was cursing through his body.

-''H-Hello?'', A small voice spoke, snapping Ichigo out of all the negative emotions that he was feeling. The orange haired teen speedily ran towards the voice and saw a young girl that was probably between 8 or 9 years old, her hair was dark and her eyes were blue, she had many bruises all over her small body. Punching the cell, Ichigo broke it and stepped inside, getting closer to the girl, who distanced herself from him, her body trembling, it was obvipous that she was scared.

-''Hey there...'' He said softly while kneeing on the ground,''I'm not going to hurt you ok? I came here to save you.'', The girl reluctantly glanced at him.

-''S-Save me?'', Her tone was broken, but there were hints of hope on it, that almost destroyed Ichigo's heart.

-''Yeah, I'm here to defeat the bad guys.''Carefully holding her small hand, he took her out of the cell.

-''HEY! WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!'', Someone screamed,Ichigo looked at the stairs and saw one of the guards standing there. The man quickly pushed a button that was on the wall, making alarms resonate in the entire base. In the blink of an eye, he punched the man on the head, making the guard lose consciousness. Taking the girl in his arms, Ichigo shunpo'ed to the hallway, and saw that there was at least 15 men running on his direction.

Cursing loudly, he put the girl on the floor.

-''Look, I want you to go find a place to hide ok? After mister deals with them I'm taking you out of here.'', the girl nodded before she ran away from him and turned to the left at the end of the hallway, completely disappearing from his sight. Materializing Hollow Zagetsu, Ichigo disappeared in a burst of shunpo, just to appear again in the middle of the terrorists. With casual swings, he easily cut the men's on their chests, making a spray of blood gush out of it, but not hitting any vital place. After he was done there, he begun to search the machinary room, blowing it would certainly destroy this place or at least make it stop working.

''There!''

Arriving at his destination, Ichigo collected his spirit energy and concentrated it on the blade, ready to unleash a nameless Getsuga, but was stopped by an unknown voice.

-''So you're the punk that had the nerve to invade my home huh?'', Glancing over his shoulder, Ichigo saw a bald man that seemed to be on his fourtie's, he was fairly muscular and was using a black pant and red shirt,''You also free'ed a girl from my basement. I don't like when people try to steal what is mine,luckily I found her.'', Seeing Ichigo's eyes widening, the man grinned maliciously,''I already punished her and brought her here with us, here speak with her.'' Taking a bag from behing him, the man threw it at Ichigo's feet. When it came into contact with the floor, the beg opened and showed the head of the dark haired girl ,her face was covered in blood and a look of total horror was still plasted on her face.

For that moment, time seemed to stop to the teen as he simply gazed at the bloody head on the floor. When he heard the man laugh, Ichigo forgot everything, his mission, his pride, his honor, there was just the hate and rage boiling inside him.

The sclera of his eyes, previously white, became black.

At that moment, Ichigo saw red.

xxxx

AN: Look who's back? Yeah it' been a long ass time huh? To tell you guys the truth, my muse for Bleach died for some time while my muse for Mondaiji reached it's peak, but after rewatching some of the Soul Society arc episodes and also watching some Bleach amv's my muse finally came back!

So, I guess I made this chapter be a bit dark... Sorry about that xD

I'm still looking for a beta, if anyone is willing to do it, please PM me.

On another note, After I finish this story I'll translate it to Portuguese, so for my readers from Brazil and Portugal, it may be easier and more comfortable for you guys(it'll also be better written since,well, it's my native language lol).

My next story to be updated will be Testament of A Problematic Blond and after that Chivalry of A Berry Knight.

Reviews:

Chen Qin Qing: Thanks for your review! I actually really want to get a beta, but it's being quite difficult to find one :/

Rainermoreno: Thanks! I'll revise all the chapters this week so I can arrange the mistakes, I'm glad that you're liking it :)

SirDuranix: Thank you! It's been some time since I read about Reiatsu and Reishi so I'm sorry about the confusion, thanks for correcting me :D

Lu Bane Na: Sorry for the confusion, actually Albion is just the name of the forest, I lked the name so I decided to use it, nothing to do with Arthur in this story hehe.

Gjin19: That's actually a good idea! Thanks for the suggestion!

Akix058: Thank you.

SomethingAncient: Thanks man, I changed that part about Ichigo being hot headed and fighting with the heroes, you're right, it was a little OOC to his character, thanks for correcting me :)

Enigma95: Sorry man, I didn't understand your question, you can PM me if you have any questions, I'll gladly respond :)

Reishin Amara: Thanks bro! It kinda is ironic lol but it's the same case for me lol

I'll see you guys in the next chapter and I wish a good christmas to all of you!