I raise my sword

The blood seeps from my body

Against the horde

My vision is darkening

Let loose my hatred

I can't move

Until my enemies are dead

No matter the cost, I won't lose!

Chapter 10

The Hero's Return

Ichigo Kurosaki felt a chill in the air. Ever since he looked into the horizon and took off to where he felt Uryu's Reiatsu, an overwhelming sensation akin to shrieks of the damned filled the atmosphere. A sickening yellow cloud rose up, screams towering as far as the eye could see and the sky becoming an ill color of blood red. Lightning sprouted from the sky, crackling ribbons of scarlet and white, dancing around in an erratic ritual to showcase the dread that's being spread across the World of the Living. The forest itself, what wasn't bulldozed by the battle beforehand, was already being tainted; blood ebbing from the bark and the grass withering into dust. The smell of sulfur licked in the air with burning ozone were just minor additions to complement just how wrong this whole situation felt.

With his superior speed, the Substitute Soul Reaper managed to find Senna. She was limping, her body visibly unfurled and weathered by the fight she had with her opponent. As she fell, he quickly appeared by her side, catching her which enabled him to see the adept Reishi threads that had sewn her torn flesh neatly. Gritting his teeth, he leaned her against the nearest, bleeding and withering tree.

"Ichigo," She croaked, her face enamored with dirt, sweat and tears. He could feel her shaking beneath his palms as he held her shoulders. Her eyes were so similar to the time she was threatened with imprisonment by the Soul Reapers; and when the Dark Ones had captured her. "You shouldn't have come. M-Malice is...is so much stronger than I feared. I-I tried to fight him but...I couldn't-"

"It's okay," Ichigo quietly assured her, stroking his hand over her bangs gently. He couldn't smile, even as her eyes looked pleadingly up at him. He was too mad to put up an act. His eyes were drawn to a fierce scowl and his lips were put into a visible closed sneer. He wouldn't know it, but a thin blue haze ebbed off his body, channeled by the Resolve that made his hazel eyes glow a bright azure. "I'm going to make the asshole who hurt you pay for this."

In an instant, Ichigo left her side, with her hands reaching out, begging him with a final, "ICHIGO! He'll KILL you! Don't leave me alone...again."

As she dragged her body against the bleeding surface of the tree to weep, Ichigo's body contorted into a blue streaking blur. The world spun around him, trees whirring past him and ashen earth erupting past his form. He rushed headlong into the heart of this horrid cataclysm, the thing that unraveled the world's fabric of reality before his eyes. Breaching the edge of the effected woods, he saw a clearing of scorched earth and a massive crater where the yellow pyre thrust up into the sky.

It came off a walking corpse of a man, blood and pus oozing from burns to exposed muscle tissue. A raised hand held a blood crusted saw weapon, made out of someone's spine with the skull attached making up the pommel of the weapon's handle. A mighty swing was released as his voice gave a shrill cry, with words he barely made out during his approach.

The Hanta must have sensed him at the absolute last second, for the blade stopped at Uryu's prostrate form's head. Turning on his heel, he barely had time to rear his weapon horizontally across before a butcher blade's edge crashed into its flat. Eyes widened and his heels leaving the earth as the full force of the Substitute's momentum and Reiatsu bludgeoned into him like a bullet train. Passing over the Quincy's head, he'd land into the rising wall of the impact crater and through it, digging a surface trench for several meters from the surprise strike he narrowly absorbed.

"Ic-Ichi-go?" Uryu murmured, his body halting its shaking and his bare eyes looking up. Ichigo's Shikhakusho flourished from the jerking halt his entry made, his hair tussled and breath let loose through his nostrils. Lowering his Zanpakuto to his side, the Strawberry looked down at his classmate and comrade-in-arms with an air of empathy. Gripping the ground with his hands, he lowered his gaze back down, tears welling up in his eyes and letting loose to the ground beneath him. "F-Forgive me, Ichigo. I delayed him the best I could but...I'm just not strong enough, it seems."

"It doesn't matter. You can worry about that later," Ichigo reassured him, bending down to squat, his sword resting on his shoulder and his free hand reaching out to grab hold of the Quincy's shoulder. "I'll bring you over to Senna. You two deserve a break."

"THE QUINCY BITCH ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE, ICHIGO KUROSAKI!" A guttural roar sounded, making Ichigo and Uryu look with alarm at the sudden shockwave the Hanta let loose from a roar of his own voice.

Just as quickly as it was released, the pair disappeared, and the spot they once were moments before was obliterated by the shrieking sound wave. Grinding his visible, bleeding teeth and gums together, the cadaver bodied Hanta pulled himself out of the trench and leaped up into the air. Gaining altitude, he attempted to locate them with his Reikaku.

"Looking for me?" Ichigo's voice sounded from behind him, making the Hanta's eyes widen with surprise. Turning around, Ichigo's blade met his own, his Reiatsu crashing against his with a swirling maelstrom of blue and mustard formed a twister with themselves in its eye. The torn landscape was ripped up at the seams, dragging away chunks of dirt with foliage turned ash, crackling energies surging from the two's exerting power.

The Soul Reaper bared his teeth and held his ground while Malice grinned past his body's pain and injuries. In a turning twist of their weapons, they smashed them together with enough force to break apart the tornado, a warping bubble of azure and gold quaking the earth and whipping through the sky. The metal of their two spiritual catalysts crashed again and again, creating effects that sounded akin to thunder with flashes of their Reiatsu echoing throughout the visible horizon.

Despite all appearances, the Hanta's power continued to swell and Ichigo's fueled by his own anger tempered Resolve. The fight was far from over; it had just begun!

It felt hot.

She could feel herself release all of her anger. All of her despair. All of her determination and will within a single exhale and she became consumed and surrounded by a incredible heat. It would almost feel like a hundred degrees, but she felt no need to sweat and had no trouble breathing. In fact, the feeling made her excited, alive, and empowered.

Once Tatsuki opened her eyes to the world around her, she remembered she was in the middle of a battle, and heard a faint cry before being surrounded in heat, before it turned into a brief howl of agony. She looked down at her feet, seeing what covered them instead of bare soles made of skin is fiery sandals, her white Gi that led up from her legs to her chest and arms is now encompassed in a fiery red set of what looked like a cloak of dark crimson that stretched down to her ankles and covered over a red Gi, with bright red flames dancing around it. Her hair itself became different, having become longer, going all the way down to the end of her spine. Her eyes themselves were alight of golden-crimson, showing her newfound Resolve to fight and a smile encroached onto her features.

"This is badass!" Tatsuki yelled out, nearly laughing at how she looked, and the power flowing through her.

The nearby Hanta stood uneasy and tense, ready for retaliation and for a counter attack.

"What the Hell just happened?" One of Kuroi's compatriots asked incredulously, taking a slight uneven step backwards.

"This human had nearly no Spiritual Power! Where did this strength coming from?!" The other one hissed over to Kuroi, the latter stroked his chin, looking curiously at Tatsuki.

"Spiritual Resonance," He muttered, earning the one on his right with the most fear out of the two a wide-eyed confused look, before he continued. "Back when our target, Ichigo Kurosaki became a Soul Reaper, his enormous bursts of Spiritual Energy and constant presence near his Spiritually adept or gifted friends caused them to awaken Spiritual Powers they didn't know they had at a moment of greatest will or resolve. I'm certain, this is what's happened yet again, but this time, his mere residual aura left a imprint on her so strong its forcefully unlocked a power we have never seen before."

"I'll do it," The now scarred Hanta said ahead of Kuroi, crouching down and spreading his machetes to either side of him, "She's nothing to me."

"You do realize if you're wrong, you'll die and the Master won't forgive you this time?" Kuroi asked, a tinge of concern entered his stoic, unmoved voice.

"I know, but, if I live and I don't kill her, her burns will only add to my shame," He confessed as his teeth bared, his eyes narrowed and locked onto Tatsuki's. "What worth will I have if I don't try to sacrifice my own life, if even to allow you an outside look at her powers? At least my death won't be meaningless!"

"Danzo," Kuroi whispered, suddenly faltering in his speech when a sudden chill entered the air. The unnatural cold that made them perspire sweat brought a thick miasma of crimson to overcast the environment. Keigo and Mizuiro, who had been hiding by an overturned vehicle, looked up to see a swirling clouds of mustard hue that snapped blood colored lightning over their heads, wailing cries released with every thunderclap. The mortification petrified them, while only Tatsuki, the Soul Hunter and the Hanta absorbed the feeling in with their own expressions of shock and alarm.

"This Reiatsu...is this Malice's doing?" Kuroi muttering aloud, having never felt such palpable power from the other significantly stronger Hanta battling the other defenders of Karakura Town. Was this what being outclassed felt like?

Danzo felt rattled as well, and in the confusion he had lost sight of Tatsuki. His eyes blinked as he saw a breath of fire was released where she was one moment...then a blazing fist coming from his left, hitting him directly in the jaw. Again, he was covered by the blazing flames, causing him to howl in pain as the force of the punch his made his body careen across the parking lot.

Danzo managed to stab one of his machetes into the ground below him, slowing his speed for a moment before she came upon him again. Crouched low, she fired off a barrage of fiery punches into his chest, causing him to vomit blood that boiled upon proximity of her flames, evaporating into sickly mist upon contact.

"I-Impossible! How can she…be this fast?" Danzo thought hazily, desperately swinging his machetes towards her neck. Despite his burnt and bruised condition, he moved his blades in a silver blur towards her neck, a testament to his skill. Danzo watched as his blades moved within a hair's breadth of her skin, his blades began searing just being near them…until she vanished. A blur of motion and a violent exhale of fire exploded where Danzo stood, ushering a loud cry of outrage and pain.

Kuroi covered his eyes as did his two subordinates as the molten flames expanded in a significant blast radius, the smoke and tongues stretching out far enough for him to smell ozone and feel the heat. His lip curled into a grimace at his comrade's fate. He however became surprised at what he saw next.

"Her speed…was…augmented…it seems," Danzo whispered, his entire body burnt to the second layer of skin from head to toe, both pair of swords blazing hot, leaving his hands scarred around the handles as black as the asphalt that was around him; a thick layer of steam perspired into the air around him, almost making his body to appear as a mirage. "Do me a favor, Kuroi," He whispered one last time, before closing his eyes and falling face forward. "Kill…the bitch…for…me."

As his face struck the pavement in a sickening crack giving way to the rest of his body becoming limp, the soft clattering of his blades. A foul stench filled wind blew over the corpse through the parking lot, with Tatsuki looking on with both disgust and a tinge of regret. She had never killed someone before, but the memory of him coming after her and the undeniable fact she would've been next kept her boiling blood tempered. Walking past him, she readied herself into another fighting stance, daring the next of the Hanta to come after her.

"That only took 10 seconds," She boasted, the threat in her voice aiming to shake them up, complemented by her blazing glowing irises fixated on the next pair of Hanta. "I hope, for your sake, you'll last longer!"

"That we will," Kuroi replied coolly, taking his hand onto the handle of his weapon, walking steadily forward as he unsheathed it. "You defeated my right hand man. Lord Ryoken won't be pleased about this, but I guess its expected when you face an unknown. Allow me to introduce myself before I claim your life," As the blade finished exiting the sheathe, a low hum emanated from weapon as his stare looked deep into Tatsuki's burning eyes, showing pupiless onyx orbs that looked as if the abyss was within his sockets. "I am Kuroi, the emissary for your death. Shall we begin?"

"Let's!" Tatsuki said with a loud yell, stepping forward before propelling herself with a mighty gust of fire behind herself, the movement itself barely recognizeable for his two subordinates but Kuroi caught it in time.

In a backpedaling movement, he used his blade to parry the intensely resilient and hot fists of Tatsuki's, their movements nearly unrecognizable, showing true testament to his own swordsmanship and Tatsuki's augmented martial artist prowess. The pair's Reiatsu blew mightily around the lot, the asphalt cracking under the pressure and the wind whipping about with tendrils of black and red snapping around them. The display made the two Hanta standing nearby back away uneasily, unsure if they should participate in this duel.

"Despite this new power," Kuroi managed to speak while parrying Tatsuki's intense, well-aimed punches, "I must commend you for your mastery of hand-to-hand combat. For a human to match my sword strikes with only your fists is truly a remarkable feat indeed."

"I AM the 2nd strongest martial artist in Japan," She boasted indignantly, flipping back and catching the Hanta by his chin, thrusting him up into the air; then he was propelled back when she thrust back with a raised leg burying into his abdomen, causing Kuroi to fly backwards towards a car. Unlike what she expected, the Hanta changed trajectory and somersaulted over it,adeptly using the momentum of her attack to gain distance from her. Not letting up, Tatsuki launched a palm thrust against the vehicle, releasing a mighty blast of fire to burst forth enough to encompass the transport in flames while throttling it off like a catapulted piece of debris towards Kuroi. "And I don't take kindly to flatterers who aim to wreck my town!" She added with a shout.

As the car came close, Kuroi closed his eyes, pointing his sword towards the ground and…let it go.

"Embrace the Void," He whispered ominously, the blade slipping into his own shadow, causing an eerie ripple that extended to the shadows behind him and all around the tarmac within a single second. Within the that split second it entered the darkness, a number of invisible cutting sounds could be heard with no weapon visible -only faint black outlines- as the fiery debris was cut into dozens of pieces. As the car's burning parts clanked to the ground, Tatsuki gasped with surprise that Kuroi stood unharmed by her assault, finally hearing his words that came after dispelling her attempt on his life. "Mansei Kage."

"What the Hell?!" Tatsuki gasped aloud. Her surprise had dampened the flames around her, becoming less bright and more akin to a warm flame than a raging inferno at this revelation.

"You must be confused, I'm sure," Kuroi surmised with a cool and even tone. "You must be curious as to why your enemies have Zanpakuto at all, aren't you?"

Tatsuki thought about it for a few moments as he asked this question. The beings who attacked her all seemed to have something resembling beings she's seen before; the Arrancars and the Soul Reapers most prominently. The feeling of Reiatsu being released was an uncanny similarity, akin to some other presences she could now feel more clearly across the whole of her home town.

"There is a special reason why there are those of the Hanta's ranks have Zanpakuto," Kuroi explained, his eyes ebbing vapors of shadow as he continued to tell her. "Our Master, Lord Ryoken Junta, is one of the few Demons in Hell who's concocted this particular method. Whether if you've met other Hanta serving someone else, this is the one common thing you will find in the creation of Hanta. We are the merging of two essences into a specific type of mortal form. Our physiology, by its cursed nature, cannot enter the World of the Living without the use of a special cloth that can possibly be torn and force us back to the World of the Damned. To answer this dilemma, we are given faux bodies, not too unlike what Soul Reapers use to suppress their Reiatsu and interact with those in the World of the Living. Do you know what bodies we use while here, in the World of the Living?"

A sudden chill ran down Tatsuki's spine, ignoring the passive heat of her new powers. She knew almost instinctively what he was going to say before the words left his lips.

"Humans," He answered with a remorseless tone.

"YOU BASTARDS!" She roared aloud, rushing towards him with a fist upraised and launching a fireball at the Hanta.

Kuroi raised a hand towards her, the shadows surrounding him rippled before rising up into a black smooth wall. As the flames washed ineffectively over the glass-like surface, the dark surface protruded bladed tendrils in serpentine motion, sinuously twirling around in the air with lethal intent. Seeing the defensive wall's attack made the fiery martial artist somersault backwards, parrying any that drew near her with her wrists and ankles.

"If you hate what we are, then end my life and my subordinates!" Kuroi goaded her, crossing his arms, and now bore a hint of a smirk on his lips "If you can."

Tatsuki felt the fire around her almost too hot, realizing that her raw emotions powered her the more she thought about it. Right now, she was more than pissed. She was outright furious, and would gladly beat him to a bloody, crispy pulp.

"I'll make you regret ever stepping foot in here!" Tatsuki yelled out to him, as their battle continued.

Meanwhile, as the pair continued to do battle, another duo had continued to brandish their weapons against each other. The adept Soul Hunter, Ryo and the high ranking Hanta, Asar Santiago.

"Well well," The Hanta, spoke with intrigue and less irritation than he did before. His body sported scratches, burns, and rips on his white coat, metal boots marred by intense energy. However, despite his unseemly state, he looked like a grievious injury had yet to be dealt to him since Ryo had launched his Shikai's signature attack. "You're certainly full of surprises."

Ryo spun his scythe around his head before leaping towards him off of the tarmac, leaving a gust of wind and dust in his wake. His cloak whirled around him as his black scythe swung towards the Hanta with incredible speed and accuracy.

Asar made a step backwards, a wide feral smile adorned his as the blade hummed mere inches from his throat, before raising a hand towards Ryo's chest, being bathed in red light and a glow emanated his eyes. "Imperius Numeral 23, Vermiculus Carcere!" As his words were spoken, while Ryo spun his scythe again, a large net of crimson energy fired and moved around his form, expanding to encompass a five by five meter radius.

"Ha!" Asar laughed aloud, landing on the ground again with the glowing prison before himself, boating proudly. "This is one of the highest forms of Spell Prisons of the Imperius Numerals. You could almost compare it to a level 80 of the Soul Reaper's Kido."

As there was no sound made within the prison, Asar grinned toothily with victory in his heart, turning briefly to see Tatsuki engaged in combat with the other Hantas.

"I must say, that IS a unique form she has donned. I'd almost say that this particular spiritual power she has awakened has to do with empathetic energy delved deep within herself and crossed between her resolve to fight and her iron will. I'll enjoy studying her far more than I will with you-" He became cut off as the prison began to shake and then crack all over, high pitched whines of protest came from the energy's restraints before it all cracked into dozens of pieces!

"T-That should be impossible! What kind of power is that?!" Asar shouted with alarm. His eyes widened further as he saw the pieces of the crimson prison began withering into an energy stream, flowing into the now red blade of Ryo's scythe.

"I see," His eyes narrowed at the energy humming within the blade of the scythe, stepping backwards before remembering the violent flash of red light that appeared the last time when he saw the Zanpakuto. "You break down the bonds of Reishi and reform them into an energy supply for your Zanpakuto, giving your weapon's ability to literally reap incoming energy as well as sow it back at your foes. A deliciously terrifying power, but alas," He smiled with regained confidence, spreading out his arms as he raised hands towards his target, "it won't work on me!"

"We shall see," Ryo's dark, liquid voice broke out, his silver eyes glared violently at him as suddenly his own Reiatsu rattled the atmosphere and quaked his surroundings.

Asar gathered his own Spiritual Energy within his gauntlets, letting the etchings on the metal glow remarkably, "Come then, Soul Hunter! The next time you launch that technique will be the last!"

They both charged again, Ryo holding his scythe aloft with the handle sticking downwards and the scythe blade appearing to be pointing in the opposite direction, while Asar began summoning what appeared to be a pair of crimson bastard swords.

Once they solidified, he began flurrying his blades, sparks and energy crackled and hummed in the air as their weapons struck repeatedly. Time and again, both weapons nearly hitting their mark but only managing to score pieces of clothing or inflict minor scratches on each other.

As Ryo repelled the blades he made a soundless blurring motion, escaping Asar's left blade moving towards his neck, before reappearing above him, the humming of his scythe became loud and ominous, making the next attack one that would seem to be point blank.

"Can't get hit by that!" Asar thought with alarm, making sure he avoided the swipe by blurring away, a hissing noise in exhale, before reappearing a good distance away, stunned about something. Ryo's blade only hit the ground before he moved fast again, Flash Stepping above Asar while twirling his scythe above him.

"Nice try!" Asar said aloud with a delighted snarl, throwing both blades in a single direction, causing a wide crimson fissure of energy to fire upwards, cutting through Ryo's cloak and showing a quite shocked look.

But within a blink, all that remained was a black cloak that became torn in half, causing Asar to gasp in surprise.

"This is-"

"-the end," Ryo finished for Asar, as he appeared behind him in a morbid visage of a charcoal skinned man with glowing silver eyes. His own roar added to his swinging of his scythe in a mighty slash, causing a gigantic blast of red energy to envelop Asar's form. He released a guttural scream that echoed throughout the school property and beyond, the arc of blood red light tearing through the tarmac for a considerable distance before petering past the bend of housing and street.

As Ryo held his weapon in the position he had struck, he looked with surprise at a living Asar, lying prone and scorched from the technique hitting him dead-on. Beneath the dissolved cloak was a star-patterned set of armor, cracking and withered away from the Reishi's sheer force. As the Hanta looked up at Ryo with curiosity, despite his circumstances, he mused aloud to the Soul Hunter, "So…that's what you look like…underneath that cloak of yours…huh?"

"Any last words before I reap your body back to the fiery pits?" Ryo inquired morbidly.

"You think…this is over? Hehehehehehehahahahaha!" He laughed in a near maniacal tone, as his own body began to blink ominously, the stars on his chest and back began to pulsate over and over, "This…body is a puppet! A safety precaution if you will…in the event I might…be defeated by…unforeseen events out of my grasp. Hahaha…but let me tell you something, Soul Hunter," He gleefully looked back at him, whispering something in the air…something indistinct but actually made Ryo grimace and close his eyes, before leaping away.

In the last cackles of Asar's 'puppet' body he turned to dust and withered away to nothing.

Ryo looked sullenly towards where his adversary lied and what he said. As more pulsations were felt of Ichigo and Malice's Reiatsu, he became aware that his Seer may be in need of his aid. He looked over at the young woman battling Kuroi. With a bit of hesitance, he left, sure of himself that she had the best capabilities of defeating her foe. Duty rang in his heart and he knew to fulfill it first. No matter the cost.

AN: So, one of the biggest changes to this Chapter (other than scenery change, with the battle taking place in the forest in the outskirts) is the atmosphere and the lack of a continued fight at the end. In order to not drag this out and, due to Malice's current state, I want to have the whole finale take place in the next chapter. This upload came far quicker, thankfully, so we are only two chapters away for Redux being concluded and Bleach: Dark Horizon can continue properly.

See you in the next eventual upload!