KamiKageRyuuketsu: Oh, a guy/girl/Apache Helicopter/FlyingSphagettiMonster with an opinion. It's good that you have an opinion. I hope in the future, you can express it in a civilized manner.
PS: If you think I don't know that you're God-ShadowEx100, you are sorely mistaken. That name is not the most creative spin of your original account. May I suggest removing yourself from the gene pool? Oh wait, it's not like you can pass it on anyway.
Now if you excuse me
Chapter 10: Suicidal Rampage (of the Soul)
At the same moment the blade come down, the being who represented Ichigo's quincy heritage sprung to his feet and catch the blade with his palm while also wordlessly activating Marionettenschnüre (1). Unlike a version used by Ishida Family, the skill he used to create the strings were instantaneous, no wasted reiryoku leaking out of his body. The invisible strings hold his mangled torso and left shoulder together, while also stopping the bleeding. Yhwach also activated Blut Vene, a gift of bloodline, to strengthen his defense, else Ichigo's slash would've completely cut through his palm. He gripped the blade firmly, not giving Ichigo a chance to pull it back. All of these are testament of the Old King's prowess on the battlefield.
A snarl, akin to that of a beast, came from the mouth of Ichigo. That was Yhwach's only warning before Ichigo bite him in his uninjured shoulder. The wound quickly bubbled up, an instantaneous reaction from the quincy part to purge himself of impurities.
The fact that Ichigo had behaved so similar to that of a rotten hollow prove that the instability from soul suicide had deteriorated his reason. The Ichigo that he knew of, will be no more.
"Why… are… you… pro…. Protecting... Hirraaaggghhhhh!" Ichigo tried to form a sentence, but in the end he only roared. His reiatsu heightened, pushing Yhwach back.
He couldn't deal with this alone. Nor he can do this with only quincy power, which was severely weakened by soul suicide.
Wordlessly, the black-clad spirit activated Ichigo's yet unnamed fullbring, the black-green reiatsu solidified into Ichigo's substitute shinigami badge. The badge levitated in the air as two jets of reiatsu emerged from either side, forming the blade and handle part of a sabre with the badge as its guard. The handle reiatsu turned into one side of the badge, forming a rectangular hand guard.
Not the finest blade to contend against the gigantic cleaver his enemy wielded, but he lacked the required power to form a worthy spirit weapon while maintaining Marionettenschnüre and Blut Vene.
"Hollow, have you regenerated enough?" Yhwach asked his counterpart, who scoffed at the question. Both because his regeneration is kicking in slower than he would've liked and their current situation.
"Even if I have, what good will it do? In case you don't realize, he used my fucking blade," even with his back facing the Hollow, Yhwach can picture his sneer well enough.
The hollowified human leaped towards Yhwach, who channeled more reiatsu into his blade. Reiatsu burst from the middle of the fullbring sword, forming a swastika. In a precise and timely manner, Yhwach let go of the reiatsu as soon as his fullbring blade met White's blade, causing an explosion that push back Ichigo.
Not the best application of that technique, but Yhwach's option was rather limited.
"Do you know Kido?" Yhwach asked before going back to the charging Ichigo, who wildly swinging his blade, trying to mince Yhwach into little dice.
"Are you actually retarded?" White asked rhetorically, still busy channeling his reiatsu to the wound.
"You are his manifestation of shinigami power, aren't you?" Yhwach swipe low, lightly scratching the skin. As expected, it regenerated before blood came out of the wound. If not for the fact that White was still regenerating, he would've had more control over this fight.
"Have you gone senile? If that is how this work, then no children of shinigami have to learn Kido," White deadpanned. It was hard for him to hold back the pain of his lungs regenerating and speaking simultaneously. His weakened regeneration prolonged the pain more than it should be.
"You must have something else," Yhwach said while countering Ichigo swiping his blade at his leg with a jumping kick. The kick hit Ichigo's chin, breaking parts of his mask. Again, like the leg, it regenerated instantly, much to his dismay.
After a short silence, White finally gave his answer.
"I know karate... Ichigo's karate"
Somehow, that answer managed to get a smile from Yhwach, as absurd as it was. He guessed that White is the source or manifestation of that part of Ichigo. The part that refuses to give up no matter how overwhelming the odds are against him.
"I'll take everything that I can get"
It was at the same moment when Ichigo's eyes snapped open that Orihime's sōten kisshun barrier was chipped away into Reishi. Orihime quickly cancelled her technique out of fear that whatever it was that break down her barrier would reduce her hairpin spirits to nothingness.
"What is that?" Chad asked, which neither Inoue nor Ginjo had an answer for.
Ginjo instinctively grabbed Inoue's wrist and Chad's shoulder, pulling them away from Ichigo.
Had he wasted another second, they would be engulfed by black reiatsu, violently released like a torrent. The darkness covered 20-30 meters away from his body, swirling around like tornadoes. The black reiatsu receded a little bit, before it 'exploded', spreading around the digital world. Dissolved into the air around them.
"Is Kurosaki-kun…" Inoue didn't need to finish the question for Ginjo to answered that.
"No.. He's alive. I can feel his reiatsu" As soon as Ginjo said that, Inoue and Chad can feel faint reiatsu signature from Ichigo, no different to the one he had before awakening his fullbring.
Then, as if made from thin air, blue particles appear around them. They slowly float toward the almost dead fullbringer, creating small yet steady streams of blue shimmer.
They heard Yukio swearing in several foreign languages. Whatever it is, it didn't sound good.
"I… will… not…. Die….."
White found himself being rejuvenated much quicker than before. He didn't know what happened, but he was thankful. At least he could regenerate faster than before.
"This is bad, " said Yhwach as he managed to kick Ichigo away, giving him a room to breath.
Always a catch.
"What is it, Yhwach?" The Hollow asked as his muscle reconnect themselves.
"Ichigo just absorbed… No… He's eating the surrounding reishi to compensate for losing some of his reiryoku. Soul Suicide has reached material plane" Yhwach stated. White found himself subconsciously gulping.
"So we didn't have much time"
As soon as White was able, he jumped into the battle…. Literally.
He delivered a back jump kick to the insane hybrid right in the face. As strong as it was, White knew it only serve to enrage the hollow.
Well… In theory, he would be the distraction, Yhwach would be the one to deliver the final blow.
Really… The things he did for them. He would demand from Yhwach a proper apology for this.
He realized that he was lost in his thought when Ichigo almost cleave him in two. Thankfully, his reflex was second to none in this little world. He dodged the sword and move in to grab Ichigo's right arm, pulling it. Then, in a swift move, he stomped on Ichigo's knee joint, bending it to unbalance Ichigo. Then he proceeded to pry away Ichigo's fingers from his blade. A task he found to be fairly hard as the hollowified human had a firm grip around the hilt.
'Is that…. Horn?' Then from the corner of his eyes, he saw a red light.
A cero.
"Huh, would you look at that" White dryly commented on his situation as blue lines covered the giant cleaver which he tried to pry away from Ichigo.
Let go of the blade and risk getting getsuga tenshou or wrestle the blade and risk getting cero. Really, Ichigo never gave him an easy choice.
Just then Yhwach, who just finished re-gathering what little energy he had, closed in and poised his blade to pierce Ichigo's shoulder, hoping to distract him from completing the technique.
It was a slightly suicidal move, as there was a possibility for the incomplete cero to explode in their face, but it was way better than having White blown away by either fully charged Cero or Getsuga Tensho.
Ichigo sensed him, however, and catch the reiatsu blade bare handedly. The act also brought the cero into Yhwach's direction.
Not today
Yhwach's left arm uppercut Ichigo's chin, making his face and the horn face the sky at the precise moment when the ball of energy destabilized.
The energy blast wasn't as strong as it was 17 months ago, but still potent enough to kill both weakened spirits if it hit one of them. Yhwach was lucky it didn't just explode around Ichigo, else the spirits would've died.
Really, he wasn't thrilled to find out if they would be resurrected in this situation.
In the world materialized by Invaders Must Die, three people were pushed back by the darkness that was Ichigo's reiatsu. The floor had disappeared, reduced into nothingness. Eaten by the being in front of them.
Really…. This was a new for Ginjo. There were no cases of fullbringers becoming this hollow-like. Is it because Ichigo had an actual hollow inside him, instead of a fragment of one? Ginjo didn't have an answer.
A yellow-eyed Ichigo, whose blade had deformed into a gigantic cleaver looked down on Ginjo. An eye that promised pain.
"You… Secret…." Said Ichigo, clearly struggling to speak.
"What?" Ginjo was puzzled by that, as was Chad. To Inoue, however, it made her remember a certain incident on the rooftop of Las Noches. It was traumatic enough that she held her breath the whole time.
"Spill… It…. Your... Secret!" Ichigo's voice became distorted at the end as more black reiatsu came out and more blue lines of reishi were absorbed into Ichigo's body.
"Ginjo, Inoue, Chad" Yukio's voice reverberated throughout the world. "I'm going to unload all of you from the room. I will keep him busy with my hologram"
"No!" Inoue and Chad both quickly refused. Ginjo had another thing to say.
"Only Inoue and Chad. I'm staying" said Ginjo, his tone final. It would be so much worse if Ichigo completed his fullbring without someone else around him.
"Ginjo!" Both Inoue and Chad angrily shout, but the rectangular light graphics already surround them as Yukio forcefully transfer them to another room, Leaving Ichigo and Ginjo alone in the room, again. From the corner of his eyes Ginjo could see a bunch of hollow holograms taking shape.
He didn't think they would be helping at all, but hey, it's the thought that count.
"What an interesting kid," said Ginjo, shaking his head a little. "I hope I can stop you without killing you, Ichigo"
Ichigo was still in a half kneeling position while Yhwach tried to push the blade into Ichigo's chest. White too still tried to pry away his blade from Ichigo's strong grip. The murderous hollowfied human move closer to Yhwach, trying to stab him with his horn, only for White to hit his jaw from the other side.
Ichigo furiously snarled at White, who had regained his bloodthirsty smirk in that battle.
"Yeah, fuck you too, Ichigo"
Yhwach capitalized on the situation by putting his hand on Ichigo's chest. Blue lines travelled from his fingertips on the chalk-white, ceramic-like reishi that covered Ichigo's form.
"Blut Vene Anhaben"
Ichigo let out a pained scream as the flesh Yhwach touched burn. The smell of cooked meat filled the air as the blood corroded everything it touch.
"It's working," said White as he felt Ichigo's grip on his blade loosened.
Suddenly Ichigo stood up and jump, twisting his body and spinning around. The spirits were thrown away by the sheer force.
Luckily, they land near each other. White had held on to his sword's hilt for split-second longer than Ichigo letting go of Yhwach's reishi sword.
Yhwach quickly flip himself midair and land gracefully on his foot. White use his hands to bounce back from the ground, leaving a slight crack on the pure white ground.
Ichigo let out a roar as his hand frantically hitting his chest in a bizarre effort to close the bleeding. The quincy's annihilating reiatsu was as painful for the hollow as hollow's corrosive reiatsu to a quincy.
"I have a plan," said Yhwach, his tone was as calm as when he was training Ichigo. He really wanted to scold White for jumping into the fight with no plan, but then again that was White. He should be the one to plan around it.
"Spill it" White replied, flexing his hands, feeling any damage. If there was, it was already healed.
"We're going to purify Ichigo" said Yhwach. "If we can clean the main imbalanced body, it's possible that the reiryoku will be divided equally to us, Ichigo's facets, and we can stop soul suicide"
"Then we need Zanpakuto" White said, smirking at their odds "Which we failed to take before"
"Well…. We just have to succeed this time, won't we?" If White didn't know any better, he could've sworn that Yhwach was joking. Then Yhwach's face hardened, "However, there is also another possibility..."
"of my complete erasure due to the purification process?" White rethorically asked, "Yhwach, your confidence is always welcome"
Author's note:
(1) Marionettenschnüre is Ransontengai. I notice that Vandenreich uses alternate names for techniques and items, such as Sanrei Gloves becoming Leiden Hant. I also recall that Mayuri said that Vandenreich Quincy might have different name for Hirenkyaku. In this story, Any names Yhwach use is the original name of the technique.
So... I'm not really confident in my writing. But basically Yhwach propose destroying Ichigo's hollowfied body, hoping that the reiryoku will be split equally among the two. However, as White is a hollow, he can be purified too (He's also a shinigami power (zanpakuto spirit) so this is a toss-up).
Now, White should become a mass-murdering psychopath hollow in soul suicide, but due to Ichigo's anger, Ichigo sort of hijack that aspect of white (and the shinigami aspect too since he's taking the zanpakuto as well) and leaving White severely weakened. Thankfully for them, he wasn't taking Yhwach's powers since he's more attached to the shinigami and hollow powers than quincy and human ones. If he's undergoing soul suicide when his fullbring is complete and he mastered it, this will play out differently