War of the Thirteen Sacred-Ancient Swords Chapter 10, a bleach fanfic

AN: Hello all and Happy New Year. This one is a longer chapter than the normal 3000 word limit I set.

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Chapter 10: Ichigo vs Sakkaku (Part 2)

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Tokyo Outskirts: Several hours before the outburst: 5:30 am

A battle between Soul Reapers is a battle of spiritual energies. The user with the stronger energy is defined as the winner; usually. However, in this battle between man vs spirit, one question comes to mind. Well…one question came to Sakkaku's mind. 'How much does it take to defeat a single opponent?'

Another swing of her glowing wakizashi causes the death of yet another tree in the soon depleting forest. Birds flock about noisily at the sound of the impact of the forest floor of the now fallen plant. Chirps of surrounding bugs grow silent and the darkness that once stalked the forest floor is lifted by the illuminating moon above. The removal of more than a dozen trees from Sakkaku's blade has been the activity of her great annoyance. 'Four god-damn hours and I still can't find any sight of him. Was this your plan all along Ichigo?'

No sooner had their battle began, Ichigo fled to the forest with Sakkaku on tail. But after 10 minutes of running around, Ichigo had vanished from her sight and with the lack of any spiritual presence, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. With an agitated stare, Sakkaku looks around in attempts to see her target; but with no avail. "Very well." She mutters under her breath. "Since you won't come out, I'll force you to."

Grasping her sword tightly, she raises it above her head; the rainbow energy swirls about the blade in a tornado like pattern. The Hogyoku on her forehead soon resonates with the energy and amplifies it. The energy now spreads several yards in every direction, consuming everything in its path; including even Ichigo whom was merely hiding behind a tree a short distance away.

"I've played along with your little game far enough!" Sakkaku screams out. Her blade now visibly shook with overwhelming power. "Behold my power Kurosaki Ichigo!" And with that, she brought the blade down to the ground with a large crash that shook the forest floor. Ichigo stumbles to the ground from the force and quickly realizes right then and there his final observations of her were met. Kyoka Suigetsu or Sakkaku is more terrifying than Aizen ever will be. It wasn't her natural abilities, her harsh attitude, or even overwhelming spiritual energy and pressure that made her terrifying. No…it was far worse than Ichigo could ever imagine. Mere seconds after his fall to the rough forest floor had it happen; the forest was set ablaze into a raging inferno. Everything the colorful energy had touched was now on fire.

Ichigo screamed in horror and agony at the revelation of his now burning body. The intense pain that filled his being was nothing compared to any sword wound or spiritual attack he has ever received. At the rate at which it was going, he was going to burn to death. With no other choices he silently hoped that the fire prevention skills he learned in 3rd grade would come to good use. With that in mind, Ichigo would roll around on the ground as fast as he could to dispel the flames, but to his dismay, they would not go out. As his body continued to burn, he would hear the laughter of one such person.

"Even after the release of my sword I chose to go easy on you. But now after four hours of chasing you, I decided that enough was enough." Sakkaku appeared with a giant grin on her face; her body left untouched by the flames. She marveled the fact of regaining control of her true powers after being asleep for generations. Years of slumber with no chance of awakening and the day finally came where she could finally act alone. Ichigo just happened to be her target and point of interest for the one sole reason. Ichigo had forced her awake from her slumber within Aizen's blade.

Sakkaku's grin fades for a moment as her gaze fell upon the once thought to be transcended being to have defeated her former wielder. Ichigo has shown nothing but cowardice in her eyes; and she despised the situation. Despite being asleep for generations and acquired new wielders over and over, Aizen had been her strongest wielder. To awaken a Sacred Blade is by far the greatest honor any spiritual being could obtain and yet the one who awoken Sakkaku was an opponent rather than her own wielder. To be precise, Sakkaku is beyond pissed; Ichigo's current performance is far beyond the power he showed against Aizen.

"So disappointing." She hissed as her eyes close and a breath of air escapes from her lungs. Her destined wielder lies helplessly on the ground burning to char when he should have been able to defeat her from the start. 'What changed?' Before walking away, she glances at the young man's face one last time before leaving him to die and what she saw unnerved her. Despite burning to death, Ichigo's eyes showed nothing but resolve; an undying will to fight. 'Scary eyes from someone who's going to die'

Her eyes never leave his burning body and her face remains expressionless. Ichigo in his painful moans and screams starts to respond once more. Stumbling on the ground for several minutes as he begins to feel his consciousness slowly slipping away, he reaches inside his pack and takes out a Seel Schneider. Before activating the spirit weapon, Sakkaku appears and grips roughly at his neck and forcing Ichigo against a burning tree. Surprisingly, the instant moment of contact of Sakkuku's hand to Ichigo's neck dispelled the flames on his body. His body however remains charred all over and clothes obviously burned through in many places. He gasps in pain from his over sensitive skin against the tree and his neck in a choke hold. The spirit weapon is hung at his side still left inactive.

"Still trying to fight!" Sakkaku's growls out in her returning anger. Her glowing sword now being roughly placed close to his chest; the mere sharpness of the blade cuts through his skin like butter but not close enough to leave permanent damage. 'How dare him?'

Ichigo's lungs cling for air in heavy breaths as best he could and chokes further in the smoke. With one last attempt in fighting back, Ichigo activates the sprit weapon at his side and weakly moves it towards Sakkaku in an attempt to harm her; but she sees the failure of attempt way ahead of time. Sakkaku in response quickly tosses Ichigo in another direction before the spirit weapon even came close to making contact with her. Ichigo's body lands against another burning tree and the fire ignites on his body once more.

'That bastard!' Sakkaku yells inwardly as a glare and a frown returns to her features. Ichigo was so much stronger than Aizen in their battle five years ago, even after the aforementioned monster of a man had evolved several times into a hollow-like transcended creature. And despite that, Ichigo emerged victorious and awoken Sakkaku. The awakening process, however, is simple; but Sakkuku's awakening was slightly different. 'I cannot accept how weak you have become. Why were you chosen to be my partner when you can't even hold your own?'

The true fact however was that Sakkaku could not remember her awakening and that's the source of her anger and also of her greatest fear. Excluding the mighty Danketsu, when the other 12 Sacred Blades awake, the war was to begin…for the complete dominance of the entire spiritual and human worlds. And if Sakkaku could not find the truth of her partner's loss of power, than she stood no chance against the other blades. She herself was the second most peaceful spirit among the 13 and wanted nothing to do with the war. But her enemies would come after her which would be a problem. Aizen and Ichigo were in the closest proximity when the awakening process began and she knows for a fact that Aizen could not awake her despite being her wielder; meaning that it had to be Ichigo. But her fear grew when she found out Ichigo was no longer transcended.

By definition, a Sacred Blade holds two important factors: knowledge pertaining to certain aspects of the spiritual world and a unique godly power that could only be matched by another Sacred Blade. Aside from these two traits, there was a third uncanny trait that became a result of the blade's godly strengths. Those who wielded their sleeping forms acquire a fraction of their abilities and the wielders abilities reflected the power of the sleeping blade; and said wielders, in terms of strength, outclassed all others around them. Aizen obviously obtained Sakkaku's power and was on a level far beyond those around him; except for one other whom Aizen could not defeat on his own: the fallen Head-Captain Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto who wielded number six, the blade of fire.

While both Aizen and Yamamoto possessed great power, neither could awaken their own Sacred Blades. The process to awaken a blade is simply to reach the level of a transcendent without relying on a Sacred Blade's power. And for that reason alone, Ichigo by himself awoken the blade whose was in the closet proximity of his spiritual pressure: Sakkaku. Once the process starts, the current façade zanpakto spirit that the wielder's power reflects is vaporized from existence and then the blade itself crumbles and chips away. For each chip that is removed, the Sacred Blade spirit regains function. And soon after that, the spirit of the blade will appear before its chosen wielder. But in Aizen's case, while Ichigo was the true chosen wielder, he was sealed midway through the process by Urahara's Kido. This caused Sakkaku to awaken prematurely within Aizen's subconscious. When the seal was taken away to extract Aizen from the Hogyoku, Sakkaku latched on to the Hogyoku after observing Aizen's distorted memories of the previous events. It was in Aizen's memories where she found Ichigo, but could not confirm his location or his power level. All that she could see is a young man clad in black spiritual energy. Once the Hogyoku was reclaimed by Urahara and placed in a secret vault in the underground basement, Sakkaku started the process of reviving the little bit of herself that had awoken with a long 5 year process. The remaining 75% that had not awoken remained with Aizen.

After finally obtaining enough power, she would break out of the vault and look for Ichigo which resulted in the worst outcome; a fight against her own chosen wielder who could not even prove himself to match her expectations.

"You dare continue in this pathetic state!" She yells out angrily. The young college student struggles to his feet once more using a burning tree for support and ignoring her obvious anger. 'Ichigo were not done yet! Not by a long shot! Hang in there just a little bit longer.' The Zangetsu spirits say in unison. They have been the only reason why Ichigo's body had not been killed yet. Ichigo could not willingly activate his Hollow powers or Soul Reaper powers due to the seal, but his Quincy abilities were a different story. When he rolled on the ground to extinguish the flames, Ichigo with the help of his Quincy Spirit activated Blut Vene. Because he activated the technique throughout his entire body, he could not focus on attacking Sakkaku. While the technique protected him in the sense that he would not lose blood, this did not prevent the horrifying pain that filled his body from the burning skin. Luckily Sakkaku did not notice when her sword had been pressed against his chest.

While in continuous pain from the inextinguishable fire, Ichigo raised the Seel Schneider upside with the energy pointed downwards. 'Please let this work.' Though she did not realize it at the time, Ichigo purposely hid in this specific spot while watching from a distance. It was his only feasible strategy other than the Getsuga Tensho that could really damage her. And with this four hours' worth of planning in motion, he would bring out the fruits of his hard labor and the amount of pain he endured for this successful action. Sakkaku would look back on this idea much later and praise Ichigo for it for years to come; but at the single instant, she had no idea what she was about to be hit with. In a swift motion, Ichigo plunged his 5th Seel Schneider into the ground.

In a single instant, it became quickly apparent that it was far too late. Sakkaku was played for a fool. She now stood at the center of a glowing pentagon seal that bound her legs to the burning forest floor. Sakkaku would look around to the several points of the shape and found other Seel Schneider's in the ground as well hidden by the raging inferno she had created. She curses herself mentally for her foolish behavior for believing Ichigo to be somewhat harmless; forgetting the Getsuga Tensho attack completely. In response, she turns her attention back to Ichigo and raises her blade above her head, allowing the rainbow energy to spiral around the blade once more. "Don't think this will hold me!" She yells only to find that Ichigo had already made his next move. Right above the Seel Schneider was Ichigo's hand holding a small silver cylindrical object. To her dismay, this would cause a momentary pause in her reaction time which Ichigo used to tilt his hand ever so slightly, pouring the liquid contents onto the Seel Schneider.

As she watched the last drop of liquid fall, Ichigo with a hard raspy voice utters a single word, "Sprenger."

And that was all it took. The process was quick and destructive, but far more lethal than Ichigo had original anticipated. The technique revolved around absorbing spiritual energy in the area through the Seel Schneider and then igniting all of it using Ginto at the center of the pentagon formation. What Ichigo did not expect was the absorption of Sakkaku's rainbow spiritual energies. The original attack which was supposed to be charged with little spiritual energy was amplified unexpectedly by 15 times. The resulting explosion ripped Sakkaku apart.

After said explosion, magically and almost unbelievably, all of the surrounding fire extinguished. But what was more mind boggling wasn't the fact the fire now had disappeared, but everything had returned to normal. Normal in the sense as if the fire never existed in the first place; and the truth was that the fire hadn't existed. The only damage visibly shown was the explosion caused by Ichigo. The burning wood, the polluted air from smoke, the dying animals and plants all just magically vanished. Everything had returned to the previous state before the fire ever began; even Ichigo.

Ichigo looks around cautiously and then down to himself. No burns or injury are shown from the entire event. He examines his hands, head, and chest; relieved to find that he is unharmed. 'What in the hell just happened?' He continues his silent search around the surrounding area. Everything remained perfect as if their fight never happened; even the trees Sakkaku dismembered were back to standing strong and tall.

Ichigo proceeds to the crater where he caused the explosion. Literally nothing remained of Sakkaku. However not everything disappeared. There at the center of the crater, Ichigo sees both two objects that survived the impact. While one may have been self-explanatory, the other is what worried Ichigo more. Before dropping down, he stops to grab the Seel Schneider closest to him for self-defense in case of the worse. With that said Ichigo drops down inside the crater to get a closer view of the objects that had remained. The first, undoubtedly, is the glowing orb known as the Hogyoku which sat at the exact center. The other was the wakizashi that Sakkaku had carried before her abrupt end and was sitting just off to the side.

Ichigo did not dare to approach the sword, which to Ichigo's horror, continued to glow in its rainbow spiritual energy. Instead, he picks up the Hogyoku and places it into his pocket. Ichigo then proceeds to run around to collect all of his items that were used in his fight. Afterwards, he leaves the area quickly to gain some distance. While he silently hoped the fight was over, he however had a strong feeling that Sakkaku was far from done.

Ichigo takes a moments rest against a tree after being now several yards away. After all that, in just human form, he was lucky to be alive. Ichigo had just started practicing his Quincy powers just about a year ago. 'Four hours of planning really does pay off.' He exhales gently while taking out the Hogyoku from his pocket. He stares at its dazzling glowing form. For whatever reason, he could not look away. His answer soon became apparent as his body dropped to the ground while still holding the Hogyoku and his mind going blank.

Hogyoku: Inner World

Ichigo wakes back up into another reality entirely. The once large forest with the nightly overhang is replaced by a void of nothingness. There, Ichigo is floating in the void and his sense of direction is immediately broken. The only notable feature seemed to be the mix of vibrant of colors that filled the entire expanse of the area.

"Welcome Kurosaki Ichigo." A voice suddenly speaks out in every feasible direction. Ichigo turns his head to look around to find the source of the voice, only to be in vain. "You are the first to successfully come here." Ichigo could not recognize the voice directly, but he had a very strong suspicion to which it belongs to.

"Am I the first to enter here or am I the first one you allowed in here?" Ichigo responds; his voice echoing around the void. Silence would follow before either Ichigo or the spirit of this world would speak. Ichigo knew for a fact that this space was not his own inner world. If that is the case, it belonged to only one other who was present at the time. While Ichigo figured out the identity of the owner of said inner world, he is surprised nonetheless.

"Quite a fascinating observation. How have you come to this conclusion?" The voice retorts almost cryptically. The way the voice sounded showed more of a computer-like response rather than a human personality.

"Simple actually. I would have been killed long ago by your former master." Ichigo responds dryly and stretches out his body. Even while floating inside the Hogyoku's domain, Ichigo had complete functionality of his spirit.

"I do not understand."

"You don't have to. What I need to know is why I'm here?" Ichigo replies once more. The powerful spirit seemed to be not only puzzled but Ichigo could also feel a sense of annoyance. A clue to this would be the multi-color change around him. If the spirit was in distress, the colorful void would turn darker and if pleased or excited the colors would become lighter.

"I do insist. Explain your answer." The spirit presses as the void quickly became much darker. Ichigo becomes slightly unnerved. While he believed to be in little danger, Ichigo couldn't help feel the annoyance of the spirit building which could result badly if he provoke the spirit too far. With a groan and a curse under his breath Ichigo agrees.

"Let me pose a question then before I start my explanation. How were you awakened?"

"My patience is running short."

"And mine is as well. Now answer the question or I will leave." Ichigo demands thoroughly becoming more agitated then he would reveal. The spirit of the void domain would not speak for several moments while trying to analyze the situation. To Ichigo's relief however, the colors of the void soon changed back into more neutral coloring to symbolize the spirit's now calming nature.

"I was subjugated to my former master's will. This process caused me to awaken much sooner than I was scheduled to be."

"And it is because of that, that I ask why I am here." Ichigo responds honestly which seems to surprise the spirit. "While it's true I defeated your former master, I never truly understood my own soul. And if I can relate it to the situation with your former master, he did not understand you Hogyoku."

"And understanding of oneself is the reason?"

"Yes per say." Ichigo momentarily pauses and reflects the past four years and smiles greatly. All the hard work he had put in to fully master himself. "I defeated you and Aizen without completely understanding myself. Similarly, Aizen did not dare to try understanding you and your personality. If he had, he would be the new Soul King."

"Why do you say this?"

"It's because I didn't understand my own zanpakuto. I've learned that you were constructed by a similar method that zanpakuto are. Zanpakuto become stronger together with the Soul Reaper who wields them by harmony, balance and synergy. If Aizen had attempted to harmonize his soul with yours, then his power would far be greater than mine ever could be. But he forced you awake and subjugated you to his will."

The spirit would remain silent in deep thought. Ichigo never had come close in connecting with the spirit. And yet here he was deep inside the Hogyoku's own mindscape analyzing existence of the spirit. The Hogyoku however is extremely impressed with Ichigo's words. Ichigo accepted the Hogyoku as a person, a conscious, rather than a shining sphere or ornament.

"I now understand the reason why you are able to enter my domain. However the reason for you being is by complete accident. I intended to respond to you through your inner world." Ichigo was alarmed by this. What reason did the Hogyoku need to contact Ichigo. There were enough problems with Aizen's zanpakuto running around with the Hogyoku.

"Why!" Ichigo demands anxiously.

"It is in my nature to fulfill the desire of all around my being. Your desire to stop Sakkaku is much stronger than Sakkaku's desires. In your current state, you will not be able to defeat her. And until I settle your desires Ichigo, I will remain unpleasant. My powers are limited due to her overwhelming strength, and unless I am directly attached to your being, I cannot grant your desires."

"You want to help me?"

"It pleases me to grant the strongest desires. You simply have the trait." Ichigo couldn't help but scowl at this matter-of-fact statement. "However, you are the first to try to even dare to understand my being and that pleases me as well. So my priority to help you is becoming that of my own will rather than my instincts."

Ichigo couldn't be any more than in utter shock. Despite the cryptic responses and computer like personality, their does lie a conscious that haves emotions. 'Sheesh. The Hogyoku sounds more like a genie than anything.'

"Then I thank you. But how do you plan to assist me. As you must be aware by now, your powers are extraordinary, but I'm in no condition to use your power. All of my powers are sealed by some of the strongest spiritual beings to ever exist: the Royal Guard."

"The problem does not lie in your current form. In fact, your current form possesses the potential to wield three different variations of myself. The problem lies in my ability. It as you said. If I have awoken properly, then I could simply assist you while being connected to Sakkaku. However, I was once again woken up prematurely and my power is halved. Thus to fully utilize my abilities, I must transmit myself into your being."

Ichigo at this point remains silent knowing full well that the conversation was heading into a rather problematic situation. He chose to let the powerful spirit to rant on the plan to defeat Sakkaku. And because of this conversation, Ichigo figured all too well that Sakkaku would return shortly.

"The transfer process will be extremely painful unfortunately." Ichigo's eye lit up and groaned aloud. "I am beginning the process now because you are holding me in your hand. But once Sakkaku returns I will no longer be able to transfer my energies to your being. In order to transfer myself, you essentially must be in contact with Sakkaku by any means."

Now normally Ichigo would have blushed from the double meaning of the Hogyoku's words, but after spending with Yoruichi for several 'dates' or 'visits' he had gotten used to it. "Do you mean purposely letting attacks go through?"

"Precisely. Through each attack, I will transfer more energy. The more lethal the attack, the stronger energies I can transfer. So yes, you must endure great pains. But as soon as I fully transfer myself over or at least 77% or more of my being, than I will take care of your 'sealed' abilities."

Tokyo Outskirts: Several hours before the outburst: 6:13 am

Ichigo finally returns to the forest scenery after what seemed like eons. No sense of time could be obviously told while inside the Hogyoku's inner world. The sun had just begun to rise over the area and illuminate everything its path. Ichigo is glad to see that Sakkaku had not found him just quite yet. But he knew she was sure to be on his tail. Especially since she and the Hogyoku are connected; she would be able to find Ichigo easily. Ichgio stands from the grand with Hogyoku in hand. He would turn his body to lean against another tree. The resulting conversation with the Hogyoku had caused him a motion sickness effect and thus a headache. The void acted like outer space in the sense of floating, but 100 times worse because of lack of direction and objects within the domain.

After his headache settled he opened his palm to gaze at the Hogyoku. The sphere which glowed a light blue and purple now sparkled with other assortment of colors. This is a sign of the transfer process being done; another being that the sphere heated his hand.

However though, Ichigo's short peacefulness soon came to an end. The next thing Ichigo knew was the sound of cracking coming from behind followed by the sight of blood exploding from his abdomen. He looks down to see none other than Sakkaku's hand reaching out for the Hogyoku through his body. The hand reaches out and snatches the Hogyoku from Ichigo's opened palm and slowly retracts from his abdomen and then through the tree.

"I'll admit it was a nice attack." Sakkaku laughs maniacally. "But nowhere near to defeat me." Blood quickly accumulates in Ichigo's mouth and nose. He grips at the giant hole in his abdomen and spits out the blood in his mouth with a painful groan as he plummets to the ground once more. Sakkaku walks around from the tree with her sword in her right hand. Her left hand and white sleeve is covered in blood and tree particles. The Hogyoku is seen placed back in her forehead.

"See now?" Sakkaku asks to the fallen former transcendent. "Your way out of your league. I grow tired of our battle." She proceeds by snapping her fingertips as the rainbow energy of her sword vibrates. The next thing Ichigo realizes, he is now standing once more with Sakkaku standing in close proximity of him. All injury and pain is gone. He stares down at her cold eyes and notices her sadistic grin. He reaches with his hand to the area where the hole once was and notices that it was completely gone; as if it never existed. Sakkaku proceeds by quickly slamming Ichigo into the tree he had just been leaning against.

"Let me tell you something about myself." Sakkaku states. "I have mastery of all illusions. If put into perspective, Aizen's power of hypnotism is a mere fraction of what I can truly do; not only is his power so boring. My true powers are far superior in every way." Ichigo knew now just how much in deep hell he was in. If everything she was able to perform was an illusion, then just how far can her strength go? Sakkaku proceeds by grabbing Ichigo by the neck and pressing him harder against the tree. Unbeknownst to Sakkaku, the transfer process of the Hogyoku began again. Ichigo in respone used both hands to relieve the pressure on his neck for him to be able to breath.

"I am the embodiment of all illusions. And I can at will make any one of my illusions into a reality!"